Power saving tips and ways to save money!?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Baldy

Comparing average mh to a radion isn't exactly a fair comparison. My DIY fixture cost 750 for my 75g. I would need at least 2 radions to equal it in output. 750 vs 1360 makes the time to recover the investment less. Radions, sols, mitras, they're all overpriced compared to what you can do yourself.

DIYs are always on a very different league. Like Denny said, DIYs always welcome unexpected costs. But once done properly will have the possibility of major savings. On the other hand, you won't be getting any sort of "warranty" with the DIYs. Is the heatsink enough? Is the wiring properly done with the codes for safety? Is the fixture totally safe? Semiconductor devices can easily go wrong no matter what in DIYs. Surely you will be getting warranty from driver manufacturers like invertronics or meanwell but they can easily go wrong and the warranty over here shouldn't come over reliability.

One thing's for sure....all brand LEDs are overpriced to some extend. And that's because they are controlling the market and players will always take this advantage. One thing that we don't see is the R&D costs that incorporates within these LEDs. Radion, mitras...these come from big companies and they will surely make 20-40% since those will eventually be distributed among various sources (starting from dealers to those back door engineers who spent hours perfecting these fixtures).