So why do workers continue to use a light that is clearly dangerous? The answer is that, sadly, until now they rarely had other choices. As mentioned earlier, the 500W quartz halogen light gives off a lot of light and is small and portable. These advantages made it popular and the costs dropped dramatically so that it became ubiquitous. Everyone knew they were dangerous but put up with the dangers because there were no other options that could give off that much light in such a small, portable unit. However, now there are alternative technologies on the marketplace that are attracting considerable attention. LED technology has developed to the point where a work light can give off the same useable light as a 500W quartz halogen with none of the downside risks.

At this point, most people are quite familiar with the concept of LEDs. They never require bulb changes, are much more energy efficient than other lighting technologies, and they are cool running. The last benefit tends to be overplayed, as LEDs can generate heat. But even with a moderate amount of heat sink design, an LED light will come nowhere close to the heat generated by a 500W quartz halogen light.

A look at the data will once again help to inform this argument. We ran a 500W quartz halogen work light side by side with Lind Equipment’s “Beacon Light”, a 50W LED portable flood light. The Beacon Light gives off the same amount of usable light in the same light flooding pattern, so it is an excellent unit for an ‘apples to apples’ comparison. The lights were left to run and periodic infrared readings were taken of both lights to compare the operating temperatures. Like the quartz halogen light in our first test (mentioned above), the LED flood light reached its maximum temperature in under an hour. However, unlike the quartz halogen light, the LED flood light continued to operate in a temperature range that was not dangerous and could not start a fire. The maximum temperature of the LED flood light was just about 35 degrees Celsius (95 F). It’s of interest to note that the temperature reading of a human hand is just below 31 C (89 F), meaning that the LED flood light was only slightly warmer than a firm handshake. In the image below, you can see the maximum temperature in the upper right (35.3 C) and the temperature of the hand where the crosshairs are pointed at the middle right (30.6 C).

When viewed together using a composite visual and IR image, the LED flood light IR signature almost disappears due to the extreme heat of the quartz halogen light on the left.

The advent of a portable LED flood light that provides the same useable light as a quartz halogen, yet uses less energy (50W vs 500W), never requires a bulb change (50,000 hour life), and runs at almost 1/10th of the heat level (35 C vs 300 C) is a game changer that will save lives and reduce injuries in the work place. Perhaps now that workers finally have a choice for a bright, portable work light, they will make the decision to stay away from lights that send them home with serious burns.

Many thanks to Fluke and Westburne for the use of the IR camera.