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LED Lighting

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smcnally said:
I disagree... 60" LED fixture is $3075.00

A 60" 3x250W MH setup would run about $1000. Add 5 years of bulb replacements ($1200) and that is a total of $2,200. The LED fixture would have to save you about $70 a month over the MH (which I doubt it does) Just to break even. Now...also remember that in this example, now we have a 3x250 W mh with brand new bulbs, and an LED fixture that is now DUE to have the bulbs replaced and I'm sure they are pretty pricey!
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What is the average life of a MH ballast? Controllers? I think we're getting closer to convergence on price than meets the eye. But I don't get why there's a 2 year warranty when they keep claiming 50,000 hours of bulb life. My calculation says 50,000 hours, even at 24 hours a day takes over 5 1/2 years to get to that bulb age. So what's the weak link?
 
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manufacturing processes, you always get a bad bunch. Like how the early lcd screens kept getting pixels, even though they last a long time the initial screens had to have very long warrenties. Now it hardly happens except with the bigger screens, eventually even those will go away.
 
JayM said:
What is the average life of a MH ballast? Controllers? I think we're getting closer to convergence on price than meets the eye. But I don't get why there's a 2 year warranty when they keep claiming 50,000 hours of bulb life. My calculation says 50,000 hours, even at 24 hours a day takes over 5 1/2 years to get to that bulb age. So what's the weak link?
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The weak link is that these bulbs have a 50K hour life if driven well below normal current. The solaris drives them slighly above normal current, so theres no way they'll ever last that long.


FWIW, comparing the Sfilgoi to the solaris is silly. The Sfilgoi is a MUCH nicer fixture, and puts out about 5 times the light.
 
RichConley said:
The weak link is that these bulbs have a 50K hour life if driven well below normal current. The solaris drives them slighly above normal current, so theres no way they'll ever last that long.


FWIW, comparing the Sfilgoi to the solaris is silly. The Sfilgoi is a MUCH nicer fixture, and puts out about 5 times the light.
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I don't think that is silly, which is nicer is a personal opinion and Sfilgoi putting out about 5 times more light have no scientific backing. I don't recall anyone compared these two before.
 
Given the current popularity of going green (which I hope won't just be some stupid trendy thing that causes people to buy stuff or is forgotten in 10 months) and the amount of money being spent on R&D we should see significant increases in LED efficiency and decreases in cost within the next five years. Several research groups have made great strides in increasing output and simplifying the manufacturing process which will ultimetly make LEDs cheaper and more suitable for our purposes. Right now, LED lighting makes a great deal of sense for nanoreefs where heat management and tank footprint limits most other lighting options. LED manufacturing is not exactly environmentally friendly but the enhanced lifespan of the bulbs balances their impact. I hope that other tank products (pumps) will become more efficient as well but there just isn't the same market pressure as exists for lighting fixtures.
 
The really cool thing about LED lighting is that you can program individual LED's to be on or off. So you can run crazy experiments on your tank like display the word food before you feed your fish and see if in a couple of weeks if you just switch the lights to say food will they automatically come up looking for food.
 
But, But, But.... your not even attempting to make them learn to read. Bad fish parent!
 
jc9394 said:
I don't think that is silly, which is nicer is a personal opinion and Sfilgoi putting out about 5 times more light have no scientific backing. I don't recall anyone compared these two before.
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MH lighting: 100 lumens per watt.

Luxeon l3: ~20 Lumens per watt.


Theres plenty of scientific backing. Chosing to ignore it doesnt make it any less true. If you want links to the L3 specifications, I can give them to you. I promise, theyre not pretty.The Solaris is not efficient. Its not even close. Its got less efficiency than running PCs.

The aquaillumination with the Seoul Semi P4s is a totally different story.
 
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RichConley said:
MH lighting: 100 lumens per watt.

Luxeon l3: ~20 Lumens per watt.


Theres plenty of scientific backing. Chosing to ignore it doesnt make it any less true. If you want links to the L3 specifications, I can give them to you. I promise, theyre not pretty.The Solaris is not efficient. Its not even close. Its got less efficiency than running PCs.

The aquaillumination with the Seoul Semi P4s is a totally different story.
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I may be wrong, but I was referring to the aquaillumination unit all along. I agree with you on the Solaris, I never consider them as comparable to halide.
 
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Right, but I was saying comparing the Sfilgoi to a Solaris was silly, and you were replying directly to, and refuting, that.


FWIW, comparing the Sfilgoi to the solaris is silly. The Sfilgoi is a MUCH nicer fixture, and puts out about 5 times the light.
Click to expand...
 
The real benefit is the ability to adjust of the LED power output while still maintaining the specific color (spectral) output. I totally agree that LED technology is still not intense enough for most reef tanks. In five years though I think we'll all be throwing our metal halides in the trash.
 
nano-neophyte said:
The real benefit is the ability to adjust of the LED power output while still maintaining the specific color (spectral) output.
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You can do that with MHs and Fluoros. You just need dimmable ballasts, which aren't cheap.
 
Ahh yes but can you control them individually? into certain sections of the tank, like front lights bright, back ones dim, or vice versa.
 
Seems like you could do a lot with that kind of fine tuning ability,
ie have a hot spot move across the tank over the course of a day so as to simulate the sun moving across the sky, or for fancy spotlighting effects to go for the effect you see in some Japanese tanks (many lamps with different colors and intensities focused on specific corals to exaggerate their particular colors).

Then again, I'm guessing that's something to think about in 5-10 yrs when the things get a LOT cheaper and more refined.

IMO it does seem like there is a lot of potential with LED's, but there's no way I'm considering using them on my reef until the technology evolves a whole bunch. FWIW, I have a LED headlight for my mountain bike that's bright enough to ride at a good clip in the woods in total darkness, but that has just about nothing to do with the lights being made for reef tanks now.
 
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