Hello Professor Lee,
I’m confused by LEDs. I understand that LEDs use electricity more efficiently than HIDs which is why you can use a lower wattage LED to do the work of a more powerful HID, but I was looking at a few and noticed that the numbers don’t match up. A lamp may have 3 watt diodes and say that it uses 300 watts but it has a lot more than 100 diodes. Is this some kind of scam?
Kate
Hello Kate,
This tripped me up at first too. There is some confusion about LED watts and the true wattages they consume. LED diodes are rated by the amount of power they can potentially handle. The problem with running LEDs at their full potential power is that if they are not cooled properly the excessive heat will cause the LEDs to prematurely burn out. So, in practice, manufacturers never run their LEDs at the full rated wattage. This means the LED wattage is really completely useless and should be disregarded. Sadly, many manufacturers list the larger, more impressive LED wattage numbers in their advertisements. For example, an LED company that I will not name markets one of their lights as a 1000 watt model, but in reality it draws about 650 watts from the wall. The company claims that their light is equivalent to 1000 watts, but 750 or 800 watts would be more appropriate. Such tactics are quite misleading. Growers should always go by the true wattage that LED light draws from the wall; this will give a better understanding of how well the light will actually perform.
I hope this clears things up.
Professor Lee