Lucky Reptile Bright Sun FLOOD Desert 70 Watt

The Lucky Reptile Bright Sun Desert Flood 70 Watt is a so called HDI floodlight. The conventional Lucky Reptile Bright Suns are actually HDI spotlights, but are colloquially just called Bright Sun.  The technology behind this is the so called Halogen Metal Vapor Gas Discharge technology, which makes it possible to create a light source with incredible brightness, very good heat generation at low energy consumption and UV emission at unimaginable levels.

The main difference between the Bright Sun Flood and the Lucky Reptile Bright Sun Desert is the wide beam angle. The reflector has an angle of 60°. Compared to the "normal" Bright Sun the "Flood" behaves as follows. The narrow angle of the bundles the light and thus heat and UV radiation in a smaller radius, that is, directly under the Bright Sun are the UV radiation and heat generation immense, but the application radius (light cone) is only about 50 cm. Therefore, at the end of this radius, hardly any heat or UV radiation is measurable or even detectable beyond this radius.

The Bright Sun Desert Flood 70 Watt uses the larger radiation angle exactly the other way round. Directly under the "Flood" it is much cooler compared to the normal Bright Sun and the amount of emitted UV radiation is much lower, but the radius is much wider. It is almost 100cm. After the theory and probably confusing writing with "Flood" and "normal" Bright Sun, now the clarification what this means for the terrarist everyday life.

One would use the Lucky Reptile Bright Sun Flood as an area illuminator and sole illuminant in a terrarium that requires slightly lower temperatures at peak or the animals require or even just tolerate slightly less UV radiation overall.

For the typical bearded terrarium, the conventional Bright Sun Desert is better suited. You would usually use several of these depending on the length. Or you can take the Bright Sun Flood as an additional spotlight to better illuminate the terrarium. The Bright Sun Desert illuminates the basking area, the Bright Sun Flood provides general brightness.

However, for many geckos with often lower UV needs, the Bright Sun Flood is a very good choice.

Lucky Reptile recommends 20 cm minimum distance from the reptile and states the optimal distance range as 30-50 cm.

The manufacturer provides a 1 year warranty on the lamp, but it is imperative to keep the minimum distance from the lamp to the irradiated object, otherwise the rising heat can shorten the life expectancy of the UV lamp enormously.

Like all Bright Sun lamps the Bright Sun Desert Flood requires a matching ballast like the Bright Control Pro 2 EVG or the Bright Control Evo. Lucky Reptile strongly mentions that the use of third party ballasts can greatly shorten the life expectancy of Bright Suns as ignition problems (starting problems) often occur. It should also be mentioned here that again  different ballasts are intended for different types of lamps. Regardless of the fact that the operation is possible.

The use of third-party ballasts can lead to a shift in the light spectrum, which again can not be wanted with living animals.

The average life expectancy of a Bright Sun is about 6000 hours of light, but the intensity of the UV radiation decreases continuously and after about 2000 hours it is at half of the initial value. If the Bright Sun is intended as an area lamp, as is usually the case with the Bright Sun Desert Flood, it can continue to be used without hesitation. If the Bright Sun is used as a UV lamp, it should be replaced.

It is also essential to ensure that the Bright Sun is screwed into suitable sockets.