lighting efficacy

[ILikeFish]

Without starting a what is better lighting debate does anyone know what kind of lighting is more energy efficient? I know LEDs are the will produce the most photons for the least energy but they are too expensive now.

From more efficient to least I am guessing PC, T5, HO, VHO, MH?

 

[D1J8Z]

lets start with what size tank you have and what kinda corals you wanna keep ?
Personaly I have 2 tanks set up at this time a 180 and a 120
180-MH-SPS
120-T'5-s mixed reef and I have great success with both
also know someone with a 180 with VHOs and runs a sps dominated tank so everyones gonna tell u something diffrent go with the best "YOU" can afford

 

[ILikeFish]

Thanks for your response. I am actually asking about efficacy. I know for many lights a lot of waste heat is produced.

Just wondering what lights put out the most photons for the least electricity.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Excluding LED, I think you can research on low pressure sodium gas bulb(street light) but the color is not for reefing. The next one could be high pressure sodium gas bulb the ones mostly used to shine the exterior of architectural objects(the white color flood light) Slighly less efficient as the former but color is closer to what we want.

Back to your question of the MH vs fluorescent lamps, MH light using argon and mercury should be slightly(only slightly) more efficient than the latter. It generally used about 23%-25% of power consumed to make light. A lot of archtectural applications also use MH as manufacturer can change color of the bulb easily by changing the mix of the gases. In fact, both technology can be grouped together as plasma lighting technology but one of which used fluorescent material to convert the ultraviolet part of the emittion to viewable light. The so call plasma light in the recent frenzy internet talks is in fact same technology but just different mix of gas and smaller in the size to arouse people's curiosity.

 

[ILikeFish]

wingo. thanks for your response. I was thinking the florescent would be much more efficient than the MH!

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

wingo. thanks for your response. I was thinking the florescent would be much more efficient than the MH!

Your statement could be correct in reference to our eyes as flourescent bulbs are tuned to our eyes' sensitivity but not necessarily the light energy.