Headlamps underground: lux, burn time and emergency reserve
Two figures are usually given for a headlamp, and they answer different questions. Lumens tell you how much light the lamp gives off in total. Lux tells you how much of it lands on the surface you are actually looking at.
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A lamp can have many lumens and few lux because the light is spread out, or the other way round. Underground, both matter: you need a sharp beam where you are working, and enough spread light to see where you are putting your feet.
Oldham DL16
The corded headlamp in the catalogue is the Oldham DL16, part number 200011:
- Light output — 6 000 lux and 180 lumens
- Light distribution — 90% of the light over an 8° arc, 10% over a 120° arc
- Main LED — Rebel3 LED, 3.0 W at 4.2 V / 750 mA
- Auxiliary LED — 20 lumens over a 120° arc
The distribution explains how it feels in use
90 per cent of the light is in a cone of eight degrees. That is a narrow, sharp beam that gives long reach and high lux where you look. The remaining ten per cent is spread over 120 degrees and is what stops you walking blind outside the cone.
The 20-lumen auxiliary LED has the same wide distribution and is a separate light, not a dimmed version of the main light.
Burn time is two figures, not one
The main light is rated at 18 hours, plus 6 hours of emergency reserve. The auxiliary LED alone is rated at over 800 hours.
The manufacturer highlights the long burn time in emergencies. The brightness is kept constant through a normal shift, and if the lamp is used for longer than a full shift, the light fades gradually and noticeably — so you have plenty of time to get out and put the lamp on charge.
The battery and its service life
The battery is a 16 Ah Li-ion, type L16 with part number 203012, rated for over 1 200 charge cycles and 8–10 hours charging time. The LEDs are rated for 30 000 hours of service life.
With one charge per shift, 1 200 cycles is many years of use — so the battery is a wear part with a known service life, not something that gets replaced at random.
Weight, enclosure and temperature
The lamp weighs 975 grams in total. The headpiece measures 67 × 67 × 70 mm and the battery 152 × 125 × 55 mm in polycarbonate, with 135 cm of cable between them.
The protection rating is IP54: dust-protected and resistant to water splashes from all directions, but it is not designed to be immersed in water. The operating temperature is stated as 0 °C to +40 °C.
When you order
Quote part number 200011 for the lamp and 203012 for the battery. Remember the charger: the lamp must always be charged after use, and only on a charger with a Li-ion charging profile. For 12-hour operation the manufacturer recommends charger 204001 (2 channels) or 204002 (10 channels).
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