[Bloodhound]

Check out the stickies at the top of this section. They don't answer all of my questions but for someone with any understanding of wiring, the stickies may have all you need to know.

 

[TxTac]

Check out the stickies at the top of this section. They don't answer all of my questions but for someone with any understanding of wiring, the stickies may have all you need to know.

The confusion is the debate of LED's or HPS's.
I talked to my neighbor, who is a commercial electrician, and he suggested LED's instead of HPS's. He said the HPS's are old technology, and the LED's may be better for the long term.

 

[Bloodhound]

The confusion is the debate of LED's or HPS's.
I talked to my neighbor, who is a commercial electrician, and he suggested LED's instead of HPS's. He said the HPS's are old technology, and the LED's may be better for the long term.

Sorry I should have quoted him - I was answering D-Mac's question.

 

[PJOHNSON]

400hps hands down best lighting money can buy....BUT you may not need all that light.If you fish clear water,like the idea of running silent or plan on fishing around a bunch of houses...led maybe better for you.I would suggest riding along with someone that has led and someone with hps.I would not consider halos.Our boat has six 400hps lights powered by two 2000eu honda inverters.It makes an insane amount of light.

 

[-dirt-]

The confusion is the debate of LED's or HPS's.
I talked to my neighbor, who is a commercial electrician, and he suggested LED's instead of HPS's. He said the HPS's are old technology, and the LED's may be better for the long term.

I would consider the digital ballasts pushing my 400w HPS to be "new technology"... But I really don't think that line of think really helps too much anyways. Who cares if its new, old or whatever, if it works for you.

But I shoot a recurve so what do I know!

If you are concerned about the long-term, you might want to ask about the failure rate of certain LED manufactures. From reading on here, it appears that some foreign-made ones aren't holding up real well. It seems the failure rate is higher than that of the conventional type lights. Not to say that those can't fail as well -- but if they do, you can easily replace a bulb on the water. Ballasts are another story unless you keep a spare on the boat!

I wish we had a LED lumen output chart in the stickies like we have for the other type lights -- I think that might help your decision making too.

 

[vdubbles24]

I got 16 27w on 24v hooked to bigfoot switch. Love it and simple. Plenty of light. I fish mainly ohio river and tailwaters at ky lake. No complaints. My buddy has 10 50w seelites, but for the money mine work just as good for 1/2 the price.

Just my $.02

 

[tjones96761]

Warm LEDs is my vote. Yes, HPS give off more light, but who needs to see farther than they can shoot or wants to listen to a loud @ss genny all night.
My 48w warm lights weigh 2lbs. Big 50s weigh about 8lbs.

 

[vdubbles24]

If ya shooting bigheads LEDs is a no brainer.

If ya need any help shoot me a email. I studied and studied before I made my choice. I'm glad I chose LEDs.

 

[poplinn1]

Warm LEDs is my vote. Yes, HPS give off more light, but who needs to see farther than they can shoot or wants to listen to a loud @ss genny all night.
My 48w warm lights weigh 2lbs. Big 50s weigh about 8lbs.

The right genny isnt loud at all. You'd be surprised how much farther you can shoot when you got the light to see out there. I shoot into the dark beyond my 400 HPS's all the time. HPS is the only way to go IMO. But I dont know what real clear water looks like. I spend a lot of my time shooting in a big ol yoo hoo down here in SC and theres no competition for HPS in muddy water. But even if you couldnt shoot that far its still nice to be able to see that cat that you can turn around and go to that you would have never seen with LEDs. Just my .02

 

[poplinn1]

Have you ever heard anybody say "I wish I had less light"?

 

[TxTac]

Wow... Still about 50/50.
I'm going to look at some 400w HPS lights shortly. If the price is right, I'll have to get a generator to support them. Maybe try some cheaper LeD's when I'm going to be running for a few hours that I can pop on the boat when I'm planning to do more fishing, or on clear water.

 

[vdubbles24]

I've ran 8+ hrs with my LEDs on 24v. I got 12v troller. It gives up way before lights.

 

[stickemdeep]

hps and be done with it

 

[MikeBommer]

OK, here's my take on this.

