Lighting Data Needed

[SkiFletch]

Hey all, I'm looking for help in determining the efficiency of common different lighting technologies. Especially magnetic MH, electronic MH, PC, T5, and VHO (T8 and T12 would be cool too, but more as an afterthought). The data I'm really after (which no-one seems to have) is the Coefficient of Performance which apparently is refferred to as Coefficient of Utilization (CU) of the different lighting types. What I mean is how many watts of energy do the different light types output versus how much electrical power the fixture consumes. For example (with fake numbers I'm making up myself).

A "150w" MH fixture outputs say 145watts of lighting but the fixture itself consumes say 168watts of electrical power. Obviously the "lost" 23 watts goes to heat and operating the fixture, but I'm really interested in that CU. So in this hypothetical case, 145/168*100% = 86.31% is the efficiency of the metal halide fixture.

I'm not interested in Lumens per watt (efficacy), cause that info is readily available. But if anybody knows where I can find that other data, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

One interesting fact that I have found is that typically plain old magnetic ballasts seem to consume around 60w of electric power compared to electronic pulse-starts only consuming 30w of electric power. So for a typical aquarium app of 10 hours per day, thats 300watt hours per day of use. in a 30 day month thats 9kWh saved per month. And at the US average $0.07 per kWh, thats a whopping $0.63 savings per month and a $7.56 savings per year.

 

[JJ1234567]

Thats an interesting question. The second part that I would like to add to that is efficency electrically and efficency performance wise. A halide will punch through more water than a PC and a PC will be brighter and better than a t-8. Are you going to figure that into you final results or not?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yes, I would love to... Problem is, while that data is readily available on MH (thank you Sanjay of advancedaquarist and RC), there appears to be little or no hard data on any flourescent types. Lumen output isnt a good measure of a light source's ability to punch through water, you need to use PAR numbers to really understand how much is usable. Sanjay does a great job with MH, but doesn't seem to ever touch flourescents. And lord knows, the technology manufacturers could care less in open air or office situations where all they care about is lumens and foot candles.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am not an expert, but this link might be somewhat helpful
A Comparison Between Light Sources Used in Planted Aquaria

 

[SkiFletch]

Just glancing at the article, it looks FANTASTIC. Gonna keep my fingers crossed for some better oppinions once I've read it

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, that person read my mind... Too bad it's for FW setups. However the conclusions and some data tinkering may allow me to compose what I'm looking to compose. Time for spell checker