Solaris Led lighting systems
- Thread starter jmccalip
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Here's a note from Pat at Solaris on canopy mounting. I might try the additional fans first.
Steve,
Most of the units are being mounted in canopies.
The current 4' unit is 46.5"
There have been two ways that people have insured adequate air flow. One is that they drill holes in the side of the canopy and put a fan guard on them to make them look finished. The holes are drilled where the Solaris fans are. So the air flows through the holes and then into the Solaris fans.
The second way is people mount fans in the canopy with the air blowing to the 1" space between the Solaris and the side of the canopy.
There is a temperature monitor on the Solaris. The temperature will be displayed on the LCD display. Keep the temperature between 70 degrees - 110 degrees. If the temperature goes above 110 degrees then get some more air movement in the canopy.
So far I have not heard of anyone having issues mounting these units in canopies.
Pat
Steve,
Most of the units are being mounted in canopies.
The current 4' unit is 46.5"
There have been two ways that people have insured adequate air flow. One is that they drill holes in the side of the canopy and put a fan guard on them to make them look finished. The holes are drilled where the Solaris fans are. So the air flows through the holes and then into the Solaris fans.
The second way is people mount fans in the canopy with the air blowing to the 1" space between the Solaris and the side of the canopy.
There is a temperature monitor on the Solaris. The temperature will be displayed on the LCD display. Keep the temperature between 70 degrees - 110 degrees. If the temperature goes above 110 degrees then get some more air movement in the canopy.
So far I have not heard of anyone having issues mounting these units in canopies.
Pat
PFO Lighting
New member
PFO Solaris Status Update
PFO Solaris Status Update
I have updated the website on dimensions. Be aware that only the new units are 1.5" shorter than the nominal length. When ordering make sure that you specify that they need to be the shorter versions. We have both 48" units and 46.5" units.
Note that the 24" version is still 24". The 14" is still 14". All the others have been shortened by 1.5".
There are a couple of questions I always get which I would like to address.
1. The temperature on the LCD display shows what the current temperature in the fixture is. The temperature should be between 70 degrees and 110 degrees. If the temperature goes above 110 degrees, something is wrong, so please call us. The unit will automatically shut off if the temperature approaches 130 degrees.
2. The human eye does not see the blue light emitted from the fixture very well. That is why the fixture often appears dimmer than some metal halide or fluorescent fixtures. You need to get a PAR meter to compare the light output of the Solaris to other fixtures. The human eye does a very poor job at this comparison. Be aware of this because we have a number of customers call up and comment on coral bleaching. The corals are seeing the light but the human eye is not. When applying the fixture dim the light some initially as you would if you are installing a new metal halide fixture on a tank that is not use to the high light output.
3. There has been a lot of discussion about energy consumption on this thread lately. My response to it is that all the discussion is probably correct. When comparing the Solaris to other fixtures they all use a fixed amount of energy. I.e. a 250W MH fixture will use roughly 250W of power for the lamp and 45W for the ballast. Sanjays web site will give the specific draw of each ballast and lamp combination. The Solaris will use about 85W/foot. If the LED's are dimmed than the Solaris will us less energy. This rough number includes the power supply, fans, and LED's. From those numbers you can calculate the fixture energy savings. Now there is the variable energy savings which will be different for every user. These variable energy savings will be for running chillers or fans to cool the water, air conditioning to remove excess heat from the room, power to run water heaters, and the list will go on. Since every application is slightly different due to the location and room set up the energy savings will be different for every application.
4. Quality Control- It is getting a lot better. We are not at 100% yet but we are getting a lot closer. In late December we shipped out a bunch of new fixtures. So far I have only had 3 or 4 customers who have called with problems from this shipment. I will continue to improve the quality control because I hate having problems with fixtures as much or more than the customers who have received fixtures with issues. Our current quality control problems on fixtures are running around 2-8%. In August it was around 40-60%.
5. Availability- We currently have 4' units in stock. All others are sold out. There are a couple of resellers who have units in stock. We are expecting a new load in late January. Starting in late January we should have the majority of the availability issues resolved.
6. New LED fixtures. I am working on developing a higher light output unit and a LED fixture that is much cheaper to compete with the fluorescent fixtures. I have stopped giving out dates on these new fixtures. Everything about developing these fixtures takes 2-4 times longer than I think it should. All I can say it that hopefully by the Summer I will have both of these fixtures available.
