Piranha LED lit room
- Thread starter Amonra
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Ken_McE
Flashlight Enthusiast
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- Jun 16, 2003
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I think you'd get 1,800 candlepower. You might want to mix in some yellow LEDs to make the color temperature a little warmer. It's certainly worth trying.
LEDninja
Flashlight Enthusiast
600 pcs.*.03 amp*3.6 volts=64.8 watts.
With most current LEDs producing 25 to 30 lumens/watt (Nichia CS U bins excepted) that gives 1620 to 1944 lumens. YMMV
With most current LEDs producing 25 to 30 lumens/watt (Nichia CS U bins excepted) that gives 1620 to 1944 lumens. YMMV
jtr1962
Flashaholic
The best piranha LEDs I've seen so far (Nichia part number NSPWR70SS) put out about 4 lumens at 20 mA. At 30 mA they would give about 35% more, or roughly 5.4 lumens. 600 of them would give you 3240 lumens, or about 20% more than one 32W 4-foot T-8 fluorescent tube. Power consumption would be roughly 0.03A x 3.8V x 600 = 68.4 watts plus the losses in the driver circuit.
Nix the idea of mixing in yellow LEDs. I've been down that road on a smaller scale when trying to light HO passenger cars. First, it'll hurt the efficiency. Second, there will definitely be unevenness in the light pattern from the mixing. Third, if you get the C0 bin by Nichia it'll give a CCT of ~5000K instead of the usual too blue 8000K of most white LEDs. 5000K is just about perfect for general lighting-not too yellow, not too blue, just a nice, pure white.
As much as I love LEDs, in all honesty if you want to light a room 5000K T-8 fluorescent is the best, most efficient way to go. You'll use about half the power of even the best LEDs, and will get superior color rendering and much more consistent color temperature. LEDs just aren't quite there yet for general lighting although I expect that we'll see LED screw-in incandescent replacements hitting the shelves within a few years. It'll be a long time though before LED becomes cheap enough and efficient enough to compete with today's fluorescents.
Nix the idea of mixing in yellow LEDs. I've been down that road on a smaller scale when trying to light HO passenger cars. First, it'll hurt the efficiency. Second, there will definitely be unevenness in the light pattern from the mixing. Third, if you get the C0 bin by Nichia it'll give a CCT of ~5000K instead of the usual too blue 8000K of most white LEDs. 5000K is just about perfect for general lighting-not too yellow, not too blue, just a nice, pure white.
As much as I love LEDs, in all honesty if you want to light a room 5000K T-8 fluorescent is the best, most efficient way to go. You'll use about half the power of even the best LEDs, and will get superior color rendering and much more consistent color temperature. LEDs just aren't quite there yet for general lighting although I expect that we'll see LED screw-in incandescent replacements hitting the shelves within a few years. It'll be a long time though before LED becomes cheap enough and efficient enough to compete with today's fluorescents.
