Re: LED STRIP LIGHTING (Ins and outs info)
Heat is relative. White LED's can begin incurring damage at 95'F they can begin incurring RAPID damage at 105-110' (depends on the LED the phosphor used etc..)
you "think" led's don't make much heat usually because we compare them to incandescents which reach hundreds of degree's. an LED can degrade at not much higher than body temperature.
I have seen under cooled LED's die in as little as 150 hours of burn time. The power was within "spec rating" but that spec rating assumes adequate cooling. and while this is lower for SMD's (they are much more resilient) the normal accepted stander is 9 square centimeters of passive cooling surface area "PER WATT" how many square centimeters is that 1meter long strip consuming 15 watts? it should be 135 square centimeters. in reality its maybe what? 20 square centimeters and its INSULATED (worse)
now. COLOR led's have no phosphur and are far more resilient to "heat death"
while they do not generate much heat relative to an incandescent bulb they DO generate a lot of heat.
80% ! you read that right. on average 80% of the input power is dissipated as HEAT. but wait LED is so efficient. IT IS. 99% or more is the number for incandescents
(its not that bad but you get what I am saying)
and while they don't make much relative heat they also have a much lower TOLERANCE for that heat.
The silicon suggestion was for the SUN EXPOSED led's not for the water exposed led's the resins they use will opaque. in 6 months to a year those led's will put out almost no usable light as the resin will have turned nearly opaque. this is what usually kills "solar lights" the encapsulated solar cell opaques till it can't get any light to charge the battery any more. its why I only buy solar that is "bare" glass no encapsulation.
just be careful. Silicon is more stable in sun than epoxy resins typically are (at least the cheap resins these manufacturers use) and in theory you could replace the silicon cheaper than replacing the whole thing. (in theory)
Hmm I was not aware the silicone sleeves went cloudy. cheap silicone too I guess. that sucks. I wonder if we can coat them in a UV blocker or some sort (the epoxy ones) its the UV that does the damage.
what makes red so usable for night vision is its very easy to make "dim" red light.
its pretty hard to make "dim" white light. what is saving your night vision is the dimmness not the color. it just by coincidence is easier for us to make dim red light and we have red sensitive cells near the center of the eye.
but this is not night vision. in fact the best color for night vision and fast recovery of night vision is blue green. not red.
intensity is far more important than "color" any which way.
a good read on the subject is here
Night Vision - The Red Myth (hint I do some casual stargazing so this issue comes up a lot)
FYI if you can "see" in front of you your not using night vision. actual night vision results in you being effectively "blind" to anything direction in front of you since you only have cones looking directly in front of you ie no rods (night vision comes from your rods)
ACTIVATING cones "deactivates" rods. so to activate your night vision rods you need to "DEACTIVATE" your cones. light intensity (not color) is what activates cones and this is what you need to avoid.
if I shine my red flashlight in your face your night vision is just as toast as if I shined a white flashlight in your face.
Not to nitpick but it is important.
"Now as far as your statement that red light does not effect night vision "is a misconception", I would say you have a misconception of the misconception, lol "
I never said that. I said red light does not preserve night vision. DIM LIGHT preserves night vision. color "can" effect night vision "recovery" time (how long it takes you to get it back) and for that blue green is the best color. again as dim and as short a length as possible.
back to led's
LED's of this sort can be very expensive. not in "dollar cost" but in "labor cost" to remove and reinstall.
any led's that lasts thousands of hours will never be bought by me every again. My minimum standard is 50,000 hours. if I suspect it won't last at least that long I won't buy it.
I am thinking of using aluminum channel. ok heat sink and would greatly ease maintenance if an issue arises.
I am a huge fan of LED's I really really like led's I have 85% of my home converted to LED and about 50% of my business converted to LED.
all my car's are led except for the headlights (and I am working on that too) since lower power in the car equals higher fuel economy. (currently averaging 62mpg trying to push it over 70mpg)
SO don't get me wrong I LOVE LED's but knowledge is half the battle. knowing means you can save yourself time effort money and labor down the road.
I REALLY wish I had a boat as nice as your guys boats
hehe but mine will also get the LED treatment. I especially want to try and do some rub rail lighting to "light up the hull and water line" around the boat for nice effect. maybe even some underwater lighting. durability and protection are the issue their.
