Check out these lights!

[Beckmola24]

This link was posted on my local reef club site, and I thought they sounded almost too good to be true... http://www.solarisled.com/ What do you guys think??? Get the price though $3344 for a 70" system. That's unreal! I guess if you think for the future though, you wouldn't have to spend the money to replace the halide bulbs every year... This is cool IMO

 

[james734]

Where's the link.. Pictures?

 

[Beckmola24]

Silly me. I forgot the link. Don't know where my mind is this morning. Post has been edited and now has the link.

 

[shallowreef]

Good! i can't wait till they come out with that so the price of halides/fixtures will come down.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

LEDs will eventually replace all lighting. Office, stores, homes, cars, street lights, etc. They use so little amperage, huge energy saver. I got a wind-up LED flashlight as a gift, works great. But like all new tech, the first items are for people like Redstone and Gates with Deeeeeeeep pockets.

 

[james734]

Very cool. Considering I just had to do the bulb replacing thing..

 

[Beckmola24]

But like all new tech, the first items are for people like Redstone and Gates with Deeeeeeeep pockets.

So true! Maybe they offer a 0% 12months financing credit card :lol: :lol: Someone would have to do the math to see how long it would take for the unit to "pay for" itself (through energy savings and bulb savings)

 

[mungus]

You can buy them at premiumaquatic!! I have been thinking about it. It looks like an awsome setup. My wife would kill me though.:lol:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Solaris

Brian

 

[shallowreef]

Well lets see my halides cost me around $30 a month to run in energy, so thats say $15 the new system saved.

Thats 180 year.

Lights. Considering the average tank owner owns a fixture with two lamps and two actinics....lets say to replace all of that every year (assuming everyone changes their act 2 times a year) lets say 300 a year?

Okay so energy is 180 a year and replacements is 300 a year thats a total of 480 a year saved. Now ditch your chiller since you will no longer need that..Let say 600 since most are around that area plus AC will not need to be used as heavily so lets say thats another 50 saved. Plus the Chiller runs on juice to so lets call it 12$ a month and that gives us $144 a year.

Now lets add it up

180+300+600+50+144=$1274 in the first year

1274+480=1754 in year 2
1754+480=2234 3yr
2234+480=2714 4yr
2714+480=3194 5yr
3194+480=3674 6yr

So about 6 years and i figured high so probably within 5 years it would pay for itself.

Please do not take this to heart i'm just throwing out figures.

 

[mungus]

I calculated at my current lighting schedule I would need to replace the led's every 13.69 years.

Brian

 

[Mauisreef]

Cool fixture!
Thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[Krish]

Yeah, Rob called me the other day from Premium Aquatics to tell me about those lights and they can do all kinds of crap! You can control how many leds you want to light up at whatever time to make it like a cloud cover etc. They're really nice!

 

[Scooterman]

Maybe by the time I get to the point of buying lights they may come down enough to where I'll buy it to try in my new tank but someone will have to help me explain this to the wife

 

[spongebob lover]

Yeah, Rob called me the other day from Premium Aquatics to tell me about those lights and they can do all kinds of crap! You can control how many leds you want to light up at whatever time to make it like a cloud cover etc. They're really nice!

ohh ohh i can see the next purchase .
I'm sure Christina would love them too :lol: .

 

[Krish]

ROFL...NEVA!!!! She'd kick my :shock:

 

[spongebob lover]

but someone will have to help me explain this to the wife

you can say that the doctor told you, you needed them or you could get sick .

 

[spongebob lover]

ROFL...NEVA!!!! She'd kick my

Naww i'm sure she'll be like......ok honey you can get them, but just remember tonight :lol: .

 

[liveforphysics]

The site provides a nicely done cost savings calculator.

LED's actaully get slammed by T5's in reguards to power savings. LED's are pumping around 50-55lumens/watt, the best MH is pumping around 100lumens/watt, and the best T5's are pumping around 115lumens/watt.

LEDs lower light output/watt VS HID is compensated for with its ability to focus light in a mannor to get it into the tank. MH creates a ton of light, and essentially blows at getting it into the water where it can be used.

T5 bulbs make over double the amount of light per watt that the best LEDs do, and are also able to get over 75% of the light they produce into the water.

So, for general lighting applications, dont expect to see LEDs replacing everything yet.

My thoughts in reguards to aqarium usage is baised of completely different reasons. Blue LEDs essentially emmit a single wavelegnth of light. White LEDs emmit primarily the exact same wavelegnth of light (same GaN junction dopeing), followed by a little smear of longer wavelegnths from some seprate P dopeing junctions. In other words, the whites being on will produce a monster spike around 460nm, followed by a bit of longer wavelegnths, and when the blues are used, the 460nm spike will just double in amplitude, yet the corals wont be getting exposed to anything they weren't being blasted with before. Yet, the effect will please our eyes and likely appear very similar or even the same as other lighting combos which produce a much wider range of wavelegnths.

Now, I have no experience with useing LEDs to grow coral, I am simply looking at this from a shallow acedemic perspective. It could be that simply pumping corals with a huge 460nm spike is all it takes to grow happy corals, and I think that actaully may be very possible.

Aside from the inconvience of changeing bulbs more often, I think useing T5 bulbs to produce double the amount of light per watt, while still being able to get it into the water is likely going to be a very difficult to beat. T5 is still the definate winner when it comes to power saveings.

 

[Maxx]

Interesting points and well made Luke.
The first thing I noticed (that you touched on) was the intensity of the lighting. The manufacturer states "The current design produces PAR light output levels equal to a 250W MH 20K."

Depending on what bulb ballast combinations used, there are some 150 watt set ups that produce more PAR than some 250 watt 20K set ups.

I think this is an interesting movement for reefkeeping, but I really think it will be a few years and refinements before LEDS really make the sweeping changes many people are looking for. Until then I'll stick with my MH's and keep a close eye on the T-5's. I'm getting more and more impressed with them every time I read about them.

Nick

 

[cheeks69]

The only bad part is there's no replacement in 5 years you trow out the whole fixture.

The web site WWW.SolarisLED.com is currently a work in progress and was not suppose to be found by the public yet. I am sorry but we are going to shut off access to the web site for another couple of weeks.

Some general news about the Solaris:
-Corals are growing well under the lights.
-It is using a lot less electricity.
-I think we are still on schedule to bring it out in July. It may be late July though.
-We are still trying to finalize pricing. Therefore, none of our retailers have any information on the light. The light should be priced such that it will pay for the entire cost of the fixture in two to three years in energy savings and lamp replacement costs.
-Every large tank the light is on has had to add a heater in the sump.
-There has not been one quality issue with the performance of the Solaris on any of our test site tanks.

Look for us to bring you a lot more information in Early July

I am sorry but we are not prepared to talk more about the Solaris until it becomes available in July.

I am a little biased, but if you are thinking of getting a new light fixture I would wait for the Solaris. (However, we still have a lot of Metal Halide and Fluorescent lighting available for those who want to wait and see how the Solaris performs.

Patrick Ormiston
PFO Lighting Inc.