Has anybody tried eco-lamps LED lights?
- Thread starter DaFrog
- Start date
, and that is not looking at the 50% power consumption reductionPerhaps it would be worth it, there are a few issues I have with LEDs at this time
1: Obvious upfront cost, does the company absolutely guarantee the lifespan of their product? I remember the Solaris fixture making similar claims yet they did have LEDs that went out on them, while they were still in business I believe they took care of it, but that alone should tell you that the life span on these things are lab-based life spans, not what we have over our tanks.
2: The output, they often make really bold claims like "50watts replaces 175w of metal halide lamps!", when in fact those are at best extreme distortions of the truth, usually involve the lowest output 175w bulb out there or something equally fishy. In reality, the last time I looked, these high power LEDs were only fractionally more efficient in output than MH lamps, the website you showed was a little more honest however, mentioned 200 watts replaces 250watts of halides, the downside is that those stretch that 200 watts over 4 feet x 8 inches! I don't know about you but if I need that much output its not going to be stretched over 4 feet, lets assume you cover 2 or 3 of those over the tank, then that's $4k to $6k to replace 2-3 MH lamps? I have a hard time justifying that as something that can be paid off over it's lifespan.
3: The commitment, you're pretty much stuck with your decision for the lifespan of the product if you really want to justify the upfront cost and think they'll pay off over a life time.
4: Actual savings, sketchy at best, for me halides don't really increase the temperature of my tank, on average my tank temperature fluctuates on the order of half a degree, most of that is usually from the turn around of the heater turning on/off too, throughout the day (and night) it is quite consistent. On the hottest of days usually it doesn't change much either, even if it did I have save guards in place to deal with heat that does not require an expensive chiller. One of the biggest myths in this hobby, if you have MH lighting you need a chiller. Heck some people in colder climates might actually use the lights to warm the tank up on purpose, since that's not a heater you need to use (this time of year for me, thats where I stand in fact, and I'd hardly call San Francisco a cold climate).
Overall, these prebuilt fixtures I think are pricing themselves out of the game too much. From a DIY perspective when you could build the same thing (maybe minus all the pretty casings and what not) for easily 1/4 the cost it's a really hard sell. My biggest fear is LEDs go away for good because they're so high priced now, the companies who are pushing them abandon them for good.
1: Obvious upfront cost, does the company absolutely guarantee the lifespan of their product? I remember the Solaris fixture making similar claims yet they did have LEDs that went out on them, while they were still in business I believe they took care of it, but that alone should tell you that the life span on these things are lab-based life spans, not what we have over our tanks.
2: The output, they often make really bold claims like "50watts replaces 175w of metal halide lamps!", when in fact those are at best extreme distortions of the truth, usually involve the lowest output 175w bulb out there or something equally fishy. In reality, the last time I looked, these high power LEDs were only fractionally more efficient in output than MH lamps, the website you showed was a little more honest however, mentioned 200 watts replaces 250watts of halides, the downside is that those stretch that 200 watts over 4 feet x 8 inches! I don't know about you but if I need that much output its not going to be stretched over 4 feet, lets assume you cover 2 or 3 of those over the tank, then that's $4k to $6k to replace 2-3 MH lamps? I have a hard time justifying that as something that can be paid off over it's lifespan.
3: The commitment, you're pretty much stuck with your decision for the lifespan of the product if you really want to justify the upfront cost and think they'll pay off over a life time.
4: Actual savings, sketchy at best, for me halides don't really increase the temperature of my tank, on average my tank temperature fluctuates on the order of half a degree, most of that is usually from the turn around of the heater turning on/off too, throughout the day (and night) it is quite consistent. On the hottest of days usually it doesn't change much either, even if it did I have save guards in place to deal with heat that does not require an expensive chiller. One of the biggest myths in this hobby, if you have MH lighting you need a chiller. Heck some people in colder climates might actually use the lights to warm the tank up on purpose, since that's not a heater you need to use (this time of year for me, thats where I stand in fact, and I'd hardly call San Francisco a cold climate).
Overall, these prebuilt fixtures I think are pricing themselves out of the game too much. From a DIY perspective when you could build the same thing (maybe minus all the pretty casings and what not) for easily 1/4 the cost it's a really hard sell. My biggest fear is LEDs go away for good because they're so high priced now, the companies who are pushing them abandon them for good.
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