Jestersix

All Reefbrite LED worth it?

See I didn't even pay atttention, I looked it up and from what I can tell it around 1.75 watts per LED, I'll take my Kill-a-Watt with me today and see if that's a fact.

BTW, I'm 99% certain they are Cree LEDs, or at least that's what Jake said in his RB post...
 
Bridgelux IIRC but CREE made the "die" for them which is why people say CREE.
 
I did look at the Brideglux a bit for my DIY build.
They have a nice 4.5W array. But efficiency and color temp were not ideal.
not sure which die that used. Probably Cree.

Any idea on which die generation they use?
 
I'll bring my PAR meter to the swap if anyone wants to drag a single all white RB 48" strip with them. I can do the readings on a all blue since I have some :)
 
GreshamH said:
tuberider said:
The old power supplies have a display that indicates how many watts are being consumed, I'll check today and see how many are consumed on a customers tank.
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Watts? Pretty sure it's voltage that is being displayed.
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See that makes really no sense then if it says 25V then. Each LED is going to need on the order of 3V, unless they're wired in some series/parallel combo.

Also accord to Evil666 from the nano site he says Cree die but manufactured by Edison Optics.
 
BANG... thanks for jump starting my memory, it was Edison, not Bridgelux.

Sense or no sense the digital display is VOLTS and mine came set below 25v, IIRC it was just above 24v
 
25 Volts makes sense.
Assuming 4 parallel strings of 6 LEDs in series, plus a resistor on each string to turn it into a current source.
Rather cheesy way to do it, but common and cheap.
 
~24v ,makes sense. A lot of LED arrays are wired for 12 and 24V driving on the commercial market. I could be wrong, but I don't think RB uses a high efficiency current drive circuit, but might use something like an LM317 with a resistor to act as a current source. The LEDs probably run at around 3.3V meaning 6 LED on a string, 2V for the driver voltage drop and the rest dissipated as heat across the resistor. Check the underside of RB. I think they physically group the LEDs into groups of 6 as well
 
So if I'm running a 4 bulb T5 unit (24watts per bulb) and switch over to 5 LED strips, I'd be increasing my wattage thus increasing my monthly electricity bill. Correct?
 
rgonzalez said:
So if I'm running a 4 bulb T5 unit (24watts per bulb) and switch over to 5 LED strips, I'd be increasing my wattage thus increasing my monthly electricity bill. Correct?
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You have a 4x24w T5 fixture over your 90g?????
 
Oops! I thought something was off. I was looking at the wrong model. I'm running 4 x 54 watts. Hah!

So I'd be decreasing my wattage by roughly 50 watts if I went to the LED strips.
 
rgonzalez said:
Oops! I thought something was off. I was looking at the wrong model. I'm running 4 x 54 watts. Hah!

So I'd be decreasing my wattage by roughly 50 watts if I went to the LED strips.
Click to expand...


Dude...that's still not enough. Got a thought for ya...
 
Regarding the 54 w T5s, they may not be run at 54 watts, they could be overdriven by the ballast. It's worth checking using a kilowatt meter. I checked my 4 x 24W T5s w/ Icecap ballast (which I know overdrives), and the total wattage was about 40W per bulb.
 
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