Quote Originally Posted by Weezard
Aloha Khyberk,

You said; "Going over 5w for emitter power is pointless, you start hitting multi-chip emitters and they're fairly inefficient as it is. "

I have to disagree
In truth, everything from 2W. on up are multiple emitters.

My hands-on experience indicates that 5W. chips are very good, but 15W emitters are superior.
For actual growing that is.
I'll leave the why of that for the mathturbaters.

And, I gotta ask.
Did you ever try buying direct from Ledengin?

They sent me to mouser's

No pickin' fights, jus' stating facts.

Aloha, Y'all

Weezard
None of my 3 or 5w emitters (used for biofuel algae production) are multi-emitter. They are a single chip with a massive tweaked lambertian emission pattern. Photon flux density is more efficiently increased by making more powerful single emitters rather than using valuable die real-estate making multi-emitter chips, primarily because the chips in multi-emitter diodes are spaced apart and create a 'ghosting' effect. Sure you get more chips out of a multi-emitter size but the costs increase and flaws happen much more often as you scale down as well. Just one issue one deals with when working in the semiconductor industry.

Savage Marine uses 10w single-chip emitters for their lights on their boats, multi-chip emitters just created consistency problems in light, with different emitters fading at different rates, drastically changing the emissions. Those are probably some of the best I've seen in a while, with their irradiant output per watt being better than most 15w multi-emitters.

I think LEDEngin sent you to Mouser because you weren't likely a major manufacturer of a product - LEDEngin prefers bulk sales versus smaller retail, despite the higher profit margins direct retail offers, and would prefer the recognition from retail resellers than direct retail. My company works somewhat the same way, unless you're in a high company position (engineering, research, or C*O) or are a reseller, we will usually direct you to one of our retailers or to our website, unless you have a very specific custom request, in which case you deal directly with me, and if need be I fly out there.

I will concede that most 3w+ LEDs are multi-chip, but you can find single-chip emitters, and they are (so far) offering better performance than higher-powered multi-chip LEDs.
khyberkitsune Reviewed by khyberkitsune on . Importance of 460nm red LEDs? Here is something very confusing to me. Many LED proponents loudly proclaim the need for 460-470nm red LEDs over the cheaper 630nm LEDs. I understand that this better coincides with the accepted chlorophyll B absorption peak. So far so good. LEDs veg very well given appropriate wattage & color. So far so good. LEDs do not compare (generally) to HPS flowering as far as yield. (Please - let's not go off in that direction here. Thank you!) Rating: 5