LED Mythbusting, KILL A WATT proof

[VerdantGreen]

heres the 100w HGL SOL2 pretty much bang on at 99.1 W

micro grow diary just started here
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=5886421#post5886421

VG

 

[backyardbogfan]

I thought the LED output rating was measuring light output?

I thought the LED output rating was measuring light output?

I thought light rating was for the light in watt per meter squared, not total current draw. Does anyone do this measurement with a pro light meter.

 

[GP73LPC]

thanks VG

 

[Neekz]

Something isn't making sense. I built a 15 x 10w LED light and with the power supply and lights on, I read a total of only 24.6 watts. The LED's are bright. I can adjust the output up and down, and it's pretty bright. Shouldn't I be reading over 100w at least?

Depend's on what your PSU is rated at, that's probably only a 12v 2000mA wallwart I am guessing. To run them full juice you would need a 15Amp 12v wallwart or PSU , and most cheaper PWM controller's will only handle up to 8 amps (Newer ones supposedly handle up to 24v and more Amp's too...) . You can get away with using a 7 Amp 24v wallwart/laptop charger by wiring 2-5 diode series strings to the power source in parallel, but your dimmer will probably fry, and they will be running at the highest they are rated,and very hot (Had one overheat on me, acrylic lens turned to jelly and cracked, but it still works!).I feel you on not wanting to buy 15 driver's, but I suggest you read up on basic circuitry and whatnot, simple electrical. Notice when you buy those online they "recommend" those little HDD 12A 12VDC PSU's? Well that is your golden ticket, that and proper wiring, and your gonna have 1 bright as fuck fixture! Then the next problem, managing all that heat! At 250mA their pretty bare-able with a fan on em but at the full 1000mA, wowzers! Could cook a grilled cheese on the sink bruh!

 

[Dream Time]

Lumigrow Pro 650

Lumigrow Pro 650

Lumigrow Pro 650 with all dials cranked to the max:
Advertised: 650
Actual: 605

 

[Small time]

Depend's on what your PSU is rated at, that's probably only a 12v 2000mA wallwart I am guessing.

I'm running three arrays of 5 LED's on a 48v 3A power supply using an Instructables CC driver. the LED's are rated at 1000ma full power, but I have the CC set to 700ma. I know I can crank the power to 1,000ma but I still won't see much over 35w. You see, running 5 in series brings the voltage up to 48v, while keeping the arrays at just 10w each. It has to do with low volts (10v IS low volts) and high voltage input. When ran in a series the watts stay low as volts go higher.

What I'm trying to figure out, is where all the watts are being used on these systems claiming 700 watts or more. You can't expect to see 300w at the line when powering 300w of LED, expressly due to those 300 watts are at 3-10 volt each LED. Say you have 100 3w-3v LED's. Those 300w in LED can't possible equate to 300w at the line.

You could waste the power to run a cyclone fan and no heat sink to speak of. That might give a false impression you're running gobs pf LED power....

 

[mohammed romney]

ledgrowlighmanufacturer 900W Ebay

ledgrowlighmanufacturer 900W Ebay

This is a reading from the advertised 900 watt light. The listing states that it draws about 530 actual watts. The vendor's ebay name is "ledgrowlightmanufacturer"

 

[Icemud]

Testing Kill-a-watt on Intelligent Gro 228w model LED grow light

Testing Kill-a-watt on Intelligent Gro 228w model LED grow light

Hey everyone, awesome thread!

I figured I would share my readings as well. I currently am doing a test gro featuring 2x Intelligent Gro LED 228w models. Their draw rating is 180w, lets see how they compared.

Each light has 3 channels, bloom, grow and veg, so I tested them independently as well as together. I also did a IR thermo reading after the lights were powered up for an hour.

I am currently in flowering with them on day 30 and I have to say the results so far are very impressive.

Here are the readings



Veg



Bloom



Grow (I couldn't find the pic of the test, but it was 110w, 0.98A)



Full (171w, 1.51A)

 

[GP73LPC]

Thanks for the additions everyone

 

[v1ru5]

900w SOL Hydrogrow LED

Claimed: 900w

Real: 755w



However the company replied to me;

Please take a photo of your unit for me so I can clearly identify the LEDs, preferably 10 megapixels or higher. I can tell visually if you were shipped the 100W or 50W chips. I have never heard of a light that was built with a mix of both, and if this did happen we certainly owe you a replacement. I looked at your photo and saw the power draw, it does look a bit low for the SOL 9 - 900W. It is possible the drivers were recently dialed down to help decrease the operating temperature of the light, but I will have to check with our boss.

