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Thread: LED lighting

  1. #1

    Unhappy LED lighting

    :idea: Has anyone tried LED lighting in lieu of compact florescents or HID ? :?:

    I see you can get a 225 LED setup (12" x12") for around $45, red and blue for plant growth.
    CW3 Wentling, USA, INF, INSCOM, AVN (Ret)

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Bracknell, UK
    Posts
    61

    Re: LED lighting

    Kansas

    KCress is your man. i asked a similar question a little while back on the design forum. Here's the link.

    viewtopic.php?f=3&t=378

    Chris

  3. #3

    Re: LED lighting

    Chris,

    I just ordered two LED light panels, one red/blue and the other all white. :shock:

    Will be some time before I can use them on my current ATS build.
    But I will post results.

    I am also considering using the all white in lieu of my 175 watt meatl halides on my 200 gal
    freshwater tank. I like MH but to expensive and to much heat. :evil:
    CW3 Wentling, USA, INF, INSCOM, AVN (Ret)

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    6

    Re: LED lighting

    Have you had any luck with this? I am currently looking at the 50w White-Blue panels for my display tank. I figure they will pay for themselves in 4 months.

  5. #5
    Administrator
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
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    10,566

    Re: LED lighting

    Remember that LED's are for experimenting only, not for results.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    6

    Re: LED lighting

    Eventually someone has to test this stuff so that we can move forward! When I get my taxes back I am gonna drop the cash on the display tank LED's. I am tired of my electric bill being high and the heat issues. The glass in front of my halide runs about 400 degrees ALL THE TIME! It's also alot of electric for not much usable light. I may just go ahead and get 2 more of the 50w quad band grow LEDs for giggles. It has to be better then changing bulbs every 3-4 months!

    I should just move to St. John. It would be cheaper!

    D_.

  7. #7

    Re: LED lighting

    kansanative,

    can you please list a link for this light?
    ===
    I see you can get a 225 LED setup (12" x12") for around $45
    ===

    Thanks

    Rainer

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    163

    Re: LED lighting

    Can someone experiment with this?

    http://cgi.ebay.com/100W-Warm-White-Hig ... 642wt_1165

    There is also a 50 watt version for $73

    I bought a 10 watt 260 lumen red for $15 from the same seller.

    I will post with results once I receive the led

    I am going to team it up with a 10 watt warm from another seller.

    $23 warm white + $15 red + $14 led driver = $52

    I am hoping I get over 700 lumen

    Leds on a budget

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Union City, CA, USA
    Posts
    441

    Re: LED lighting

    Two notes.
    1) First, I am experimenting with LEDs now myself. DIY.
    See my thread in Designs/Modern LEDs.

    2) Beware of cheap current drivers.
    A) They fail.
    - I bought some cheap ones to replace other lights once.
    - The power supply in the driver failed after a few months.
    - And it was used far less than on an ATS.
    b) They do not regulate well.
    - It is key to get the correct current, or you lose light/blow your LED.
    - From other forums I have seen, some of the cheap drivers are way off. 20%.

    3) Beware of things with no detailed specs.
    What is the spectrum? It is cheaper to build in cooler colors. You need very warm white for ATS.
    What is the expected lifetime? Not all LEDs are 50,000 hours.
    And how is it sorted? Different silicon batches can produce very different results. Like 3X.

    4) The really high wattage LEDs are a pain for thermal reasons.
    The problem is, you get a very small point that generates a lot of heat.
    And LEDs lose performance / fail when hot. Touching it should be warm, but easily bearable.
    So building a good heat sink, especially without a fan, can be very tricky.

    I avoided those in my build. Of course, cost more. Maybe I wasted my money.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    163

    Re: LED lighting

    Thanks for the info

    Points well taken I have read other posts that the driver is the first thing to go.

    I bought 4 mean well lplc-18-700 and I am using those for my builds for now and they seem to be good quality so far.

    I am looking at the new mean well CEN-100-30 seems like it would fit perfectly for (1) 100 watt led. That driver has been announced but is not for sale as far as I know yet. It does seem to have some impressive specs

    http://www.meanwell.com/search/CEN-100/CEN-100-spec.pdf

    I been looking through ebay and have my eye on some very big heat sinks because I would like if possible to not use a fan.

    I also noticed besides the lack of detail specs that there are no returns but I have seen what they want for these kind of leds and they are not cheap. So I decided to take a gamble for some of the smaller ones (if you can call 10 watt led small) first.



    Hopefully it is because they are so new and they are coming direct from the warehouse and not so much about the being poorly binned. If the specs are right they are on par with lumen / watt with some more common high end leds

    I was thinking of taken some of my projects to a camera or lighting store and getting some real #"s for light output etc... and that way I will feel more confident about future purchases. Has anyone tried that? How would you test for different specs (distance from light etc...)? Is there a test for color temp that would be readily available?

    Sharp just came out with a new line of 6.7 watt leds the one I was looking at (GW5BTF
    27K00 ) is 2700 k and puts out 355 lumens but they also are not on the market quite yet.

    I mention the bigger leds because when I read kansasnative"s original post he/she seems to be talking about those small 5mm leds
    The way I look at it 5mm leds are being replace by 1 watt leds which are being replaced by 3 watt leds which will be replaced by higher watt leds. Its just a matter of how to correctly use them. So any help would be appreciated to help see the quickly changing light of leds.

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