Are the Photon Panel Grow Light used different LEDs or different ways of controlling the same LEDs?

You have two different units – are these using different LEDs or different ways of controlling the same LEDs

​We offer two versions of the PhotonPanel product - the 4000K white and RedBoost. Each of these versions uses only one type of LED that is unique to the color variant. In other words, the 4000K white PhotonPanel uses just 4000K white LEDs, while the RedBoost PhotonPanel uses just RedBoost LEDs (there is no mixing of red+blue LED types).

If different LEDs I’m assuming two different spectra, in which case what is the ratio between those over the 560 population

​As described above, since only one type of LED is used, there are no applicable ratios for our product. The spectral output is pre-defined at the LED emitter level. Please reference the spectral output diagram shown on the specification sheet for additional detail on the spectral content.

There are some pictures on your website which I think might be of the ‘red boost’ (no titles) – can’t see any blue LEDs. Am I looking at the right pictures?

​Yes, that is correct. We only utilize a single LED type, so you will not be able to see the individual color components. The violet-magenta color is the light output color for the RedBoost.

Are these panels constant current or constant voltage supply 

​The panels are driven via constant voltage at 24 volts.

How do you achieve dimming on the panels? 

​The most popular way of dimming this product is via PWM. For example, see below for a popular inline dimmer:

https://store.waveformlighting.com/products/filmgrade-flicker-free-dimmer-for-led-strip

​Meanwell HLG can also be used to dim ​- please see below:

https://www.waveformlighting.com/tech/how-do-meanwell-hlg-led-power-supplies-work

The Input B method & daisy chain - are these one-shot connectors? 

Input Method B utilizes WAGO terminal blocks, which can be used multiple times. 

What is the effective spread angle? 

​The beam angle is 120 degrees.

Both units are spaced at 108W but the primary unit produces 12,500 lumens whereas the RedBoost is only 2,805 lumens. How do you explain the discrepancy?

​The 4000K white version provides more brightness since it includes a far larger amount of green wavelength energy. Green wavelength energy is very efficient at producing the perception of brightness for humans, which is why it has a high lumen output value.

​Green wavelength energy is not necessarily efficient for plant photosynthesis, however, which is why products like the RedBoost contain less green wavelength energy and focus the output on the blue and red wavelengths. The result is the lumen output value is lower for the RedBoost, but in terms of productivity, the RedBoost is likely on par with or better than a standard white light spectrum.

I had a look at both items and at first glance, it would appear that the Meanwell P/S would be the most advantageous to our application. However, I could not find this item on your website. Can you please send me your website link for these products – specifically the higher power units (600W and slightly below)?

We, unfortunately, do not offer any Meanwell power supply products. We recommend reaching out directly to a Meanwell distributor for further assistance and information on purchasing.

I am aware of the advantages of using light produced only in the blue & red ends of the spectrum – it's why we were interested in your product in the first place. I understand a lumen to be the amount of light per unit second per 1 radian (solid angle) – how does this fit with a “perception” of brightness for an SI unit?

The reason that "lumens" is not an optimal measure of photosynthetic effectiveness is that lumens are calibrated based on the luminous efficiency function (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficiency_function). The function defines green wavelength light as producing the perception of brightness most effectively; as such, one can think of lumens as being overly biased towards green wavelength energy.

I had another look at the Photometric graphs on the PhotonPanel page - I noticed that the Y-axis is ‘relative’ intensity (relative to what?) and that you didn’t say the two panels use differing amounts of power. Can I, therefore, infer that I should treat the two graphs as “area under the curve” and that the same amount of power is being distributed accordingly over the two-panel types?

The Y-axis of the spectral power distribution diagrams is in arbitrary units. This means that the irradiance values across the wavelength range are all relative to each other. The only way to perform an "apples-to-apples" comparison here would be to back-calculate the total irradiance of the spectral output (which would be, effectively, the area under the curve) and plot the two curves on the same chart calibrated to the same Y-axis values.

Do both panels consume the same number of watts (108W) – yes/no 

Yes. Both panels have the same input electrical power parameters.

Assuming the answer to above is yes, can I infer that the if I were to SOLEY monitor the output at ~450nm (blue peak), ignoring all the other frequencies for the time being, I would see a lower response on the 4000K unit and a relatively higher response on the Red Boost unit (all other variables being equal – position, distance from source, monitoring method, etc.) – yes/no 

This cannot be determined unless we have a spectral power distribution with the y-axis defined in absolute units, rather than relative units. Both curves are normalized such that their relative peaks reach the top of their respective graphs for readability and comparison purposes. As such, the two graphs with relative y-axis units cannot be compared to each other in any meaningful way.

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Horticultural lighting (grow lights, vertical farms, indoor growing)LED modules

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