[font="Trebuchet MS][color="#0000ff"]The Right Reflector Unit[/color][/font]
[font="Trebuchet MS]Wattage is only one of the elements that determines how much light you can get out of a fixture. The shape of the reflector, the position of the bulb in relation to the reflector and the choice of reflective material also have a dramatic impact. Since A H Supply has paid attention to all of these elements, you can get more light out of a 36 watt bulb using our Bright Kit™ than you can get out of a 55 watt bulb in a typical fixture that positions the bulb very close to a reflector with a broad flat top. In fact, in repeated measurements directly below the center of the bulb at distances of 6 and 12 inches, the light output of the same 55 watt bulb was 62% greater when installed in an A H Supply Bright Kit than when installed in a broad flat-top fixture.[/font]
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[font="Trebuchet MS]A major problem with the common broad flat-top unit is restrike. Much of the light going directly up from the bulb is simply reflected back to the bulb. And when the bulb is positioned too close to the reflector, much of the light going up at other angles is also reflected back to the bulb. In addition to this initial light loss, restrike also increases the temperature in the fluorescent bulb which, in turn, results in overall reduced light output, including the light that is emitted from the downward facing side of the bulb.[/font]
[font="Trebuchet MS]A H Supply's Bright Kit™ is designed for twin-tube compact fluorescents and, to reduce restrike, places very little of the top of each of the T5 tubes directly beneath the top surface of the reflector. In addition, our steel bulb holders position the bulb 50% farther away from the top reflector surface than some broad flat-top units so our multi-angle reflector is able to direct more of the light away from the bulb and out of the unit. These two features alone result in a 41% increase in light output. And this increase has been achieved while still keeping the reflector compact - only 4" wide and 2" high.[/font]
[font="Trebuchet MS]21% of the additional light output of the Bright Kit™ is achieved by the use of MIRO 4 enhanced aluminum from Germany. Since the typical polished aluminum reflector material has a total reflectivity of 86%, you may wonder how a more reflective material could ever result in a 21% increase in light output. After all, isn't the difference between 86% and 100% only 14%? Well, that's true, but consider the fact that with an 86% reflective material 14% of the light intensity is lost each time the light is reflected. In all but the perfect reflector, some of the light is reflected more than once before it leaves the unit. So in an actual application such as this one, the MIRO 4 material can produce 21% more light because only about 5% of the intensity is lost each time the light is reflected.[/font]
[font="Trebuchet MS]The state-of-the-art coating on MIRO 4 has the additional benefit of increasing the integrity of the reflective surface. Better manufacturers typically warrant their 86% reflective material for 10 years. The manufacturer of MIRO 4 enhanced aluminum offers a 25 year warranty that says, in part: "the products supplied for lighting-purposes under normal interior environmental conditions will not splinter, yellow, darken, peel-off, blister, crack or develop any other surface-deterioration reducing the reflectivity when used with fluorescent tubes and can withstand a temperature of max. 100C (=212F)."[/font]