Also please put on the darkest pair of sunglasses you have (best if you double up if you have two pairs) or welding goggles and turn on the light. I want you to verify that LED is fully functional. It is possible on the 100W chip for only 1/2 of an LED to burn out, as each LED has two power supplies and circuits. This could be the reason why the unit is not consuming a full 900W. I look forward to your reply and helping you get a resolution to this matter.

I will keep you updated about this matter.

 

[icon]

TopLed/Mars-Hydro
48x3 reflector series

their website states the draw power is 80w-100w
This is on full spectrum both switches on 86w

 

[v1ru5]

They renamed the 900w unit to be 750w and did the corrections also for other models on their site (Hydrogrow LED that is), after my discovery.

 

[crunkinshoe]

Mars Hydro

Mars Hydro

Mars II 1600 actual is 720 watts and 6.15 amps
Reflector 144x3 actual is 280 watts and 2.45 amps

If anyone has info on the Mars II 1200 I'd definitely like to know.

 

[r2k]

I'm impressed. Lots of hard core info on one thing. I think this is a valid approach. There are all kinds of crazy things like power factor and inductive loads vs resistive load, the Kil-a-Watt figures all that out. Watts multiplied by hours is what you pay for.

Kudos.


-r2k

 

[icon]

Mars II 700w
website states 330w
actual watts 328

 

[Phychotron]

Watts = Volts x Amps, so when you list the amps your really just telling us that your on 120v (117 using the numbers above). If you want to find the Amp draw of any wattage it becomes Watts/120v = Amps.

Basically Amps is irrelevant unless your comparing voltage sources, which you can't do on a 120v only kill-a-watt. However in theory if you double the voltage (240v) you will use half the current (amps) drawing the same wattage.


Oh, and don't leave your Kill-a-watt plugged in, I tried to record all the electricity used over a grow period and the thing crapped out. Its best to figure how much your using over the course of a day then using math to find out how much electricity is used over a given period.

 

[budlover123]

I'm impressed. Lots of hard core info on one thing. I think this is a valid approach. There are all kinds of crazy things like power factor and inductive loads vs resistive load, the Kil-a-Watt figures all that out. Watts multiplied by hours is what you pay for.

It is good to have this info, but it technically doesn't really tell us much, although it practically does as long as light manufacturers aren't using super inefficient drivers.

Here's a test between 2 drivers on the same LEDs, running at the same current output, with different watt readings.

from http://lightput.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=520&start=10#p861
Re: Affordable DMX controlled LED drivers

by Lightput » Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:08 pm
I had a chance to test the PX703 driver with a 48V DC adapter. It can power 36 LEDs at 700mA, so I compared the power consumption between the 48v DC powered PX703 driver and the AC powered EldoLED powerdrive 106 LED driver with the same 36 LEDs; 12 Deep Red, 12 Green, and 12 Royal Blue LEDs.

I expected the EldoLED driver to be much more power efficient. The Powerdrive 106A is rated to operate at 100 watts max and has 4 control circuits, one more than the PX703, so I don't expect for this driver to draw over 75 watts in this test, using only 3 of the 4 channels. The 48V adapter I'm using with the PX703 is 350 watts max, but fortunately the PX703, although less efficient than the Powerdrive 106, is not too bad.

I got a Kill-A-Watt P3 meter for these tests, set on watt meter mode, the Kill a watt readings are in the bottom right corner

This is the 48 Volt DC adapter being tested, the multimeter on the left is testing the Voltage the adpater is putting out, the Kill-A-Watt meter read about the same with the PX703 driver plugged into it, sitting idle. (meter reads 4.7 watts)

This is what the meter read when the EldoLED driver was plugged in, sitting idle. (when you first plug it in it draws about 2.5 watts until the driver goes into standby mode after about a minute, the meter reads 0.5 watts in the picture)

Next I tested the power consumption of powering 36 LEDs at 700mA on both of these LED drivers, I did that by plugging them into a computer and setting the DMX values all the way up to 255

This is the PX703, all channels at 255 DMX value (meter reads 91.6 watts)

This is the Powerdrive 106, all channels at 255 DMX value (meter reads 79.7 watts)

 

[Dion]

really useful, tnx

 

[StickyRicardo]

tagging this for sure

 

[Ttystikk]

I just had some modules built around an emerging standard of 4 Cree CXB3590 running at 50W apiece nominal. My chips happen to be 72V so they use the Meanwell HLG-185-C700B 200W driver. Because the dimming wires are capped it puts out an extra 8% and driver efficiency is 96%, for a total of 224W. Note this means that my chips are actually receiving 54W each. I've tested two of my modules on my Kill-a-watt and both pull 224W.

They're said to provide 824PPfD to 6 sq ft, so my modules are designed to deliver the light to a 2' x 3' area.

I'll be testing them as soon as I get the rack built.


....errr, rebuilt.