LED Current?

[FlyTekk]

Im a little confused with my LED lights. If their specs say their max current should be 1000ma. Why do i notice alot of people running them at 700-750ma?

I know less heat, less energy... longer lifespan.

But i have a dimmer. I have a reef keeper that dims my lights. So i thought it would be okay to run them at max (1000ma or 990 or something) and then dim them down 50% or so.

Is this not a good idea? Whats the difference?

 

[alfani]

this is based upon the led drivers people used for 3w led and 1w led runs at 350ma, 3w led run at 700-750ma, running at 1000ma would be over drive them.

 

[FlyTekk]

The 3w LED that i ordered run at 1000ma for blues and 1500ma for whites. I ordered xp-e blue and royal blue and xp-g cool whites.

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

The only reason we run at a lower current is to extend the life. For instance the cree xre whites are good to 1000ma. The royal blue are good for just slightly lower but we run the blues at 700ma because there isn't a difference in par and spectrum so why not get more life. The white I run at 900ma. Once again no real difference in par.

 

[FlyTekk]

Ohhhhhh, now that makes sense. So where can i find the data that will tell me where i should set my LEDs. The xp-gs are upto 1500ma.

Also, so if i did run them at 1000ma (max) but dimmed them to 75% this would be different than running them 750ma and not dimmed at all (100%)?

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

I believe they are interchangeable.