LIghting Revolution just around the corner?

[Ram_Puppy]

a double ended 250 watt metal halide produces approximately 23,000 lumens (averaged out accross brands give or take a little) and has a spectral life of approximately 6 months.

Osram has developed a 1000 Lumen LED, that lasts for YEARS.

http://www.physorg.com/news93198212.html

maybe it won't be long before this little fella can be ours. :)

[blueboy]

hmmm...

[urban79]

SOME DAY. we would just need one led light. LOL

[caferacermike]

That would actually make me think of using LED lighting. So it would take about 25 of them to equal one 250w halide. I'm thinking the previous units took about 7w of electricity, So if the new ones were super efficient and used 10wx 25LEDS that'd still be the same amount of electricity right? Am I not thinking correctly? The savings would be in not needing to change out the bulbs.

[DaBird47]

I dunno what this works out to and don't really want to do the math, but for what its worth... (I hate math...)

"The Ostar Lighting LED, for example, produces 75 lumens per watt at 350 milli-amperes of operating current."

[DaBird47]

anyone want to take a stab at this one?

[FireEater]

I thought we were already there?

http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=31168&cat=731&page=1

[Ram_Puppy]

FireEater - that link is to a light that mimicks a 250 watt MH, and there are 50 LED arrays in it... the OSRAM diodes above can do the same with 20 to 25 arrays. so your looking at is probably 500 lumen LEDs instead of 1000 lumen.

more to the point, what were seing here is generational leaps in efficiency in a relatively short amount of time. I mean MH has been around for decades, and in the course of a few years Diodes have gone from dull red yellow and green indicator lights to viable (expensive) alternatives to MH and Flourescents. I mean these new ones are so powerful they are lighting buildings with them now. thats impressive, I think this technology, once it takes off, is going to make flourescent and incandescent bulbs obsolete for most applications.

[captexas]

Sure you can get the same number of lumens out of LEDs, but can you get the various spectrums you can obtain through halide and flourescent lighting? That will be the main issue when it comes to using them for reef tanks. With halides and flourescents lamps, the various spectrums are obtained by using different gases withing the bulbs. Not sure how you would do the same with an electronic diode.

[Ram_Puppy]

well of course that's an issue! :) I said 'maybe around the corner!' not 'here' :)

I expect an LED array would be more configurable than a traditional lighting system to your wants and desires anyhow.

lets say you have an array of 28 LED's, currently w/ todays standard technology, you have an option between about 30 different types of white, 30 different types of blue - including the 575 nm wavelength that mimics moonlight at depth...

if this revolution ever happens, we could have lights targeted towards the proper NM for pigmentation, photosynthesis, flouresence, etc...

it would be very cool.