Cyberloc, I'm down to look into this if we can get others to bounce findings over with.
Which Part? the UV lights? Forsure, I am not sure if buying all the meters needed is the better option, or building our own would be better. the tech of the meter, isnt really that much. The issue with the pricing of the meter, is they wanted a solid solution that was waterproof ect, and lens on the Solarmeters is a good half the cost. Not saying the solar meters cost isnt justified, it is for the package they present, just saying we really dont need some of the features that drive that cost so high.
We would also need to be able to isolate the UVB spectrum, both D3 producing and non, as well as UVA, which as I listed, would require 2 or even better 3 different meters. At 250 per meter, that cost skyrockets. There is UV meters for Arduino, that would work, and we could code it to do all 3 functions, for likely about 100 dollars, by dropping the quartz lens for waterproofing ect. It would far from be a user friendly solution like the solar meter, and we would still need to verify its functionality with solar meters, but maybe could rent those. Me and
@dshuld had talked about this project before, but funds time in the day, ect. Never got around to it, at least I didn't, maybe he did.
It would likely be a good idea, to start a thread about that, I was going to the other day, but got tied up.
I truly think that recreating Natural Lighting would be a huge boon for everyone in the hobby. If we would get the cost down, and a simple easy to read plan to do so, that would be helpful, if a business was get involved, or even a few of us got together to make the "fixtures" on the side, that would be good for alot of the folks that are scared to work with electricity. I do not think having better lighting is anthropomorphizing at all.
I think that is one of the biggest places the hobby has fell flat. I can sympathize with cost especially with breeders, who need tons of lights. However there is no way I can envision not having naturalistic lighting is not a positive to our animals. Arguably the Reefers fish have less subtle light changes during the day than reptiles, so why is their lighting so much more advanced than ours? Or at least, I would think the light changes would have less affect on the fish, maybe not the coral.
Thats why I linked the article.
"No artificial lighting system in the world can provide the full spectrum and intensity of natural sunlight, its subtle changes in color as a day progresses, or the sun’s movement across the sky. For these reasons alone,
the more natural daylight a reptile experiences, the better. “Natural daylight” may not always mean full sunlight; a herpkeeper must aim to provide species-appropriate lighting."
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Health/Habitats-Care/Reptile-Lighting-Information/.
that has been a huge influence on me on even starting this project. That article is old, and back then they were right, we couldn't provide the full abilities of the sun. Today we can, and we can do it for not that much more than what we are paying for our T5s. The difference being mainly on Sustained cost VS Upfront cost.
If we can provide the amount of light that 4 T5s offer, for half the wattage, and control their nuisances throughout the day why not do it? Yes the upfront cost is double or triple the price of that quad T5, however the cost of replacing bulbs and the price of electricity per year, the price balances out in the end over the life of the animal.
Spend 400 on LEDs, never replace a bulb, and pay half as much in electric over the lifetime. I have mentioned that here before, many times. I was rebuttaled with "But it doesn't add much to my electric bill" on the surface it doesn't, however your not taking everything into account.
Lets math that for the Life of a Cham. 100ws from the quad fixture, times 12 hours a day, is 1200 watts per day. Or 1.2kwh, now times that by 1 month, and we have 36 KWH a month. My price per KWH is $.12. So that $4.32 per month to run that quad, or 51.82 per year. Now times that by 7 years, and the average bulb replacement at 10 dollars each, which will need replaced lets say 3 times. We have just a hair under 500 dollars, lets round it for just in case.
500 Dollars is the price to run the Quad Fixture for 7 years, a quad from LYRs is 200 dollars all said and done, about. so 700 dollars, for the 7 years assuming the ballast doesn't die.
Now lets do an LED fixture, we are trying to match the 8000 lumens provided by the T5s. We can easily match that with 1 cob, but we want a better spread, so we will use 2 get more LM/W. So my cobs will run that, across 2 at about 20 watts each, we will use this as our solid light basis. Now we throw in a 3rd cob, this will be our WW for dawn and dusk, throw in some UVA lights to balance the light and add that UVA this will also help with spectrum adjustments.
75 for the cobs, 50 for a heatsink, going to need some meanwells to drive it, and some various bits, say 50 more, and a Power Supply lets add in another 50, we need a controller to make the magic happen, another 25. Rough estimations, but we are at 250, no UVB LEDs yet, but lets set those aside for now.
This fixture uses about 40 watts full power, it wont be full power all day, but lets go with 40 anyway.
Now lets math out the price to run this, 40ws, lets say 50 to make things easier and account for driver inefficiency (again this is still more than typical either way) .6 KWH per day, times 30 days thats 18 KWH per month or $2.16. Now times that by a year, $25.92. Lets go this time by 7 years, $181.44.
So now we have a total of 431.44 vs the total of 700 dollars for the Flos. And thats if you ran the CWs maxed (or their equivalent) all day long. Even if we added the cost of 3 of the UVB LEDs, thats only 150 added, were at 581.44, if we add a Wifi Controller, that is hidden in the fixture with more features, we add another 75, and we are at 656.44.
Now obviously this is DIY price, want someone to build it, add a fee, but even if we add 100 dollar building fee, we are at 756.44, and now we have UVB remember, so we can subtract the yearly bulb changes of UVB flos, at 50 per year, which is another 350, putting our Flo cost at 1150.
That got kind of ranty, and not very well structured sorry for that lol. But the point stands, I really do not know why this isnt the direction the hobby has headed, and still isnt.
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. My next attempt will be with W&Z clones, as I am being told that seedlings of the species are very prone to die off either way, people were amazed I kept that one alive for 2 months, and threw 3 new pitchers. Apparently the seedlings are extremely susceptible to shock. And at 50-75 I have been paying for seedlings, its getting to be expensive failures lol.
