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LED lighting?

Drewby07

Drewby07

curiocreatures.com
So I'm thinking of building myself a nice multi-unit enclosure for my adult snakes, and I'm working on the lighting design. I've researched lots of options, but I keep coming back to LEDs. I know they are becoming big in the aquarium industry as they last for years without replacement, but I'm mainly interested in them because they create very little heat. I intend to have them mounted in the ceiling of each enclosure, so something like a hot flourescent fixture would definitely NOT work.

Opinions? Thoughts?
 
LED's are easy to work with, just be sure if you are wiring them yourself that you properly resist them. If you can find the disk/ufo shaped LED's you'll get a great end effect. the traditional cylinder style LED's tend to just beem the light where the UFO shaped LED's cast at a nice spread.
 
Thanks for the tip! Any idea where to source them? I've been going through Ebay....and have gotten them there in the past. I found some "wide angle" LEDs but I'm not sure if they're bright enough....

Found this....even though the coding is all messed up....I think these are the ones! Ebay Link- Item 350053803672
 
And as he said when wiring them you need to ensure that the they are properly Biased as led's are polarized and will only work when power flows one direction through them. Also You need to look into a power converter to lower the power levels because leds run on very low amounts of power.
 
I think at 9 volts you only need 2 amps per LED. if you run them in line the #'s start changing as for power needs as they can take more than 2amps each, but that is generally the optimum for say a 6mm 60degree viewing angle LED.
 
I guess my biggest concern is that I don't know what MCD or whatever I need. I understand that I need a viewing angle that's large enough to light the whole viv instead of just a "spotlight", but how do i know what is bright enough? the vivs will be somewhere between 12-18" tall...is there a formula or something?
 
I have some disc LED's for mine, in the top cover. Still, the one's I have "project" the light like a wide spotlight. I may put some semi-opaque plastic over them as diffusers.
I used an old truck taillight from a semi-trailer at work, some of the LED's failed and it was replaced. I removed all of the good ones and used six in my viv-top. I used the resistors that were in the original lamp (they were grouped in threes with a separate resistor for each group) That way I didn't need to figure it out. The original lamp also came with a diode in the circuit for polarity protection, but if you wire it properly a diode is not necessary.
For power I used a discarded 120VAC-9VDC power adapter, I tried a 12V since it was a truck light, but it was too bright.
The LED's I have are red, we turn them on at night. They "wash out" my amel's colors, but we can see her cruisin' without turning on the house lights.
Got pics if you want, but it's pretty basic.
 
I personally don't like LEDs. They do very little justice to colors, and are too strong. Not as in the light or heat is too strong, but it just doesn't give the same warmth of some other bulbs. IME, LEDs also tend to have narrow beams. I would suggest looking into this before buying some.

If you really begin to like the LEDs, then regardless of my points above, go for it. And if you do, post some pics. :)
 
Oh, I forgot, it was one of Janine's (Diamondlil's) post that inspired me.
Pat's right about color, like I said the red light really changes the look of my snake, her dark saddles show better but the orange is washed out or faded looking. I think white LED's are close to pure white, so they sort of wash out all colors.
Still seems better to me than a hot flourescent or incand light.
 
Greetings from Richmond, Alan!

A pic would be awesome....the main reason I'm going for LEDs is the HEAT issue....they don't produce any. I can get the proper color temp and viewing angle to make them work I think....
 
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