I recently had PAR30 50W Halogen light bulbs installed. I would have gone with 75W, but 50W is the max wattage supported by my light (shallow 6" can). I'm very disappointed with the how dim the lights are. They should be about 600 lumens and I don't have a meter but they are just not very bright. I took out one of the lights and noticed they are 130V rated. So, why 130V when in the US our line voltage is 120V? Best I can tell, voltages can fluctuate and the 130V are designed to be more durable, but at the cost of less light. One source indicated that 130V lights are 25% less bright at 120V. This makes sense since the filament needs 130V for peak brightness. They also save energy but only about 14%, so really you are trading durability and some energy savings for a lot less light. So, now to my question: are there reasons other than what I've mentioned for installing these?
Electrical – Are there any other reasons to use 130 volt halogen light bulbs instead of 120 volt bulbs
electricallighting
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Best Answer
Not really. This was the answer before fluorescent and LED. Places that had a lot of incandescent would save more money using 130V lamps when brightness is not a great factor by saving energy and having to change bulbs less than 120V lamps, like an apartment complex.
Another reason is that when an electrical system is close to being at capacity after all the air conditioners come on in the day and then as the night cooled air conditioners would be turned off and the voltage would spike up for a moment. Sometimes the spike would blow the bulbs. Now with updates power companies give better power and spikes are not that bad anymore.
If you really want to use 130V lamps, then on the halogen PAR lamps you might pick a beam spread that suits your task better. Area lighting would be floods or wide floods but task areas, like for reading or hobbies you might want narrow floods or spots. The tighter the beam the more lumens you get.