[SOTF420]

290 watts is the 58 count x 5 watt LED chips each = 290 watts I think the rest is the fans although I think the 5 watt chips may actually be overdriven slightly for more output since they have such excellent heat management set-up I think I recall something about that from the Lumigrow post by the company owner back in one of the old comparison threads where it beat the hell out of the light by you know who "girl" of comparable power. They really do grow some kick ass fat dense frosty buds man you would not believe what I recently grew with just one of them with T5's around the edges it was pretty epic.

I don't have pics with the light hooked up to the kill-a-watt but trust me it pulls what is stated give or take a few watts.

[smokefrogg]

...i just want to chime in that the lumigrow es 165 was pulling 164 watts when i plugged her into the kill a watt...i checked this before mine had the leds not coming on issue that it is currently having

[rives]

My 330 pulls exactly 330 watts on the Kill-O-Watt. Whoops - the picture made a liar out of me - 331!

[rives]

Well, for some reason it wouldn't allow me to edit the previous post and add a picture.https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?a...ctureid=759601

[zymos]

I've read in some manufacturers' blurbage that some underdrive the LEDs on purpose to reduce heat/increase life...

[GP73LPC]

thanks for the pic rives...

here is my welthink wex-c150 plugged into a kill a watt







it would be great if we could get a 'kill a watt' pic from at least each manufacturer, not necessarily each model.

can anybody help out?

[GP73LPC]

Originally Posted by rives

Well, for some reason it wouldn't allow me to edit the previous post and add a picture.https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?a...ctureid=759601

just pasting it in the thread for easier viewing, thanks

[T_B_M]

Originally Posted by rives

Interesting comparison.... I still struggle around with the wattage ratings of these devices - there are a number of ways to look at it, and most viewpoints have some validity, although there is also some blatant bullshit involved! As an electrician, I expect the device to pull the wattage that is on the nameplate (let's call that the "gross wattage" for the purposes of this discussion) - a deviation from this would mean that there is most likely something wrong with the equipment. When I check my Lumigrow ES330, I expect it to be pulling very close to 330 watts at full power or I would start delving into what was ailing it.

You have the ES330 listed as pulling 290 "real watts". I understand that you have the fan and driver wattage backed out, but I would call this the "net wattage". If I checked a device that was rated at 290 watts and it was pulling 330, I would suspect a problem and start trying to chase down a non-existent problem.

Things start to get really goofy when you consider the manufacturer's rating of the LED itself. The fixture that I am building uses Osram "1 watt" diodes, but when they are applied at the conventional voltage, they pull .86 watts. With adequate cooling, they can be pushed up to 2.8 watts. This is where a lot of the manufacturers start pushing the truth envelope, as far as I am concerned - they may be using LEDs that are nominally rated at 3 watts, but because of inadequate cooling and warranty concerns, they only drive them at half of that. The result is a fixture that is marketed as being much more powerful than it really is. However, we have probably all bought some lumber at one time or another, and a 2x4 is actually 1-1/2 x 3-3/8.

I would like to see some standardization on this, and the most reasonable way that I see to approach it is to rate the fixture based on what it pulls at the plug (the gross wattage). This is the standard convention for most equipment, and while I realize that this is seemingly at odds with HID lighting, you have to realize that we are referring only to the lamp when we say that we are "running a 600". Everyone knows that there are ballast losses with HID's, but going by the lamp wattage puts everything on equal footing - there are simply far too many variables with LED's to approach it the same way.

Any thoughts?

Ding ding ding, this is why there are so many nay-sayers to LEDs. The original 100W UFO was probably less than 50W of actual light power. When people realized that little light brite didn't grow worth a damn, the bashing began.

I would rather they state LED power and not include fan/driver power losses. 6 fans at 10W each is 60W, that is quite a bit of non-light power waste.

To get your LED power, it is quite easy to calculate with a DMM. Take the current of each string and multiply it by the voltage of each string. Add up the total power from all strings to get max light power. Too bad they won't release that.

They would rather say they have a 400W light rather than a 240W light. This amongst other things turns me off to 90% of the LED retailers. Learn to build your own. Better quality for less money than a good unit, such as Lumigrow.

[GP73LPC]

i agree T_B_M, but most of the fans in these units are probably not drawing more than 1-3 watts each.

i am just guessing, but these are all pretty much 12V DC powered, PC type fans, correct?

mine are...

[T_B_M]

Depends on the size. Look at the labels on the fan. If they don't give power rating, multiply (operating voltage x current).

I would assume 5W at least, unless they use smaller fans that can run faster RPM with that low of a power rating.