150 hps :co:

 

Welcome to BFC.

Yes, you should be fine with that setup. You should only be running about 500-600 Watts off of that amount of light. that would put your genny at 50-60% capacity.

From my experience LED's strive in clear water. So that should be plenty of light for your boat.

 

Are u saying 3 of these (450w total) one off the front and one off each side will give me better light and still be fine to run straight off my genny? Im talking about HPS...

 

You could do 4 or 5 150s

 

6-8 good quality 50 watt leds will work good. I prefer hps but it would be hard to run enough of them on a 1000 watt genny.

 

I wouldn't hesitate running up to 800 watts on that genny.

 

Which are more durable HPS or LED? Ive heard HPS burn up faster. Is that true? What would give more light? 600w of HPS or 600w of LED? Or would they be the same?

 

Ive heard HPS burn up faster. Is that true?

No!!

 

600w of HPS will be much more light.
But LEDs will probably be plenty of light and a more simple setup.

 

Why would LED be a more simple setup? Would 600w of HPS be more of a workload than 600w of LED on my genny?

 

HPS bulbs will not last as long as LED's. HPS will give more light but I don't know if the coverage would be sufficient with 3 or 4 150's. With going LED's you would be able to add more lights without much problem. (There is light output charts floating around the forum, use the search bar to find them)

That being said If I was in your shoes I would probably go with LED's granted you said you fish clear water. Also with the LED's will be lighter than the HPS, and produce less heat.

As far as your genny goes try and stay under 80% max load as a good rule of thumb.

 

I ran (8) 50 watt 120v on our old 17ft Basstracker and was a lot of light and (12) on our 2072 SeaArk I would go with (8) 50 watt LED that would be 400 watts and if ever decided to run converters to keep trolling motor batteries charged up another 1000 watt gennie or a single 2000 watt gennie and 24v converter should have you covered. Also the LED's are plug and play, no bulbs,ballast or capacitors like HPS just get power to them straight up simple. But yes over several years have had issues with a couple of my Ebay LED's acting up, have issues with anything especially how we treat or beat them, all my issues happened after getting a rough beating in waves/weather we shouldn't have been in

 

You can go either way. Like I said before hps are my favorite. But with only about 800 watts to work with it limits your choices. Remember with hps or mh they use more power than stated on the bulb. Imo you will be able to get better coverage with leds in your application.

 

Just as far as hooking up the lights. You can go as simple or complicated with HPS. Different ballasts (mag, digital etc), custom housings, remote ballast boxes, caps etc. Or just buy a say a ready made inclosed light from enconolite and its be simple.
LED are just plug and play for the most part.

 

Cool thanks for all the replies. Ya I'm thinking LED is where I need to go. That being said Iv'e heard all 50w LED's are not created equal. Is it basically you get what you pay for as far as brightness and durability? What should I be looking for. I dont wanna break the bank but I dont necessarily wanna go real cheap and get lights that are chincy and dont give off good light. Or should I be looking at 75-100w and buy less? But Iv'e heard 50w is where u get your most bang for your buck...

 

Garret, Gbollom did a test which is on here somewhere with Seelite,Customfitz and AirRanger 50 watts and ebay lights and I think his test with light meter to measure output from same measured distance and there is something with SeeLite's being better quality and output but also twice price of what you can get ebay lights for

 

Hps will make clean water look dirty. I shoot near you. Though I have never used LEDs from what I have heard about them and knowing the water you shoot I would recommend them. Especially with your 1000 yammy.

 

Hps will make clean water look dirty

Not true at all. HPS are yellow but clear water is clear water no matter the light color. 4-5 150's is plenty enough light to shoot fish, I shot a lot of fish off of a boat with 4 150w Econolights.

 

And I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but u should be able to run 15-16 of the 50 watters.

To clear up what these other guys are saying with that amount of led lights you should have solid light coverage around your boat.

