cool, I go away for 3 days and stuff been flying.
the problem is like any other lighting there re going to be good ones and bad ones. good ones will run for 50000 hours with out a problem as they have done there home work and designed a system that runs under 80 C , exotic ones may last longer as they will have super cooled systems that run under 40 or 30C which in all likly hood will give a longer life span as it is basicly heat that is the determanaing factor for the life and intensity drop in LED, they are not effected by water, salt, vibration, ect.. unless the water, salt, ect affects the contact between the heat sink and die, but then heat will go up. but yes there will be the junky brands out there that will last under 6 years.
as for the PAR shift in MH bulbs, there is most definatly a shift and it can be large or it can be small. depends on the bulb its self and the ballast you are driving with. a 10000K bulb will generaly have a lot smaller of a shift than a 20000K bulb, but the that in its self realy means nothing. I have measured a 20000K bulb with a 40% reduction in PAR at 14 months with only a 32% reduction in LUX, so right there it is telling you there is much more than just the intensity lowering the PAR value as if that were the case the PAR and lux values would decrease at the same rate. I have had some 10K bulbs where the LUX decreased faster than the PAR and some the otherway. (an theres were all on the same ballast) so it realy depends on the initial make up and quality of the bulb including which halides and the ratios they use to make there color spectrum, as there are hundereds of different combanations that will give you any givin color.
so back to LED
you want to look at longjevity, we can all agree the solaris is a lower end LED fixture, but asside for the odd problems they are going on is it 5th year now (they first came out in 2005 I believe?) with only ballast replacments (the ballasts were garbage ) and the odd LED replacment which is in all likely hood a result of the ballast failing.
Oh and for the record, T5 are infieror to MH
Steve
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*everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*
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