Lighting Website Updates

[TropTrea]

Originally posted by hahnmeister


Just imagine... even with lenses to make say... a 30degree arc of light from the LEDs, the output will be astounding. And being that LED's seem to be able to produce blue light better than warmer light... just imagine being able to light say... a 180gallon reef with a mere 150 watts!!!

Okay your auiming at 150 watts.
With the LED's out there now they seem to be most effecient at 350ma. So 150W / 350ma = 428 LED's now dependent upon mfg and source you have between $12.00 and $28.00 each. So we are now up to $5,136 to almost $12,000 for the LED's alone. So now the next question is how long would you have to use this lighting to get a return on your dollar even compared to running 3 400Watt metal hides. Sure it wpould reduce your electric bill for lighting to 1/8 of what it was, but at that price for the fixture wow you still would have to be paying a lot for power to even break out even in 5 years.

Yes browsing through they do go up to a potential 228 limens per watt. But the cost is still so high that there is no return on the investment yet. Give it time and you will see three things happening, 1. the prices will come down, 2. the quality will improve, 3. the selection will increase.

Dennis

[JCTewks]

Trop Trea: what are the downsides to running LED's at 1000ma vs 350 or 700, aside from heat. i figure you could get aroud the heat issue with heatsinks and fans and still keep the led's at their optimal temp. are there any other downsides??

[BeanAnimal]

HUGE heatsinks. the high lumen per watt units are not cost effective and they are already maxed as far as heat goes. Running at higher current means shorter life and faster color shift.

[JCTewks]

gotcha...thanks bean. how big is HUGE?? i was thinking one large finned aluminum heatsink covering the entire back of the circuit board with 1-2 90 mm fans blowing down on them.

I didn't think that led's shifted color, only intensity...am i wrong?

[TropTrea]

Originally posted by JCTewks
Trop Trea: what are the downsides to running LED's at 1000ma vs 350 or 700, aside from heat. i figure you could get aroud the heat issue with heatsinks and fans and still keep the led's at their optimal temp. are there any other downsides??

First off just looking at one specific LED we compare the manafucturers output to input

300mw= 68.4lum or 228 per watt
700mw = 92 lum or 131 per watt
1000mw =94 lum or 94 per watt

So on the effeciency of output per watt the 300mw is the most effective. On the other end if you needed 36 LED's at 300mw you could get tha same amount of light out of 26 at 1000mw. Actuall power usage would be 2.4X as much with the initial outlay being only 73% of the cost.

Other factors that need to be considered is that LED's will shift the color temp as the corrent is changed. Also the higher the current the shorter the life span of the LED.

Now in my mind the ideal situation would be to have them on a digital dimmer so you could slowly turn them on and off. Would not be hard with a square wave generator and digital counter circuit.

As a side note the owner of this thread is Sanjay. I only think it is fair to him to give us some his ideas here considering we are drifting way off the original topic.

Dennis

[bigloggerhead]

Originally posted by Sanjay
Peter:

The Giesmann lamps do not have any Color Temp rating on the packaging. Thier lamps are labelled Marine, Coral, and Blue. The coral lamp may be the one that is being called 13K or 14.5K. It has more bluer look compared to the Marine.

sanjay.

Does anyone have any experience with these bulbs in DE? I've been considering this bulb and have yet to find someone with personal experience. I was looking at the 13K bulb. Just curious about any positive or negative feedback.

Jason

[hahnmeister]

Sorry, only used the 14,500K (coral) one myself. The 13,000K (marine) and 20,000K (blue) I have no idea about myself.

[bigloggerhead]

How did you like the 14.5K? Was it more blue or white? I'm running two ATI Blue+, 1 UVL Super Actinic, and 1 KZ Fiji Purple so I'm not sure whether I should run the 12.5 or 14.5. My current halide bulb is an SLI 13K. I have SPS, LPS, Zoos, clams. I'm worried about my LPS getting cooked if I were to go to a 10K.

[hahnmeister]

More white... its almost like a cross between a Ushio 14,000K and a pheonix 14,000K.

[bigloggerhead]

Thanks man! I'll keep that in mind. I may get that bulb instead.

[erid]

Question guys, I have a Current USA Setup with 2-150W 10K Hqi and 2-130 W Dual Actinics (420nm ans 460nm).

I was thinking about going with 14K Hqi but I don't want to stunt the growth of the SPS corals in my tank.

What do you think??

I want to see those babies grow as fast as they can!

Current also makes the bulbs in "all 420nm or all 460nm" which one gives me the dark blue color?

Check out the diffferent lamps below...

http://current-usa.com/sunpaq.html

[hahnmeister]

Well, it would really depend on the corals and the aquarium.

[Sanjay]

Looks like the new 250W DE 15000K lamp is already out, and will soon be available.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/...lightfair.html

sanjay

[hahnmeister]

They have it listed as a 14,000K 'Waterscape' lamp though... wonder if it will be a true 250wattDE version of the 15,000K.

[Henry Bowman]

Sanjay,

What happened with the T5 testing you were going to do? Sorry if this is a redundant question.

[earraval]

hi Sanjay, do you have any info on this lamps?
WGNLITE Metal Halide Lamp
http://www.geocities.jp/watergrassnet/catalog.html
tks,
ed

[earraval]

hi Sanjay, do you have any info on this lamps?
WGNLITE Metal Halide Lamp
http://www.geocities.jp/watergrassnet/catalog.html
tks,
ed

[RGibson]

sanjay-have you tested the lumenarc 3 mini?

[skriz]

has anyone every checked the oddysea bulbs? I was thinking of using the fixtures (they have e-ballasts) and swapping out the bulbs, but curiosity is getting at me

[Lo0seR]

I have a Ushio 20k that is a pulse start ballast bulb, my question is this? I have had a GIESEMANN-MEGACHROME BLUE MH400 that runs on a pulse start ballast as well that has been running for a while, I swear these are the same bulbs, are they?

[hahnmeister]

I have speculated the same... I think that the Giesemann bulbs are rebadged Ushios. Look at how similar the BLV nepturion 14,000K and the Giesemann 14,500K are... they are so identical, and the PAR numbers are so close, any difference could be assumed natural variation between any two bulbs.

[Lo0seR]

Hey Han, last time I talked to you it was on the Helios bulbs. I have since switch them out (time had come) over to Ushio 20k on either side and the Giesemann in the center. All are 400 watt and the look of all three are the same, they have had long enough to break in so this is it I guess till next round, thanks for the reply.

[ritafarida]

Hi, I have just read Photon topics. Will PPFD be decreased if there is glass material which is blocked the lamp?

Thanks in advance for the answer.

Rita

[grandp10]

What is the best looking and performing (good ppfd) 14 k bulb for a pulse start PFO magnetic ballast, and what would be best for PFO hqi ballast? I heard about the Helios doing real well, but I cannot find any information if Sanjay has tested them yet. Does the electronic hqi ballast make the light that much brighter? I already have the magnetic ballast and was wondering if it was worth it to get the hqi ballast. Thank you very much.

[hahnmeister]

A wattage would help...