The hps will cast more light farther but with 4 150s you may have a couple darker spots between lights

 

He should be able too
16x50 is 800 watts and under 8 amps (<<<< I think)

 

I had poor results with ebay lights. I don't believe they were putting out what was stated. I have shot over Seelite, CF and ebay lights. Only the ebay lights disappointed me. That said I have 8 50 watt e bay lights for sale, not willing to ship though.

 

Go led
Hid is dead technology, just like incandescent lights they are being phased out, in 5 years they will be harder to get and $ will go up
And HID lights lose output way way faster than LED, many guys love there Hps and defend them like the Alamo, but that won't keep them from being obsolete in a few years.

 

This may be true, but by the time LEDs catch up to the light output of an HPS at an affordable amount you will have to re-do everything anyway lol.

 

The first thing you need to figure out is how big of a deck you are going to have? How many guys are normally going to shoot? 3 or 4 hps could do it for say 2 guys shooting but your going to have the genny to the max... I would recommend since you already have the genny go with leds. I would start with 6 or 8 50watt seelites that should be plenty of light for a smaller deck say 3 guys shooting. Your genny wont even notice there is anything hooked up to it.

 

If say you decide to go with hps and you want to add more then you have to get a bigger genny or switch over to leds. Either way just go with whatever you think will work the best and what you prefer.

 

Cool thanks for all the replies. Ya its not a real big deck just a standard 17.5' bass boat style front casting platform. Plenty big for 2 shooters but 3 might get a little tight. Im leaning towards getting 8 or so 120v 50w LED's and running them straight from my 1000w genny. Like I said I will be mostly shooting clearer central MN lakes. Now I just gotta decide if I'm gonna ponny up the $ for seelites or try and cut corners and go with something a little cheaper?...

 

Just for reference here's some video with our setup,this is (12) 50 watt "ebay" LED's

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tLKcO5giwvo

And this was with our old 17ft Basstracker with (8) 50 watt LED's
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMKXnE9nV8

Just as a possible comparison, there is some real clear "pool" water and some medium stained normal for us water just to ease your mind possibly about amount of light.

 

Do you know how many lumens these lights claim to put out? are they cool white?

 

:wave:
Can some one fill in LED?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumen_(unit)


http://www.theledlight.com/lumens.html

HPS lights
Watts / Lumens / / bulb life hours
35 / 2,2250/ / / 20,000
50 / 4,000 / / 20,000
70 / 6,300 / / 20,000
100 / 9,500 / / 20,000
150 / /15,800 / / 20,000
250 / 29,000 / / 20,000
400 / 50,000 / / 20,000
1000 / 130,000 / / 20,000


Mercury Vapor Light
Watts / Lumens
50 / 1,5800
100 / 4,200
175 / 7,9000
250 / 8,500
400 / 20,500
1000 / 50,000

MH Light
Watts / Lemuns
50 / 3,400 / / 20,000
70 / 5,500 / / 20,000
100 / 6,500 / / 20,000
150 / 13,300 / / 20,000
175 / 14,000 / / 20,000
250 / 15,000 / / 20,000
400 / 36,000 / / 20,000
1000 / 100,000 / / 20,000

Halo
100 / 1,300 / / / 2,000
150 / 2,200 / / / 2,000
300 / 5,000 / / / 2,000
500 / 9,500 / / / 2,000
1000 / 20,850 / / / 2,000
1500 / 31,500 / / / 2,000

 

The problem with LED lumen or Candle power etc.... I believe is the fact that it's measured in a "sphere" or 360 degrees around the bulb as if it's in open air, LED are on a flat chip and only project forward and directional, that's why Yes HPS may show on chart as more Lumens but actually visible,usable,or light at target area to be illuminated is all the same or close to same as LED. Need Garret to use light meter with LED, Halo's and HPS now.

 

Mudfish, thanks for reminding me why I swear by my 6 "obsolete" 400 W HPS.