3 x luxeon III = 9 watts or 12 watts

Most triple luxeon III lights like the Nuwai or the EL tri-star phazer = 9 watts, but this tac12L claims it is 12 watts. The other 3 or 4, C or D cell triples use 4.5v or 6v. This light uses 12 volts. Is it really 12 watts?

My newbie guess is that they are driving them at 1000ma, thus getting four watts, like I've seen speculated for the Inova T4's single Lux III. I'm also guessing this is the upper of edge of manufacturers tolerance for driving them,i.e. they are not overdriven?

Good question, this is going to be interesting.

Yes, a LuxeonIII isn't really 3 Watts. It's a LuxeonIII....

Anyways, specs for LuxIII is 700ma, with a max drive of 1000ma. Unless you have like an H Vf luxIII, then the watts are usually greater than 3 watts...

FWIW Doing the math... an average K bin ~3.6V at 700mA = 2.52Watts. If the Vf stays the same at 1000mA (it won't, it'll go up), power = 3.6Watts.

700mA is less than 3 watts for anything less than an N bin (haven't seen these).

1000mA is more than 3 watts for everything H bin (probably even G bin) and up.

The real interesting number is the 10,000+ hour life listed for the LED's. While they may not be overdriven, they are definitely driven real hard.
It is nice that the company is listing a fairly realistic led life as opposed to stating the standard "50,000 hours" so many manufacturers quote regardless of how the LED's are driven in their lights.

Have any of you taken a look at the diving version of this light? Is is only $750. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif