RE: [APD] LED's as a light source.

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

It depends on the type of LED. The ones that rely on the
semiconductor material alone for light emission (like those
old-fahioned, slightly dim, red ones), are more energy
efficient that conventional fluorscent lamps. The
superbright LEDS that come in many colors, are a kind of
fluorescent lamp. "Conventional fluorescents rely on UV
photons being emitted by an electrically energized plasma
in a glass tube, which in turn excites photons at lower
energy levels (i.e., the visible spectrum) from
phosphorescent paint in the glass tube.

The superbright LEDs, rely on the photons from the
semiconductor material to excite photons (in some portion
of the visible spectrum) in material doped on the
semiconductor. 

The superbright LEDS are not more energy efficient than
conventional (plasma) fluorescents -- they are in fact a
bit less efficient and therefore give off a bit more heat
per watt than tube fluorescents. However, the opportunities
for lighting up your aquascape like the Vegas Strip are
plentiful with LEDs -- such a visual peculiarity has yet to
be entered in the Annual AGA Aquascaping Contest.  You
could even attach several arrays of LEDs to thermistors and
have the aquarium lighting turn more bluish, say, when the
water temp is lower, and yellow when warmer. Or connect an
array to solenoid on your CO2 set up and the color of the
lighting will tell you when the CO2 is running -- i.e., a
fancy shmancy pilot light. Using arrays of red, green, and
blue, you could even make "animated" color screen images,
but by the time you do that, you probably won't have much
time left for thge aquascaping. ;-)

Scott H.
--- Spencer Rozell <srozell at shaw_ca> wrote:
> I also suspect that LED's don't produce as much heat as
> some of the
> lights we use, reducing the need for fans etc, under the
> hood.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com
> [mailto:aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com] On Behalf Of
> Si Griffiths
> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:47 AM
> To: 'aquatic plants digest'
> Subject: RE: [APD] LED's as a light source.
> 
> Thanks too all who replied.
> 
> It seems then there currently isnt any advantage to using
> LED's apart
> from being different as the running costs/initial buy
> seems to not be
> favourable.
> 
> Interesting point about use in a fish room though, that
> would probably
> save quite some cash.  Nice.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Si.
> 
> 
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