Budget of $120 looking for a LED, but it needs to be quiet

caretak3r said:

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10004218/1320600 -- $11

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tags420 said:

So I was at home depot and couldn't help myself, they had all the cree globes displayed. I needed bulbs for normal house lights so I got one of each cree globe color(SW, WW, CW) to see what one we liked. Mostly just to see the diff in WW and SW. The CW I knew I wanted for my clones.
The WW and SW were $7.89 and the CW was like $13. I am not sure if these are the good ones that captain is killing with. They had a high cri version...will probably get it for normal house lights. But the normal cri versions were cheaper probably have higher output.


Are these the good ones with the xt-e's
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Wasn't even trying but the silicone coating pealed right off
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I grabbed my quantum meter and took a few measurements to see what's up. All the test were done at 12" from sensor to the bulb(up in the reflector)
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Cool White Cree single globe

Center: 281µmols
6" out: 45µmols
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Warm White Cree single globe (took it late so forgot the outside measurement). I was pretty surprised to see the WW putting out more µmols than the CW. Not a huge diff...but considering the higher lm/w of the cw...but now that I think about it the WW has more diodes in the tower right?? that would be why...and maybe the .5w. So I guess they are pretty similar just depends on the spectral needs.

Center: 318µmols
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Cool White CFL single bulb

Center: 143µmols
6" out: 34µmols


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Twin CFL's- surprising low when bulbs in this position...and it doesn't get better anywhere in the foot print.

Center: 99µmols

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Twin Cree's 1CW and 1WW. I though that they would be really good in this position but they were no where close to the single bulb in the vert position.

Center: 87µmols

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The reflector could have to do with the lower performance in the 45* position compare vert but still it's pretty big difference.

After seeing these numbers I think 2-3globes/sqft would give some solid µmols with a good coverage.

Next little experiment is to pop the globe off and see if it improves output to changes spread. And to make sure I got the xt-e's. This whole switching chips is fucking with us.

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tags420 said:

A little more playing.

Here is just a couple inches away but level with the chips...it really was holding steady at ~480µmols, but did spike a few times like below(584µmols) and up to ~700µmols once.
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About 12" underneath like I did last light...only 6µmols
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Here is about 12" like I did last night but level with the chips...35µmol.
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I draw a few hypothesis from all these little test.
-The tower design is what is holding these back. Because of the omni-directional nature, there is no way to let the light blend/add up from all the chips. Pretty much the light is being dispersed too much.
-You need to run them extremely close(which is possible, heat wise) to really see a benefit from the horizontal position. I did not test it with a reflector for the side face away(what would be reflector) like the custom one sided ones, but it could make a big difference(Sounds like I found my next test).
-The cheap clamp light reflector with a single bulb vert style was actually a pretty effective and did make a substantial in what is directed at the canopy.

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Mellodrama said:

Does that FT driver take AC? The specs are vague as hell. "85 - 265 volt"? What does that mean?? If it's AC, is it U.S. 60Hz? European 50 Hz?

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