I have an LED torchiere and I love it. Not quite as bright as the 300 watt halogen but much safer and easier on the kilowatt hours. About 12 yrs ago when I got my first apartment and excited to be on my own for the first time my mother gave me the torchiere she brought in 1991 when I was a toddler. It was rated for a 500 watt halogen, yes that was a thing until sometime in 1996 when UL pulled the listing off the 500 rated torchieres limiting to 300 watts max. Since LED hadn't yet advanced in brightness and low cost like we now have, I went to the local electrical supply store, purchased an enclosure, a 70 watt metal halide ballast kit, a socket and a 70 watt open rated metal halide bulb. Rigged the ballast, capacitor and ignitor in the enclosure and set near the base of the lamp, removed the halogen sockets and installed the metal halide socket and bulb approx 5000 lumens. It was a crude setup, but looked actually brighter than the halogen since metal halides put off a clean white light with much less heat & fire risk. Used that until I got the LED torchiere about a year and a half ago. I still have the metal halide converted torchiere, (still works) kept as a conversation starter for my niece's and nephews who sometimes visit and have never seen those torchiere lamps which, when I was their age in grade school could find then at Montgomery Ward, K-Mart, Walmart, Sears, basically just about any store for around 15 to 30 dollars or something like that. The kids have a joy when I turn the metal halide on and it takes a few minutes to warm up. 😂
Was it one of those 70 watt metal halide bulbs with the 2 pins that fit in the exact same socket as the 300 and 500 watt halogen sticks? Or did it use a screw base with a new socket? What kind of ballast did it use? Magnetic or electronic? Did it have instant restrike?
@@gregorymalchuk272 I used an ED17 metal halide open rated, medium base, with an L shaped bracket to hold the socket horizontally. 120/208/240/277 tap magnetic ballast set for 120V. instant restrike not available. Takes about 3 minutes to relight if power is interrupted. Ballast sits in a 4x4x8 metal enclosure with the lamp cord wired to the ballast. The tubular metal halide was a special order item and designed for enclosed fixtures only. I didn't want to gamble that the glass cover around the original halogen bulb was adequate to prevent fires or burn injuries from a metal halide that failed violently.
Yeah, they can be dangerous if you do something stupid. It is yet another product that is perfectly safe if used safely, but since it is not idiot proof these days, it is "dangerous". I quite like them, I have 3 of them and I can't say i will convert them to LED (or use LEDs in anything), but I also am not throwing paper or blankets into them. Any idea what the glass protector that goes over the halogen bulb is called or where to get it? One of mine is missing it and just has the bare halogen bulb, and I don't like that.
@@WalterKnox The electricity costs alone make it worth while to get LED retrofit bulbs. Three halogen torchieres is like running two or three window air conditioners just to have the lights on.
