LED lighting.

[DJ88]

Been doing a bit of reading about various LED(high intensity) for use in our tanks. AS it stands now it would be very costly to get the required intensity our corals need to let them thrive but for spotlighting and focusing attention onto specific corals. This is something very interesting to look into.



This shows the luminous flux output of various LEDs manufactured by a company called Luxeon. A luminous flux is a lumen. Lumen is basically an abbreviation of Luminous flux. Keep in mind this is ONE model of LED being made. There are many many others.

If you were to look at the lumen output of a white LED you would need a lot of them to recreate a 28W PC lamp. I just measured my 28W PC in my sump and had a reading of 5000 lumens(quick rough measurement) and about 95 µmol m-2 s-1(time averaged for about 15 minutes.

For background info, full summertime sunlight is about 200 µmol m-2 s-1.

So imagine how many of these LED's we would need to recreate this amount of intensity for our corals to thrive.

I can see right now using LEDs for spotlighting purposes but not main illumination. The pros for the future of this as a possible replacement are threefold as I see it. Heat, flexibility, elecricical consumption and possibly others down the road.

LED's don't produce near the heat our current MH's do. Flexibility, they are dimmable. Energy consumption, LEDs draw very little current to operate, size. An LED is only ~1cm in height very little space required. I could go on and on.

The main drawback is cost. A 6 pack of High intensity LEDs can run up to $20+ for the pack. I haven't gotten firm prices yet but will be as soon as I have the time.

Imagine being able to have a couple of small spotlights that turn on and off at various times during the day to spotlight your favorite corals. Or simulating moonlight. [img]smile.gif[/img]

There is a future with this technology.. but when and where remains to be seen. IMO

[ 24 March 2002, 12:48: Message edited by: DJ88 ]