Do LED lights wear out?

[knightnsd]

Wow, that's a crazy stat. i'll have to read through it. my guess before reading it is that in order to gain performance they are overpowering the LEDs, reducing their lifespan.

makes me consider buying a par meter to measure my lights every 6 months and when buying hi-end corals for placement

[jschnepf]

Wow, that's a crazy stat. i'll have to read through it. my guess before reading it is that in order to gain performance they are overpowering the LEDs, reducing their lifespan.

Save an hour of your life, don't bother reading it. One guy says he lent his par meter to a shop and that was their result. He didn't actually take the measurements and never says if the lights are at the same intensity as the initial reading. Only one other radion owner actually takes a measurement of his fixture and it is less than 5% loss of par at the same intensity over the couple years he has been running them. Lots of bs about nothing.

Yes LEDs will loose par over time, of course! The 50k hours of use is the half life of the LED, so it will be half as bright as it initially was. And that is probably if run at ideal conditions. We are running in non ideal conditions for sure, hot humid environment running these LEDs at high power for hundreds if not thousands of hours. I am curious to see actual par reading from the new apex meters, should allow a lot more reefers to easily track and report par values over time in their tanks.

[jasonp87]

Save an hour of your life, don't bother reading it. One guy says he lent his par meter to a shop and that was their result. He didn't actually take the measurements and never says if the lights are at the same intensity as the initial reading. Only one other radion owner actually takes a measurement of his fixture and it is less than 5% loss of par at the same intensity over the couple years he has been running them. Lots of bs about nothing.

Yes LEDs will loose par over time, of course! The 50k hours of use is the half life of the LED, so it will be half as bright as it initially was. And that is probably if run at ideal conditions. We are running in non ideal conditions for sure, hot humid environment running these LEDs at high power for hundreds if not thousands of hours. I am curious to see actual par reading from the new apex meters, should allow a lot more reefers to easily track and report par values over time in their tanks.

Cool, thanks for the heads up. I think Marine Depot needs to set up the top 10 lights in a dark room, running 24/7, each isolated with their own par meter taking continuous readings! We want the truth!

[jschnepf]

Agreed, would be cool to see an actual somewhat controlled test from either the manufacturer or an independent. Something like three lights from each manufacturer one at 100%, one at 75%, and one at 50%. Run them at normal light cycles, test weekly and chart the results.

I wish I had kept my initial par results from the waves in glass LEDs I got about 5 years ago. They have been running on my tank that entire time and I just ran a par test again. Seems like they are down on par, but I can't remember the exact initial numbers. Also it isn't an exact comparison because the par meter used wasn't that same as the original one. Also par meters need to be recalibrated occasionally and I have no idea if either the first or second one used were ever calibrated. These are things that would be controlled in a test environment.

[jschnepf]

But I can say, even with my crazy low par reading from the old fixtures I am still able to grow sps under them. There is no question in my mind that I have gotten my monies worth out of them.

[jasonp87]

But I can say, even with my crazy low par reading from the old fixtures I am still able to grow sps under them. There is no question in my mind that I have gotten my monies worth out of them.

I think LEDs are the way to go. My old halide fixture was costing me almost $100 a month to run when I was living in Colorado. Don't even want to think about what it would cost here. I've never regretted going with LEDs. Even the cheap china box I had was worth the money until I got my AI prime with more features.

[jasonp87]

Agreed, would be cool to see an actual somewhat controlled test from either the manufacturer or an independent. Something like three lights from each manufacturer one at 100%, one at 75%, and one at 50%. Run them at normal light cycles, test weekly and chart the results.

I wish I had kept my initial par results from the waves in glass LEDs I got about 5 years ago. They have been running on my tank that entire time and I just ran a par test again. Seems like they are down on par, but I can't remember the exact initial numbers. Also it isn't an exact comparison because the par meter used wasn't that same as the original one. Also par meters need to be recalibrated occasionally and I have no idea if either the first or second one used were ever calibrated. These are things that would be controlled in a test environment.

A true, controlled test environment is key. Without that you don't really know what you're comparing.