Gps, thank you for encouraging me to get off my butt to get some equipment.
My 50w panels draw around 47w according to the fresh Kill-a-watt I got just for the
lights.
I have a 90w panel from a while ago, it only drew 60w on the meter. I thought the meter was faulty. I tried a 60w incandescent bulb, pulled 62w. I tried my 54w T5HO 4ft single tube, let it warm up, got 51-52w steady after five minutes. I thought that a driver had gone bad in the panel. I popped the panel open since it was way out of warranty, checked each driver on both strings of LEDs in the 90w. Nope, not bad drivers, the drivers are just 30w drivers.
Anybody else experiencing this with their stuff? I hope this is just some past fluke since my 50w panels are far newer than the 90w and they are pulling their rated power for the most part. I know if I pay for 90w and am told 90w on power consumption, I expect that full 90w within a few percent, no more or less, especially since I clearly specified no pulse-width modulation in my equipment when I bought it for research purposes.
I'm tempted to order a higher powered panel and see what it registers.