Kessil A360W or other LED Options

intersted in the halide if your going to sell

The foot print is only 18x20, so that seems over kill to have 2. The only way I could do that is to run them right next to each other with next to no spacing. Thanks for the advice on the conversion from MH to LED.

Ya you would think it sounds like over kill but most LED's are good to about 24" depth. So if you really want to grow much in the bottom 6" you need to be able to "push" the light deeper by adding more light. Next to each other would be a good option or toward the front spaced toward each front corner and tilted slightly toward the back of the tank would be a killer option (although hard to accomplish with a single cable mount). Glad to help with any information I have.

Rich -

One A360W will be plenty.

Shawn at Aquatic Evo runs two A350W on his 110 tall show reef; that tank is 29" deep.

The 350s grow all the way to the sandbed, and the 360 is actually slightly more powerful.

I wouldn't worry at all.

Can someone help me figure out the monthly savings on converting from my 250W MH to the Kessil 360? If I calculate it correctly it seems that I am not saving much, and that it costs very little to run the MH.

My notes:
A single 250W runs about 10 hours a day for 30 days, and that should be 2.5KW per day and 75kWh per month. My rate breaks into tier 2 every month with a per unit cost of 0.103467, so it costs 7.76 per month to run the lights on my tank.

Kessil has a max output of 90W. If it runs the same amount of time it would consume 27kWh per month. Using the same unit cost it is only 2.80 per month. This only saves me about 5.00 per month.

Did I figure this incorrectly? If so, then it does not seem logical to me to change from a MH fixture to an LED. Yes, there is cost savings due to no yearly bulb replacement, but that is about 65.00 per year. It would take me close to 10 years to pay for itself, and by that time I would need to replace it anyways.

Remember that LED's rarely run at 100%. So your $2.80 per month for LEDs would be if they turned on instantly and stayed on 100% the entire time. No one runs LEDs that way. They ramp up slowly, rarely run 100% and ramp back down. Your savings will be higher than the $5 per month but I'm not sure you can calculate how much more.

You  also need to consider both operating cost and bulb replacement. Even with your figures your yearly saving on operation will be $60. Then you are saving an additional $65 per year on bulbs. So your yearly savings is $125 minimum for switching. At 10 years you would have had to buy a $1250.00 light in order to break even.

Krazie

Don't forget to factor in the sale of the MH fixture as well.

I'm not sure about yours but It doesn't even cost me $40 per month to run my entire 40b with sump. So, I'm not sure how you can save that much on a 47g.

There are a lot more things that can be factored into the savings (home heating and cooling, Evaporation rates, etc..) It all depends on how many pennies you want to trip over trying to catch that dollar.

millsu2 wrote: I am hesitant to buy an LED fixture mainly because the life of the fixture is not guaranteed. I'd hate to buy an expensive Kessil only to have it malfunction 2-3 years later. It likely isn't very user serviceable, and professional repairs would likely be expensive.ÂÂÂ

I think with most anything you get what you pay for. If you buy a quality product from a known manufacturer with a good reputation you will be ok.

When you enter the arena of purchasing custom built stuff you better do your homework and understand what you are really buying. My current tank has only had water in it for about 3.5 months. Every piece of coral I have purchased has either been under t 5 lights or led lights. All coral added to my tank has colored up an unbelievable amount under my radionlights. I can hardly wait to start adding sps corals and see what colors these lights give. I'd never worry about my lights falling apart in to 3 years without radion doing something about it.

Edited by Molli - February 09 2015 at 3:04pm