7. International Orders.- Currently we are looking for a good way to distribute to Europe. All the units are rated for 120V or 230V. Our current method of selling to Europe has been to ship via UPS. The shipping charge is high. If you are interested in ordering please contact PFO or any of our resellers. We can then get a shipping quote to your specific address.
Again, I do not plan to respond to any direct questions on this newsgroup. I believe it is for the hobbyist and not for the manufacturer.
If you have any direct questions please do not hesitate to email me at sales@pfolighting.com or call 800-577-9690.
Thank you for your support.
Patrick Ormiston
PFO Lighting Inc.
PFO Solaris Status Update
I have updated the website on dimensions. Be aware that only the new units are 1.5" shorter than the nominal length. When ordering make sure that you specify that they need to be the shorter versions. We have both 48" units and 46.5" units.
Note that the 24" version is still 24". The 14" is still 14". All the others have been shortened by 1.5".
There are a couple of questions I always get which I would like to address.
1. The temperature on the LCD display shows what the current temperature in the fixture is. The temperature should be between 70 degrees and 110 degrees. If the temperature goes above 110 degrees, something is wrong, so please call us. The unit will automatically shut off if the temperature approaches 130 degrees.
2. The human eye does not see the blue light emitted from the fixture very well. That is why the fixture often appears dimmer than some metal halide or fluorescent fixtures. You need to get a PAR meter to compare the light output of the Solaris to other fixtures. The human eye does a very poor job at this comparison. Be aware of this because we have a number of customers call up and comment on coral bleaching. The corals are seeing the light but the human eye is not. When applying the fixture dim the light some initially as you would if you are installing a new metal halide fixture on a tank that is not use to the high light output.
3. There has been a lot of discussion about energy consumption on this thread lately. My response to it is that all the discussion is probably correct. When comparing the Solaris to other fixtures they all use a fixed amount of energy. I.e. a 250W MH fixture will use roughly 250W of power for the lamp and 45W for the ballast. Sanjays web site will give the specific draw of each ballast and lamp combination. The Solaris will use about 85W/foot. If the LED's are dimmed than the Solaris will us less energy. This rough number includes the power supply, fans, and LED's. From those numbers you can calculate the fixture energy savings. Now there is the variable energy savings which will be different for every user. These variable energy savings will be for running chillers or fans to cool the water, air conditioning to remove excess heat from the room, power to run water heaters, and the list will go on. Since every application is slightly different due to the location and room set up the energy savings will be different for every application.
4. Quality Control- It is getting a lot better. We are not at 100% yet but we are getting a lot closer. In late December we shipped out a bunch of new fixtures. So far I have only had 3 or 4 customers who have called with problems from this shipment. I will continue to improve the quality control because I hate having problems with fixtures as much or more than the customers who have received fixtures with issues. Our current quality control problems on fixtures are running around 2-8%. In August it was around 40-60%.
5. Availability- We currently have 4' units in stock. All others are sold out. There are a couple of resellers who have units in stock. We are expecting a new load in late January. Starting in late January we should have the majority of the availability issues resolved.
6. New LED fixtures. I am working on developing a higher light output unit and a LED fixture that is much cheaper to compete with the fluorescent fixtures. I have stopped giving out dates on these new fixtures. Everything about developing these fixtures takes 2-4 times longer than I think it should. All I can say it that hopefully by the Summer I will have both of these fixtures available.
7. International Orders.- Currently we are looking for a good way to distribute to Europe. All the units are rated for 120V or 230V. Our current method of selling to Europe has been to ship via UPS. The shipping charge is high. If you are interested in ordering please contact PFO or any of our resellers. We can then get a shipping quote to your specific address.
Again, I do not plan to respond to any direct questions on this newsgroup. I believe it is for the hobbyist and not for the manufacturer.
If you have any direct questions please do not hesitate to email me at sales@pfolighting.com or call 800-577-9690.
Thank you for your support.
Patrick Ormiston
PFO Lighting Inc.
Amphibious
New member
Thanks for the up-date Pat. We appreciate it and your commitment to customer satisfaction.
crumbletop
New member
Cool. Thanks, Patrick! Someone from PFO is coming to the middle TN Frag Swap in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see these in action!
PFO Lighting
New member
to expand on the Quality Control Problems.
In a majority of the shipments, the rattling of UPS freight caused a large percentage of the problems we saw. We also had a huge learning curve from going from a prototype model to a production model.
