- Today on "BRStv Investigates", have you ever thought
of mounting your lights on the ceiling?
Can it be done without enormous losses of light efficiency
spilling into your room?
Today, we find out.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Hi, I'm Randy with this Friday's "BRStv Investigates".
We put popular reefing gear theories and methods
to the test by experimenting on our own tanks
so you don't have to experiment on yours.
And in today's experiment,
we already know that mounting height matters
to achieve optimal light spread,
and lens design matters in determining
optimal mounting heights.
But today, we wanna know if you can manipulate
that lens design in such a way
that it can turn a normally wider flood light
into a laser beam spotlight allowing you to mount
the light fixture higher than you may have thought possible,
upwards to two and a half to four feet
off the top of the tank.
To test this question,
we're unveiling the Kessil T365 focusable spotlight,
which is something you might have seen mounted
over the Kessil's lobby tank,
which takes lighting technology from Kessil's sister brand
Felix, for the stage lighting industry,
where the lights are often far away from the object
that they're lighting.
And today, you'll see how narrowing the beam's light angle
into super focused ranges not only allows us
to achieve extreme mounting heights off the top of the tank,
but does so in a way that still maintains
70% or more of the light inside
a two foot by two foot area.
If that doesn't register as impressive to you,
just wait until you see how that amount
of saved light efficiency compares to the 9 and 19%
using a single Kessil A360X mounted at similar heights
off the water.
The results are astonishing.
So most of you are pretty familiar with the soft floodlight
Kessil A360X and it's 130 degree wide angle lens,
which we've tested its optimal mounting height to be
at a pretty low eight inches off the water
in a two foot by two foot area.
And many of you are also familiar with
the A360X narrow reflector from Kessil
that focuses that 130 degree floodlight
into a 55 degree spotlight,
but we're saving that comparison for next week
because today, we've got our hands on the ceiling-mounted
T365 from Kessil that uses a fresnel lens to focus
the light beam's angle down to a super narrow
12 degree laser beam or slightly wider 36 degree lens.
Using this specialized lens focusing equipment,
we're seeking to answer two questions today.
One, can you turn a laser beam spotlight at six inches
above the water into a wider angle floodlight
at mounting heights upwards of 30 to even 48 inches
off the tank?
And second, by raising a floodlight or spotlight
upwards of three or four feet off the water,
how much light efficiency can you expect to lose?
30%, 40%, more than 50%?
Let's find out.
To answer today's two questions,
we'll first recap the PAR distribution and spread
of the Kessil A360X at both six and eight inches
over a two foot by two foot area to set the stage
for performance of a wider angle flood lamp.
Then we'll rack up the T365 with zoomable fresnel lens
and test the light spread in that same two square foot area
while we raise the lights six inches at a time,
starting from a super low six inches off the water
all the way up to 48 inches.
The A360X at a max 90 watts and the T365 at a max 85 watts
are pretty close so they should have similar output
but today's conversation is all about how that light
is distributed using completely different lens beam angles.
What we're looking for is the point where the average PAR
is the center, middle, and outer edges
from the Kessil T365's super narrow beam angle
approaches a similar distribution and spread performance
of the wider 130 degree Kessil A360X.
And more importantly, what is the cost
of light efficiency lost when we mount these lights
at those higher mounting heights?
Starting with a baseline look
at the mounting height performance test
of the 130 degree Kessil A360X
in a two foot by two foot area,
we see at a low six inch mounting height,
there's already a solid spread performance
with only 160 average PAR separating the center average
and the outer ring.
However, at the optimal eight inch mounting height,
we found even better performance,
an ultra flat distribution with only a 72 PAR separation
from the center to the outer ring.
The key takeaway here from these results
is that at just two inches higher from six to eight,
there's already a 14% loss of efficiency
or total average PAR,
and you'll see in just a second,
that you lose almost all of that light efficiency
at heights of 30 and 48 inches off the water.
Although the Kessil T365 and 360X are different
in their lens beam angles out of the box,
yet fairly close in wattage,
let's see what happens to that spread, distribution,
and efficiency loss when the Kessil T365 is focused
to its widest angle of 36 degrees
and most focused angle at just 12 degrees.
With the Kessil T365 at six inches off the water surface,
on the left we see the fresnel lens zoomed completely out
at 36 degrees, and on the right fully zoomed in
at 12 degrees, and it's immediately apparent
that we focus down the light output
into a very strong laser beam between both settings.
Obviously, neither of these settings are usable
at this mounting height but we do see that the more focused
12 degree angle is 112 PAR higher in the center,
while the 36 degree is slightly more dispersed.
It's also important to note here the total average PAR
between the two lens angles with 174 average PAR
at 36 degrees and 146 PAR at 12 degrees,
as this will be out indicator of light efficiency lost
to light spilling out of the tank,
and will help us identify if higher mounting heights
are worth the performance they can provide.
