# HIGH INTENSITY LEDs - ALL LIGHT NO HEAT



## essabee (Oct 11, 2006)

Has anyone done any study of the high intensity LEDs?

They seem to be the paradise in the horizon of future. The heat production is nominal. The conversion of electrical energy to light is fantastic. The output light can be very specific- PUR 100%- mixed adequately for viewing too.

Needs our attention badly.


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

SCMurphy over at plantedtank.com tried some and he wrote a good article about them. Sean's LED growlights - The Planted Tank Forum


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## itchy201 (Aug 28, 2006)

They do have a LED hood out but its very expensive. 
link to the manufacturer
link  to a review


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## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

essabee said:


> Has anyone done any study of the high intensity LEDs?
> 
> They seem to be the paradise in the horizon of future. The heat production is nominal. The conversion of electrical energy to light is fantastic. The output light can be very specific- PUR 100%- mixed adequately for viewing too.
> 
> Needs our attention badly.


You should purchase one of these hoods and report back to us in six months. I think most cars should be able to run on bio-diesel, but still have a gasoline-powered one. Yet, I don't complain about it. Maybe you could be the pioneer for this new technology among aquarists?


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## essabee (Oct 11, 2006)

erik Loza said:


> You should purchase one of these hoods and report back to us in six months. I think most cars should be able to run on bio-diesel, but still have a gasoline-powered one. Yet, I don't complain about it. Maybe you could be the pioneer for this new technology among aquarists?


I do have a 1941 Austin, a 1952 Hudson, and a 1965 CJ5. Still I think I will take part of your advice. I will not aquire one of those hoods, but I shall acquire some bunches of high intensity LEDs and get back to you and complain.


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

I've been reading about LED lighting for the past 5 years. Output keeps rising every year. You would need an array of them since they are very directional, which will be nice since a reflector won't be needed in 5 years when they are powerful enough and hopefully cheap enough to start competing with fluorescent lamps.


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## Ajax (Apr 3, 2006)

Gomer has been working on this very topic over in the DIY forum.


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Pat from PFO lighting, the folks who make the Solaris fixture told me in an email:


> We are in the beginning phase of developing a fixture for this market.


I did note that some LED manufacturers have lamps rated at 5000 and 6000k so developing the lamps themselves is already done.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

LEDs DO put out a lot of heat. A LOT. They are about as inefficient as an incandecent lightbulb. The thing that LEDs have going for them asside from longevity, is losses. bulbs emmitt in all directions and light is wasted from scattering or absorption. LEDs are considerably more directional, so you end up with effectively more light per watt then an incandescent...FOR OUR USES.


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

I'll bite on this one...



Gomer said:


> LEDs DO put out a lot of heat. A LOT. They are about as inefficient as an incandecent lightbulb. The thing that LEDs have going for them asside from longevity, is losses. bulbs emmitt in all directions and light is wasted from scattering or absorption. LEDs are considerably more directional, so you end up with effectively more light per watt then an incandescent...FOR OUR USES.


Everything puts out heat if it is doing something productive. Around the turn of the century, LEDs were not as efficient as fluorescents, but much more efficient than incandescent lightbulbs. See Luminous efficacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (this matches what I've been reading from various sources for years). In this time, they have started to surpass fluorescents in efficiency, but not in a 4-foot fixture at a competitive price.

The great thing about LEDs is that you apply energy and out come photons. Very much unlike heating up something until it glows or adding energy to a gas so it can lose the added energy as light. It seems very possible, that with enough time, it will be the most efficient source of artificial light. But, not yet.

The magic thing that makes them seem more efficient than they are is for low current they produce alot of light. None of this pre-heating or pre-charging which doesn't work as well for tiny lights. But, it completely kicks @ss on incandescent indicator lights which is why you no longer see incandescent indicator lights on much past 1980. It should be able to scale up to beat the traditional light bulb, but at what cost per unit?

Prices have dropped about 90% since CY2000 on fixture bulbs (ThinkGeek :: LED Light Bulbs. Of course, these are still not as useful as the much improved Compact Flourescent fixtures. But, it's progress...

Another problem for acceptance of LED fixtures is that the other lighting technology isn't standing still. We've got improved T8's, T5 HO's, T5's and CFs continously raising the bar for LED fixtures to clear.


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## Moody (Sep 14, 2006)

But over all will LEDs give you the right kind of light to grow plants???


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## wantabe23 (Apr 6, 2005)

14" 20K Solaris LED Illumination System. Supplied with Control Modular and Mounting Feet 
Wow this goes for 850 dollars and...
72" 13K Solaris LED Illumination System. Supplied with Control Modular and Mounting Feet.
Goes for 3344, Yes thats 3 thousand three hundred and 44 dollars... hummm.. I think that I will wait some years. All of a sudden I feel that any other light is cheep!


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Hahaha, wow, 3000 bones.


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

Moody said:


> But over all will LEDs give you the right kind of light to grow plants???


Usually not. The spectrum curve for an ordinary LED is similar to a LASER, just one narrow fequency band with a very specific color. For an optimal plant light, you have to either:

(1) Combine red and blue LEDs of the appropriate frequencies/wavelengths in a fixture to repliclate what a GrowLux light emits. This is what the current LED plant lights are.

(2) Design a special composite LED that has a combination of emitters that does the effect of the above. With demand from greenhouse applications, this should happen sometime in the future. Mass scale production should make these relatively cheap (after the patent expires.)


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