Sprinkler vials are designed to break at temperatures as low as 135 degrees. Air temperature plus radiated heat could easily hit that even if the light is fairly far below the head.
There is no doubt in my mind that the light we used could have set off the sprinklers from at least fifty feet.
I don't know off the top of my head the amp rating, but I know we had to have the room electric supply upgraded (and this was already a well equipped robotics lab - it isn't like the electric supply was bad to begin with).
The light itself was about three feet in diameter, four feet long, and, like, 200 pounds. It was a big old hunk of photon-generating madness.
Yeah, I have a physical sense for how hot lights are, but I don't have a physical sense for what 'surprising proximity to a sprinkler' is and I'm trying to borrow theirs to sate my curiosity.