In the last shipment, we modified a way a resistor was mounted on one of the circuit boards. This modification caused 2 of the 3 problems that we saw on our last shipments. It has already been fixed to eliminate this problem in the future.
On the shipment that we expect to see in late January we have already designed a system to have a 100% test of each fixture before we ship them out of our warehouse. We have continued to improve our packaging to make it through the UPS freight system. We are expecting to see less than 1% defective rates on units moving forward.
As for the high defective units that has happened. The majority were simple fixes that the customer was able to perform over the phone in a matter of minutes. I believe that all issues with all the fixtures have been fixed or are in the process of being fixed.
In a majority of the shipments, the rattling of UPS freight caused a large percentage of the problems we saw. We also had a huge learning curve from going from a prototype model to a production model.
In the last shipment, we modified a way a resistor was mounted on one of the circuit boards. This modification caused 2 of the 3 problems that we saw on our last shipments. It has already been fixed to eliminate this problem in the future.
On the shipment that we expect to see in late January we have already designed a system to have a 100% test of each fixture before we ship them out of our warehouse. We have continued to improve our packaging to make it through the UPS freight system. We are expecting to see less than 1% defective rates on units moving forward.
As for the high defective units that has happened. The majority were simple fixes that the customer was able to perform over the phone in a matter of minutes. I believe that all issues with all the fixtures have been fixed or are in the process of being fixed.
I'm having a coral explosion. I have a soft coral getting soooo big under my low PAR Solaris I have to frag it. Its growing sooo big it's shading a whole corner of my 90. Normally I would get a bigger tank to accomodate the coral but I am out of space.
I could go back to MH & T5 lighting to stunt the growth a little but I threw that heap of twisted metal and wire in the garage.
So how do I prune the softies w/o killing them or releasing bad stuff into the tank? Please help? ANYONE? Can any solaris owners help a brother out?
I could go back to MH & T5 lighting to stunt the growth a little but I threw that heap of twisted metal and wire in the garage.
So how do I prune the softies w/o killing them or releasing bad stuff into the tank? Please help? ANYONE? Can any solaris owners help a brother out?
badpacket
Premium Member
Pat/PFO, kudo's for being upfront and honest about items discussed here like power and Q/A. Even though I find the cost rather high for a lighting solution I do believe in Capitalism and glad to see your R&D investment moving the technology into the reef space.
I really would hope though that you'd consider publishing the bin rating of your LED's. This is the critical part of the entire fixture, and much as we like to know all the details about our T5's and MH's, shouldn't be any different for LED's. If you aren't aware of the details of binning, I would suggest you contact Luxeon Cust. Service or Development for guidance.
I really would hope though that you'd consider publishing the bin rating of your LED's. This is the critical part of the entire fixture, and much as we like to know all the details about our T5's and MH's, shouldn't be any different for LED's. If you aren't aware of the details of binning, I would suggest you contact Luxeon Cust. Service or Development for guidance.
Re: PFO Solaris Status Update
Re: PFO Solaris Status Update
Not to light a fire under your um, bottom area
but I see NANOCUSTOMS has jumped onto the Luxeon Reef BandWagon and selling Luxeon Hoods for Pico Reefs for $89 each. Only a matter of time before we see 12,14,24,36 inch versions out there.
Re: PFO Solaris Status Update
Not to light a fire under your um, bottom area
but I see NANOCUSTOMS has jumped onto the Luxeon Reef BandWagon and selling Luxeon Hoods for Pico Reefs for $89 each. Only a matter of time before we see 12,14,24,36 inch versions out there.Beenalongtime79
New member
At 90 bucks for 5 W, I don't think that is quite the steal. 
Actually, at that price, the PFOs look cheap in comparison. Haha
Peace,
John
Actually, at that price, the PFOs look cheap in comparison. HahaPeace,
John
I am really confused by all this...
They come with 75 watts or 25 bulbs every two feet with PUR of 90% a 250 watt bulb. I can't decide if it is too much or too little. I do know the price should come down quickly. I would prefer 5 watt bulbs in 25 arrays every two feet. It can wait till next year at that cost.
They come with 75 watts or 25 bulbs every two feet with PUR of 90% a 250 watt bulb. I can't decide if it is too much or too little. I do know the price should come down quickly. I would prefer 5 watt bulbs in 25 arrays every two feet. It can wait till next year at that cost.
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