Very technical question - LED wattage vs actual power used

AirDuster
AirDusterstarted grow question 6y ago
My LED is a Phlizon 600w but the power draw is only around 97w at the plug. Perhaps a silly question, but is my diary entry supposed to be 600w or 97w? Looking at other diaries, it looks like yield is expressed as weight/watt and want to be consistent.
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Setup. Lighting
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Bloombuster
Bloombusteranswered grow question 6y ago
Hey bro! This is not an expensive or very powerful lamp, its rated power according to the specs is 108w! Make sure to mention that in the report! And that 600w written there, that's a sneaky Chinese move from the manufacturer, just adding the 600w prefix in the model name. They could have written 1,000,000,000w super ultra..... but decided to save on the number of characters! 👌😇👍 Good luck, brother!
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AirDuster
AirDusteranswered grow question 6y ago
So, it turns out that the small print is super important on LED wattage advertising. Long story short: my lights say they're 600w LED, my power meter say they're 100w. The 100w draw is indusputable, so my lights can't be 600w - right? Wrong. It turns out that the way LED's are marketed is not by how much actual power they consume, but by the potential of each of the individual LEDs to consume power if they're used at full capacity. They're not used at full capacity, and so the discrepancy. Buyer beware. 600w is 100 actual w. This leads me to more questions. 1. Is wattage even important as a concept in growing? 2. How can I measure what's important to measure - both in the spectrum and in the light output, or is all this just a case of being baffled by bullshit, an that very little of it matters. Plant a seed, water it, feed it, make sure it gets some light and wait. I'm no biologist, but I'm guessing that broadly speaking more light equates to better photosynthesis which equates in some way to healthier, better yielding plants. It seems that PAR is the value to measure or aim at, but I have no idea how. 3. What is the difference in yield between a 100w and a 600w light, assuming all else is the same?
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