From what I read concerning the effects of temperature on LED nm output, the heatsink results on the Blackstar are adequate. I think adding a few crappy L- shaped fins for increased surface area would be great, but its still fine-- I just want (not need) more heat dissipation potential, which stems purely from my PC building background. One thing that I consider to be a flaw, though, is no vent slats on the sides of the unit. That's where the electronics sit and hitting it with the IR thermometer shows the temps to be indeed be higher on those sides since air doesn't escape there. So I may cut them in myself after the first year since the warranty will be gone. The dismantling of the Blackstar should not effect warranty since there was no tag/seal to break
@hudson or whoever was asking about watts= amps* volts. That is correct, but the calculations are the same, i.e. a 120W light that can use different voltages will pull 1 amp on 120V, but .5 amp on 240V, so you're still pulling the same amount of watts either way, but power supplies are usually more efficient when using higher voltage so you will see some power savings from that if you have a setup with several HID ballasts sucking power. That's the math simply put. Basically volts is potential, (how hard can you push), amps is current (how much is actually moving) and the combination of the 2 is watts (how much work is actually done).
@RayLewis The 240W Blackstars will give you many more light sources, and as long they don't get in your way as you're working between them, they should be the better bet. If they would get in your way, the 500W would halve the total of course. The 240W do pull 133W each(~120 gets to lights) and as has already been stated this is apparently normal for LEDs to run at half the power they are rated for since the light output doesn't get much better. I liken this to overclocking a processor-- there is a point of diminishing returns where you get much more heat for little performance increase, and with LEDs it appears half is a fine balance. I assume your concerns are for your privacy. You will be much better off going with LEDs if you have any concerns over power bill because the savings are easy to see (i.e. my 400W HPS uses ~480 of power and puts off a lot of heat.) Heat is wasted energy, which must be combated with air conditioning or rapid ventilation. Ventilation you combat smell (huge privacy spoiler), A/C you increase electricity bill. Because of decreased equipment and electricity costs, LEDs will pay for themselves. Without knowing how much you pay for power its difficult to see the exact cost benefits, but Kush's .31 cents per kWh in Cali is a high estimate for you, and .10 cents is a low estimate, but closer to the national average. Obviously, the higher your cost per kWh and the more you use, it can get very expensive and may raise the eyebrows of your power company, if they care at all (hell, they should have a VIP program!). For calculation purposes use this baseline and plug in the numbers you will be using: (Total power draw in kW) * (number of hours used per day) * (30 days in a month) * (cost per kWh from your power company in dollars) i.e. ----(1kW) * (12 hours)*(30)*(0.10) = $36 bucks. You can easily manipulate those numbers as needed, like multiply the result by 1.5x if you are vegging 18 hrs/day to give you an idea of what that will do for you. And if you're dropping that kind of dough you may consider one with a longer warranty -- I guess the Spectras have a 3-year. growledhydro has 5-year warranty, 120 money back. Doing a search for "5 year warranty led grow" yields a few more manufacturers, one named SolarOasis looks interesting with their grow bars, here's a link to their patent describing some details. (sorry to throw this in the mix, I just found it)
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6921182.html
