does the 'watts' means anything?

Miracle

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can some kind souls please tell me,

does the 'watts' means anything?

what does it means to have higher 'watts'?

does it means that the LED bulb will use up more power more quickly?

:huh2:
 

amanichen

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The watt rating of a LED flashlight is supposed to mean how much power it uses, and in most cases is the peak power limit of the LED as it takes electric energy and turns it into light, and heat. In general, higher wattage LEDs output more light than lower wattage LEDs.

However, many LEDs are under-driven to take advantage of the LED's voltage vs. current operating curve, and voltage vs light output curve. Some lights use a LED capable of consuming 3W, and will run it at 1W because it will be more efficient than a 1W LED at maximum power.

And yes, a light that consumes more power will indeed drain batteries more quickly than one that uses less power.


Exactly what this means in practical use is a bit different. Many manufacturers will claim the maximum power of the LED in a light, others will claim what the LED is being driven at. Power generally corresponds to brightness, but there are many different LED designs, so you can see varying levels of efficiency among LEDs of the same light output.
 
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Miracle

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amanichen said:
The watt rating of a LED flashlight is supposed to mean how much power it uses, and in most cases is the peak power limit of the LED as it takes electric energy and turns it into light, and heat. In general, higher wattage LEDs output more light than lower wattage LEDs.

However, many LEDs are under-driven to take advantage of the LED's voltage vs. current operating curve, and voltage vs light output curve. Some lights use a LED capable of consuming 3W, and will run it at 1W because it will be more efficient than a 1W LED at maximum power.

And yes, a light that consumes more power will indeed drain batteries more quickly than one that uses less power.


Exactly what this means in practical use is a bit different. Many manufacturers will claim the maximum power of the LED in a light, others will claim what the LED is being driven at. Power generally corresponds to brightness, but there are many different LED designs, so you can see varying levels of efficiency among LEDs of the same light output.

thankz for the info amanichen,

:candle:
 

offroadcmpr

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Another confusing thing is that many conmpanies say that their light has a 3 watt or a 1 watt Luxeon LED in them. Luxeon rates their lights as Luxeon 1, 3, and 5. The numbers are loosely related to the amount of power they consume though. So usually when a company says that their light uses a Luxeon 3, it is actually very hard to determine how bright it actually is. Because you can drive a LED at different powers (watts), two lights that have the same LED in them can actually be very different in brightness. If Light A drives the LED with 3 watts, and Light B drives the LED with .5 watts, Light A would be brighter, but have a lot less battery life. I think I am rambling now, I hope that I helped
 

nerdgineer

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Watts ratings are also easily and often misrepresented. That's why most of us (even those with engineering degrees) spend a lot of time reading CPF reviews and review sites - because trust trumps specs...
 

chevrofreak

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Watt's can't really be used to determine brightness with LED's like they could be with incandescent lights. Some LED's are FAR more efficient than others, so a more efficient LED driven at 1 watt can put out more light than a garbage one driven at 3 watts.


Most Luxeon III's are actually about 2.4 watts (as binned) instead of the 3 watts people like to call them.
 

Illum

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the power the bulbs eat or can handle...usually on a fixed input voltage...supposely categorizez the brightness levels of Luxeons, but I have Lux Is outshine LuxIIIs, so... :thinking:
 
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Usually there is no set standard for LED flashlight. I'm guessing its the theoretical power consumption of the LED or the maximum instantaneous power delivered to DC with spankin new batteries, whichever yields higher value for marketing purpose.
 

red_robby

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nemul said:
V x I = P

I'm with nemul on this one...

volts X amps = watts

when it comes to LEDs, all "Watts" are simply power consumption...nothing to do with light output.
 

cave dave

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Yes a lot of the "watts" is marketing fluff.

I could create you a 100 Watt flashlight by using lots of batteries and a big resistor and still only run the LED at 350mA.

It gets even more confusing (or enlightening) when you start to realize the emitter on the the LuxI and the LuxIII are probably the same part, off the same assembly line. They are just placed on different heatsinks and binned at different drive currents. There are technical reasons to do this having to do with tint shift and Vf's but the marketers like making you think they are giving you something special.
 
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