Your heat sinks area keeps fixture temps low, but produce the same amount of heat as a small bulb of the same wattage. Energy doesnt disappear
This has been discussed almost to death around here: on the one hand basic thermodynamics says watt in watt out of heat if the thermalsystem remains the same, on the other hand several growers on here have made tests and had hps temps higher than led temps on a watt per watt basis. I think it was nevergoodenough who did this temps experiment in an open space and got higher hps temps than leds watt per watt. However i think cobkits got sorta samey temps between led and HID in a tent.
We havent made this experiment in our grow per se but our openspace will not heat up enough for growing during the winter if we dont dropp a few HIDs in, even with matched wattage.
I am completely with aw16 on this in that there is something more happening here and i believe the hottest point of the light factors into this, and also the size of the space along with cooling method.
To those who were here when diyers did their own heatsink calculations and really did their homework: notice that thermal resistance is a factor of mass, surface area and temprature of the heatsink; the higher the temps get the higher thermal resistance gets as it gets harder to heat the heatsink the higher you go as it gets better at dissipating the heat the hotter it gets. This maybe isnt the smoking gun i would like it to be but its clear that theres more to it than watt in watt out in temps.
This subject is like the worst troll bait ever as there are 2 fairly valid positions:
- Thermodynamics are correct and energy is always conserved but can be transformed.
- HID seems to give higher heat when measured by thermometer.
If i have to go with one or the other i go with point 2 and i feel that anyone who offers up advice on this should do this based on their own measurements and not on what physics says it should be. Thermodynamics are easy in theory but a bit of a nightmare in practice.