COPYRIGHT / SERVICE MARK / TRADEMARK / PATENT NOTICE: by our "ShrimpNFish™" Family...
©Copyright 2013 Gator-Tough™ Products, Gator Management Services.™, Nautical Gator, LLC..™ A People Company! All Servicemarks, Trademarks, Slogans, Copyright's, names, photo's, artwork, logo’s and Patents, are the property of our "ShrimpNFish™" Family... All artwork was designed for GatorTough™. And may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever... for more info on Copyright Servicemarks, Trademarks, and Patent information, click here! [ All Rights Reserved ].
Here is a better way of understanding LEDs output, Batteries, Amps, Watts and LED Lighting
Avoiding common misconceptions about LED light Strips, Amps, Watts, and Batteries.
There are people who would want you to believe that high amps and Watts are more powerful.
In the old days with before LEDs came out, Conventional bulbs and Fluorescent bulbs required more Watts to power up and drew more Amps. With today's New Technology LEDs you can get the same performance with Less Watts while drawing Less Amps from your boats battery. (See Below)
Myth: Three-watt LEDs are brighter than one-watt LEDs
Answer No: LED sources are much more efficient at converting watts to lumens. Different materials can be used within the LED sources themselves, each of which has its own light extraction efficacy. For these and other reasons, two different LED sources can consume the same number of watts but differ widely in lumen output. Additionally a higher watt LED sources can consume double the watts while producing the same lumen output.
Today’s new technology LEDs require less amps and watts to equal the same brightness as some LEDs requiring more amps and Watts to power up having nothing to do with the LEDs Lumen.
LED Strips:
LED Strips are usually printed circuit boards with LEDs soldered to the board. The strip can be rigid, or flexible and without any enclosure to protect the LED and circuit.
SMD/SMT: or Surface Mounted Device LEDs
A type of low profile LED that is surface mounted to a PCB. These type LEDs are very powerful and range in lumen output from 35 up to 170 lumens. With the latest LED technology being applied today, these have shown to have the most promise in delivering light levels and coloring that we are used to having. Those smd LEDs we talk about, use and sell are in the, 1 watt, 3 watt and 5 watt power range. When you see a 7 watt or 9 watt LED light, it will contain 1 watt LEDs x 7, or 1 watt LEDs x 9, or 3 watt LEDs x 3.
Amp:
The basic unit of electric current adopted under the System International d'Unites; "a typical household circuit carries 15 to 50 amps". a typical motorcycle battery circuit carries 150 A (amps) and one can have 250 A (amps) 15 to 50 amps". a typical marine battery circuit carries ---- to ---- amps" (see below)
Watts
The unit for measuring electrical power. It defines the rate of “ENERGY CONSUMPTION” by an electrical device such as a LED Light Strips when it is in operation. The lower the Watts the less power drain on your batteries.
Watts per LED:
It can be confusing when two watt numbers are used in product specifications. For the application to smd high powered LEDs, the 1 watt, 3 watt, 5 watt, etc, refers to the power consumption of that specific LEDs installed on the light strips.
What is a marine battery?
Marine batteries are considered a "hybrid" battery which actually fall between the starting and deep-cycle batteries. Marine batteries are usually rated using "MCA" or Marine cranking amps which is rated 32 degrees F, while CCA is at zero degree F. (For more information on CCA, CA & MCA, please see below)
What is the Amp Hour (Ah) rating?
An amp-hour is one amp for one hour, or 10 amps for 1/10 of an hour and so forth. It is amps X hours. If you have something that pulls 20 amps, and you use it for 20 minutes, then the amp-hours used would be 20 (amps) X .333 (hours), or 6.67 AH. The accepted AH rating time period for batteries used in solar electric and backup power systems (and for nearly all deep cycle batteries) is the "20 hour rate". This means that it is discharged down to 10.5 volts over a 20 hour period while the total actual amp-hours it supplies is measured. Sometimes ratings at the 6 hour rate and 100 hour rate are also given for comparison and for different applications. The 6-hour rate is often used for industrial batteries, as that is a typical daily duty cycle. Sometimes the 100 hour rate is given just to make the battery look better than it really is, but it is also useful for figuring battery capacity for long-term backup amp-hour requirements.