I just converted from (8) 500W halogens to (10) 100W cool white (6000-6500 color temp) LEDs. Biggest consideration in my switch was getting a quieter genny and being able to run silent if I want to. Went from pulling 4000W to 1000W. I couldn't be happier with the switch at this point but haven't had the lights in dirty water yet. I have had them in clear and what I would consider stained water so far.

Things to take into consideration on this debate:

Lumens are important, but color of lights is equally important depending on clarity of water you shoot.
Size generator (Watts) you are going to need as well as generator noise (db)
Do you want to have the capability to run silent ?? (Batteries, no generator)

Here are some charts I found that may help you in your decision:
Small chart is LED Cool White Lumens, larger chart is LED Warm White Lumens.

 

[MikeBommer]

Oh yeah, we built our own 100W LEDs, nothing like what is currently out there for sale ...

 

[Istickem]

Very few have ever seen a quality LED. Anyone thinking buying cheap (any LED sold here) LEDs will compare to OLD tech HID lighting is nuts.
Ill have to disagree with the charts on LED info, Cool white will always put out more lumens than warm white if specs are same, its just the physics of the elements used in the diode.
I use a neutral white LED I built(100w) and depending on how hard I drive it with my adjustable drivers, it will output around 12,000 lumens , if I drive it hard, close to 14000 lumens, when properly sinked which is WAY WAY overlooked in the market we see here, this is the difference in high end vs ebay LED "chips", the other big factor that no one considers is HPS light lose a lot of output after use, they simply degrade faster than LED by a long shot and require new bulbs often to come even close to max output. People like throwing manufacturer numbers around, but they are fooling themselves, there is a great article in the lets talk lights sticky.

 

[MikeBommer]

Istickem, neutral white being in the 4500-5500 color range ??

I agree on the charts being a bit off, but those were the only ones I could find, figured they were close enough for this discussion.

 

[water snake 2]

if they are too bright don,t forget yellow tape it works.

 

[Istickem]

Istickem, neutral white being in the 4500-5500 color range ??

I agree on the charts being a bit off, but those were the only ones I could find, figured they were close enough for this discussion.

Yes that's the CCT range of neutrals usually about 4k- 5k on mine.
I only pointed it out as you use cool white, and seem to like them a lot, and I think if you get into muddy water you will find they penetrate just as well as warm white even a little better, it's just glare is annoying but some light color uv sunglasses eliminates that. At least that what I've experienced fishing over neutral white led, warm whites, and HPS. We all see the trend the warm whites best, but we see so many disappointed and going back to high power hps, I think it's in part due to lower lumens of WW and the fact that WW LEDs degrade faster from higher junction temps which IMO must be present with those heat sinks.

 

[MikeBommer]

Yes that's the CCT range of neutrals usually about 4k- 5k on mine.
I only pointed it out as you use cool white, and seem to like them a lot, and I think if you get into muddy water you will find they penetrate just as well as warm white even a little better, it's just glare is annoying but some light color uv sunglasses eliminates that. At least that what I've experienced fishing over neutral white led, warm whites, and HPS. We all see the trend the warm whites best, but we see so many disappointed and going back to high power hps, I think it's in part due to lower lumens of WW and the fact that WW LEDs degrade faster from higher junction temps which IMO must be present with those heat sinks.

Thanks for the thoughts. We tested a 5K LED when we were building our lights and really didn't see much of a difference in penetration, it was just a different color. The test was done in a pond off of a dock in stained water. We compared a 500W Halo, 100W Cool White LED and 100W Neutral White LED.

I think so many are disappointed due to the lack of penetration with the 50W LEDs. Just my opinion but I don't think the 50W LED can hold a candle to a 500W Halo like a lot of folks say they do. The other issue with the current 50W LEDs being sold (and the reason they degrade so fast) is the mounting of the LED itself in the light. We pulled one apart and the LED only had 2 of 4 screws used to mount it and didn't have near enough thermal grease used on the back of the LED. I just can't believe they are saving that much money per light doing that. A couple little details that would make those light last much longer ...