Can anyone explain why this light is throwing all these different numbers around? Spectra LED 290 (New 2011 model) [Spectra LED 300] - $749.99 : Grow LED Hydro, Products, Spectra 150w, Spectra 300w, Spectra 600w, Growing LED Lights On there it says it uses 160 3w chips and draws 290w of power..how is that possible? I guess it isn't 160x3=480 ? Then it goes on to say the actual power draw is 305w, but then it says that it (only) delivers 180w of light..how in the.. I'm confused here
Most LED chips are driven at partial power for longer life and greater efficiency. In the example given, the chips are rated at 3 watts, but are only driven at about 1.8 watts.
Those are great panels. Also, look into the Magnum LED panels, they cost the same as spectra 290's and have more penetration but less light spread.
It says nothing about 180W of actual light power and doesn't tell you if the number there takes into account the power drawn by the multiple fans mounted in there. Take the 305W total draw and subtract the wattage that the fans take up. Then divide that by the number of LEDs for the average individual LED wattage. An email to the company might clear up what the fan wattage and LED wattage is. 12 wavelengths seem overkill to me also. You could use good white LEDs to get rid of a lot of spectra they use I bet. Better efficacy and coverage that way. Seems like you would have uneven dispersion of each wavelength with that many.
Most drivers are about 85% efficient, so that must be factored in as well. If you have a unit drawing 300 watts (after subtracting fan losses) then you only have 255 watts actually going to drive the LEDs, the other 45 watts is AC to DC conversion loss as heat.
old thread i know....but anyone know how to tell what version of the spectra 1 has?...i have 1 180 that has yellow maybe,then a bunch of red and blue.....the other is red and blue only....both lights r a spectra 180 but power draw is 140 on both