… ok, it’s a propane one One of my Tilley FL6’s may well end up on that hefty steel tripod though, extending to 7 feet. John
@presscall I’ve never seen a propane-fueled floodlamp before. It looks incredibly bright. How does its fuel consumption compare with kerosene — is it less efficient? Shinzo
@gkpllantern The propane floodlamp’s brightness is determined by the efficiency of the reflector and the light output of the mantle, which is no greater than if made luminous by kerosene or naptha vapour. In terms of fuel consumption, I have a catalogue from 1983 featuring the floodlamp (called ‘Autoflood’ in it because of the easy lighting feature using a piezo spark generator). The propane consumption for the Autoflood is given as 106 grammes per hour. I’m using a Calor gas cylinder containing 6 kilos of propane, so at the quoted hourly rate of consumption I could run the floodlamp for 56 hours continuously. Exchanging the empty cylinder for a full one, I pay for just the gas - £32 (6,778 JPY). I’m unable to give a comparison, but that compares very favourably with the cost of running a FL6, even more so in the case of a naptha-fuelled lamp. John
@presscall As I imagine it, floodlights would have been particularly useful at outdoor work sites such as roadworks, railway construction, and building projects. With the light output being broadly similar, it’s great to see that they’re more cost-effective than lamps using other fuels. That’s been very informative—many thanks for sharing. Shinzo
Exactly, yes. The catalogue I mentioned carries this collage. Just visible in the railway crane illustration is a gantry listed in the catalogue to mount two of those floodlights at 4 metres height. With the gas supply turned on at the cylinder, each lamp is lit by a pull on the lanyard attached to each piezo ignition module.
@presscall I see—lighting and extinguishing lamps suspended at a height of four metres would be rather inconvenient with kerosene-fuelled pressure lamps. In that respect, these propane floodlights clearly have an advantage. This has been very informative. Again, thanks a lot. Shinzo