Again, we tested the T365 in six inch increments
so our next mounting height stop is at 12 inches
off the top of the water,
and we're seeing just how quickly the wider angle
starts to spread the light more evenly across the tank
where it's lost nearly half of its center average PAR
and gained around 30 PAR out towards the edges,
while the narrower 12 degree angle still shows
a laser beam like spread quality,
gaining only 3 PAR in the outer ring
from the start of the test.
At 18 inches, there is similar distribution performance
between the two.
The 36 degree beam angle is now 79 PAR in the outer ring,
while the 12 degree beam angle makes minor gains
to just 14 PAR,
yet looking at the average PAR of both
from where we started at six inches,
we've only lost 7 and 8% of light efficiency respectively,
meaning far more light is staying inside
the two foot testing area at mounting heights
10 inches higher than the Kessil A360X on its own.
Now we raise the Kessil T365 to a full 24 inches,
or two feet, off the top of the water
where the 36 degree lens angle starts to distribute
the light more closely resembling the A360X
but still not quite there,
and the 12 degree lens angle center average PAR
finally dips below half of where it started
down to 597, yet with a still pretty low
35 outer PAR average.
Next, we test at 30 inches,
or two and a half feet
off the water, and it's here that we find
the 36 degree beam angle has come close
to achieving similar PAR spread and distribution
of the Kessil A360X,
where there's only a 22 average PAR difference
from the center to the middle,
and 40 average PAR difference between the middle
and outer ring.
However, we are comparing the results of the A360X mounted
at our recommended eight inches,
while the T365 is mounted 22 inches higher at 30 inches
demonstrating that changing the lens design
allows us to achieve similar results,
yet we lost 31% from the start
so there is an efficiency cost.
But what if we raised the Kessil A360X
to the same 30 inches?
Well, at this mounting height,
the 130 degree lens loses an astonishing 81% of efficiency
leaving only 19% of the total average PAR
inside the tank from the original recommended eight inches.
This spread performance using a 36 degree beam angle
is almost equal to our Kessil A360X,
however using this specialized tool
and changing the shape of the light beam,
we are now able to mount our lights almost two feet higher,
which for many reefers,
begins approaching the average distance
from the bottom of the light to the top of most tanks,
if they were mounted from the ceiling.
As expected, we don't find the same spread performance
at 30 inches using the 12 degree beam angle,
which only has a 13% efficiency loss at this height.
So we continued testing every six inches
until we were able to get closer,
which we didn't see until we mounted the light
at a full 48 inches, or four feet, off the top of the water.
Looking at the data for the 12 degree lens angle,
now mounted at 48 inches,
we see a 242 center, 137 middle, and 64 outer ring,
and there's only a 105 PAR difference
between the center to the middle,
and 73 PAR difference between the middle and outer edges.
At this extreme four foot mounting height,
there's only a 26% loss of efficiency using the T365.
However, when we mount our A360X at 48 inches,
which is 40 inches higher than recommended,
we see a phenomenal 91% loss from the 130 degree lens angle,
showcasing that there's absolutely the right tools
for right jobs, meaning that with the right tool
you can achieve nearly any mounting height
that fits your specific needs.
Which leads us to answering today's first question
of can you turn a laser beam spotlight at six inches
above the tank into a wider angle flood light
at higher mounting heights?
Without a doubt, this one gets a 10 out of 10
on the reef certainty scale,
and something you could easily test yourself at home
using your own light to help you dial in your light's
ideal mounting height.
By measuring the PAR directly under the light,
and then measuring near the edges of the tank,
you can determine whether you have a soft flood light
or spotlight fixture and then use that information
to raise your light until you achieve
the most even spread possible.
You might even be able to do this as effectively
without a PAR meter by simply looking at the beam of light
inside the tank when mounted low
and then raising your light fixture up
until it fills more of the extreme edges of the tank,
or possibly by measuring the amount of light
spilling out of your tank using a piece of paper,
which is something we plan to explore
in future "BRStv Investigates" tests.
Answer that second question today
of how much light efficiency can you expect to lose
at higher mounting heights?
It's plain to see how wide angle flood lights
are simply just not the right tool
if your goal is to mount them well above your tank,
but by using specialized lenses and narrowing the beam angle
you can maintain an acceptable amount of light spill
and begin exploring completely new mounting height options,
like Kessil has done over their six foot office reef
with surprisingly little efficiency losses
when coupled with the barn doors
to manage visual light spill.
This is a unique lighting solution
which allows you to mount the lights totally out of the way,
eliminates cords, and provides options
that I wouldn't have guessed were even possible,
which leaves us asking one final question.
For those of us who don't have a ton of cash
to splurge on specialized stage lighting technology
like the Kessil T365,
what specialized lenses are available to us
average reefers to accomplish similar goals?
Find out how much higher you can mount a Kessil A360X
using this $30 A360X narrow reflector attachment
that focuses the 130 degree lens down to a spotlight beam
of just 55 degrees in this next episode right over here.