useful life of LED

oreo54

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Lifespan is fixture/enviroment dependent....
The diodes themselves can push >50000 hours (11 years 12hrs per day) w/ less than 20% loss but the measurement is err impractical..
lumen-maintenance-800px-0-800x328.jpg
 

oreo54

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AC1211

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All I know is that the radions can likely go around 10 years at max intensity before a drop off occurs in most conditions.
 

oreo54

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One measurement..but probematic since you do't know if old diodes faded or new diodes are just more efficient.

I have a friend who runs his 2-3 year old Gen 4s had like 11% less par than a brand new unit that he just got... so he runs two at 100% and one at 89% with the same PAR. This could be a manufacturing anomaly, but the difference is real... I went and tested it too with my PAR meter.

It appears that 5 years is safe with diode burnout, board issues and power supply problems, which appear to be more of a problem than PAR loss.

 

jda

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The anecdote in post #8 is about as good as it gets. Nobody has done any real type of investigation. I would caution anybody not to really believe a tech company with longevity or performance issues... both in reefing or in the real world... if there are no third party estimates, then just think of everything as unknown.

I would go with 5 years. This seems to be a pretty good figure considering support, parts, warranty, power supplies, boards, new "stuff," and who knows about the actual diodes. The critical mass of people do not use panels longer than this and the ones that are are more of outliers - I would go with the actual over the academic on this one.
 

Flippers4pups

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Diodes will "light up" as opposed to just failing (most of the time) like fluorescent tubes or incandescent bulbs.

They will color shift, heat being the main factor and loose their intensity over time.

All Led Fixtures Do This. Regardless of manufacturer of the diodes for Industrial, household and in our case, hobby.

You will not see this change as it is slow and gradual over time. You may perceive a light intensity difference as a fixture gets older, but in most cases not in color. But in time they will color shift from when they are new. Corals will adapt to this as it is slow.

Just Google " led doide color shift" and there's a bunch of studies done on this subject. Most are PDF files.
 

alton

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I do not have anything on paper other than a picture of my new 310 with corals and lighting from my 180 and my 300DD before that. This 310 (96" x 30" x 25" tall is lit by 4 6' BML leds with the oldest purchased in 2012, the second 2013 and last two 2016. All still run at 80%. The leds are positioned over the corals with a Par average of 100+ to 250. I am in the middle of adding a lighting rack that will add 6 AI leds to the BML's which the oldest is 6 years old from a friend who just bought new Radion fixtures. Is it a gamble, yes but for the price I think it's worth it. I will post pictures and Par levels after the first of the year. The electrical company I work for is installing lighting from Phillips that comes with a manufactures warranty of ten years, so evidently they feel LEDs can now hold up. My first Led site lighting project Cooper lighting replaced $100,000 worth of pole lights on a project.
Oh yea I always forget the golden rule about cleaning the glass before taking pictures

full tank r.jpg
 

SDK

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Five years is what I am using for a guide as well. My plan is to start buying one new fixture every other year starting at year three. Then sell the one I replace at a fair price.

This should keep me from shocking my tanks with drastic changes and not be too much of a financial burden....
 

GabeM

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It depends on the fixture really and what % of max voltage the LEDs are being driven at. 50% of max should give the best longevity vs efficiency/power.
 

madweazl

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I do not have anything on paper other than a picture of my new 310 with corals and lighting from my 180 and my 300DD before that. This 310 (96" x 30" x 25" tall is lit by 4 6' BML leds with the oldest purchased in 2012, the second 2013 and last two 2016. All still run at 80%. The leds are positioned over the corals with a Par average of 100+ to 250. I am in the middle of adding a lighting rack that will add 6 AI leds to the BML's which the oldest is 6 years old from a friend who just bought new Radion fixtures. Is it a gamble, yes but for the price I think it's worth it. I will post pictures and Par levels after the first of the year. The electrical company I work for is installing lighting from Phillips that comes with a manufactures warranty of ten years, so evidently they feel LEDs can now hold up. My first Led site lighting project Cooper lighting replaced $100,000 worth of pole lights on a project.
Oh yea I always forget the golden rule about cleaning the glass before taking pictures

full tank r.jpg

I'm less concerned with PAR and more concerned with spectrum shifts due to the phosphors degrading.
 

oreo54

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I'm less concerned with PAR and more concerned with spectrum shifts due to the phosphors degrading.
Only applies to whites which most seem to run pretty low. So not too concerning AFAICT.
Well lime and PCAmber and those cheap "full spectrum" Epistars..

you can go through this for more scientific details..
and it's really only one phosphor in the yellow/green region..

Gets better every day... ;)
 
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alton

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I'm less concerned with PAR and more concerned with spectrum shifts due to the phosphors degrading.
Sounds like the same concerns I encountered when I ran my Metal Halide lamps from 18 to 24 months while changing them only after a 10% loss in Par. And yet my corals grow just fine. First with Metal Halide and now with Led. Although don't tell the led users MH grew them faster, I just got tired of the big bulky pendants on top of my tank.

300 without mh on (2).JPG
 

oreo54

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Sounds like the same concerns I encountered when I ran my Metal Halide lamps from 18 to 24 months while changing them only after a 10% loss in Par. And yet my corals grow just fine. First with Metal Halide and now with Led. Although don't tell the led users MH grew them faster, I just got tired of the big bulky pendants on top of my tank.

300 without mh on (2).JPG
Did you use the same "PAR"? and at least close spectrums?

Probably would have grown faster w/ 6500k MH's..;)
 

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