BoostLED is coming to market with some affordable LED reef lamps and is offering a pretty nice discount if you order in advance of its mid-September release. The PAR30 lamps fit into your typical screw-in lamp fixture and offer a variety of color options from all white to all blue and are being sold for just $59.99 until September 15 when they will go back to their normal price of $89.99. While these may not have to same amount of LEDs as the PAR38 lamps with seven or nine LEDs, the price is pretty good and is a perfect fit for smaller tanks or refugium applications.
These lamps feature five Edixeon 3 watt LEDs that are driven just just 2W per diode for a 10W power draw. Due to the size of the heatsink the company felt it was better to drive the LEDs at a lower level to find a good balance with PAR output and minimizing heat output to improve the lifespan of the drivers.
With seven different variations available, the BoostLED offers some good choices in not only the color or the LED (royal blue and cool white combinations) but also offers you a couple options with the optics. The all white version is the only one sporting a 90° optic with the remaining lamps available in either 40 or 60° models. According to the company’s website, just one 40º lamp is hitting PAR levels of 150 at the bottom of their 34g Solana test tank. Available models and more details after the break.
Below are the BoostLED lamps available:
- All white with 90º optics (6,500K appearance)
- Three blue, two white with 40º optics (14,000K appearance)
- Three blue, two white with 60º optics (14,000K appearance)
- Four blue, one white with 40º optics (20,000K appearance)
- Four blue, one white with 60º optics (20,000K appearance)
- All blue with 40º optics
- All blue with 60º optics
Just in case you are wondering what’s the difference between a PAR30 model and the PAR38 lamps we’re used to seeing, the term PAR here goes back to the old incandescent flood lights and one definition of the acronym is Parabolic Aluminized Reflector. In the case of LEDs the same form factor is used where now the driver and other electo-goodies along with the heat sink take up the space normally used to house the reflector. Just like in T5 lighting, the number refers to the diameter in increments of 1/8 in. so the PAR30 is 3 3/4 in. in diameter and the PAR38 is 1 in. larger.
Like other PAR38 LED lamps, these can be retrofitted into existing E26/E27 standard light sockets but are not designed to be used in recessed can-type fixtures or dimmed.
