L.E.D Lighting to replace MH

[gr8white]

I've stumbled upon the PFO Solaris LED lights at Premium Aquatics. The carry a hefty price tag but the benefits seem to outway the cons.

Anyways, I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone here has heard of these and maybe have some insight into how effective they are?

Here are some links I got from googling:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...&Product_Code=PFO-67048&Category_Code=Solaris

http://www.solarisled.com/

 

[Anonymous]

If you search the forum a bit, you'll find posts referring to this in multiple forums

 

[Len]

I'm waiting until it's time-tested before trying it myself (due to their prohibitive prices). It looks promising.

 

[liquid]

Terry Siegel, Joy Meadows (Harbor Aquatics), and Sanjay got complementary fixtures while I was at IMAC this year. I'm still waiting to hear what they have to say about them but those things put out a lot of light! I do know that replacing just one LED will require desoldering the LED and resoldering a new one in its place. Not the easiest for someone w/ no electrical experience...

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

Well according to them they last 50,000 hours, which would be about 11 years, those summabitches better have atleast a 10 year warranty! Especally at $2200 per 250watts.

Lets see, over 11 years, and say you replace conventional bulbs every 6 months, that's 22 bulbs you'll replace plus inital startup cost, Say $300 for the first ballast/reflector/bulb, + 21 bulbs @ $70 each, that still is only about $1770, you add in the power over 11 years. that's 12500 kilowatt hours, @ 10cents per (generous) that's a total of about $3000 for the cost of metal halide bulbs. So from a financial standpoint it makes sense (assume the bulbs don't drop in price)

But as was said, is it REALLY 250watts.. just an intensity of that? What sort of spectrum could you possibly get from the LEDs? Not to mention the lack of flexibility if you don't like the color, with bulbs you switch them out to a different brand/color spectrum.

 

[Anonymous]

What sort of spectrum could you possibly get from the LEDs? Not to mention the lack of flexibility if you don't like the color, with bulbs you switch them out to a different brand/color spectrum.

According to the manufacturer, the color temp of the fixture can be adjusted from anywhere between 6.5k to 22k

 

[RobertoVespucci]

Well according to them they last 50,000 hours, which would be about 11 years, those summabitches better have atleast a 10 year warranty! Especally at $2200 per 250watts.

Lets see, over 11 years, and say you replace conventional bulbs every 6 months, that's 22 bulbs you'll replace plus inital startup cost, Say $300 for the first ballast/reflector/bulb, + 21 bulbs @ $70 each, that still is only about $1770, you add in the power over 11 years. that's 12500 kilowatt hours, @ 10cents per (generous) that's a total of about $3000 for the cost of metal halide bulbs. So from a financial standpoint it makes sense (assume the bulbs don't drop in price)

But as was said, is it REALLY 250watts.. just an intensity of that? What sort of spectrum could you possibly get from the LEDs? Not to mention the lack of flexibility if you don't like the color, with bulbs you switch them out to a different brand/color spectrum.

You'll have to pay for electricity for the LED fixture, too. You can't really figure that in on the savings side. And aside from a couple white LEDs that got invented in the last year or so which I highly doubt have made it to appliances, metal halides produce more lumens per watt at the outlet than LEDs.

 

[Len]

What sort of spectrum could you possibly get from the LEDs? Not to mention the lack of flexibility if you don't like the color, with bulbs you switch them out to a different brand/color spectrum.

According to the manufacturer, the color temp of the fixture can be adjusted from anywhere between 6.5k to 22k

My concern is LED lighting is fairly monochromatic (not a full range light source) so even if the overall CCT can be adjusted from 6.5K to 22K, we don't know how the spectral output is going to look like. It could end up being three huge spikes.

 

[Anonymous]

You'll have to pay for electricity for the LED fixture, too. You can't really figure that in on the savings side.

Yeah I realized that after I posted, it states 40% less energy, so it's costs about $500 more for the MH bulb lighting, that's also a low estimate since I assumed 10c per kWh which if you run lots of lighting you're in another payment bracket as far as cost of electricity So it ends up being about equal in cost.

Also I noticed that it said it's a 48" fixture... at only 250w? Man that's not that much light at all over that length, it looks pretty beefy too don't know if you could put two of those over.

But as Len says, leds have very defined peaks, you put enough together to get a CCT over 12000k or whatever sure but how true is it? Anyways, I would wait to see some test results before I even consider buying one, not that I would at that cost.

 

[RobertoVespucci]

it states 40% less energy, so it's costs about $500 more for the MH bulb lighting, that's also a low estimate since I assumed 10c per kWh which if you run lots of lighting you're in another payment bracket as far as cost of electricity So it ends up being about equal in cost.

I find the energy figure they give suspect. Maybe we can pry Sanjay away from his new setup (yeah right) to do a quick watts in vs lumens out.

 

[Anonymous]

...You can't really figure that in on the savings side...

You can't truly figure anything in this hobby from a "money savings" standpoint :lol:. That only works when rationalizing a purchase to your non-reefing significant other, an example follows.

"But, but, darling, sweetheart Love-and-Light of my life! The new 300 gallon fully automated system will save money in the long run!"

 

[Anonymous]

These guys are offering a range of sizes:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/stor ... ory_ID=144

 

[AF Founder]

In this issue of Advanced Aquarist Dana Riddle reviewed them. Check it out.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm that place says each one is able to change between 6.5K and 22K yet they sell 20K & 13K versions? Sounds like they're posting the data sheet for an advanced/desired model yet selling a dumbed down model. Not to mention each one says the same thing "Just as much light as a 250W 20K bulb" well what each 12" section does? Does that mean the 6' version is the same as 6 -250w 20k bulbs?

 

[Anonymous]

In this issue of Advanced Aquarist Dana Riddle reviewed them. Check it out.

Looks like it performs pretty well.

 

[liquid]

For those interested:

Product Review: A New Horizon in Lighting: PFO's Solaris LED System
By Dana Riddle
Dana reviews PFO's new Solaris LED lighting system. PFO makes some bold claims in their advertising. How well do these facts hold up under close scrutiny? Several testing protocols were used to evaluate lamp intensity, lamp spectral quality and heat transfer.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

 

[Anonymous]

Fantastic idea...but a bit too pricy. :?