Multiple led's vs single

Can someone explain the difference in having three 10w led's vs ten 3w led's in a light? I don't see how the ten 3w led's could have near the throw of the 10w. It seems like for a spotlight fewer high watt would be much better and more low watt for a floodlight. Am I missing something?

 

Nobody???

 

throw is more about the lens and reflector, not so much the emitter

about the emitter, you are comparing apples to oranges unless you state the manufacturer, part number and rev,
and bin of the led you are asking about, so that we can know the theoretical lumens.

 

This.
Post up what you're looking at, and we can delve deeper. I'm leaning towards the 10watters though. But again, all depends on the optics. The emitter(leds) certainly play a part too. But not as much as the optics do.

 

Watts is a unit of consumption. Its like saying 3 trucks used 10 gal of gas vs 10 trucks using 3 gal of gas. Over all for each scenario you used 30 gals of gas but you cant say much more. Lumens is a measure of output. More informative for lights but still has it issues. So 3 x 10 watts vs 10 x 3 watts you really don't know.

 

Think of it in a slightly different way. Let's say you have ten "penlight" flashlights that are each rated at 3 watts. You bundle them all together and face them into a dark field. How far out would they put usable light on the ground?

Now get one bigger flashlight that's rated at the same total power - 30 watts - with the same beam pattern as the individual penlights. Take it to the same test sight and see how far out it would put usable light on the ground.

From what I've seen, all things being equal (which they rarely are), the bundle of penlights would illuminate a larger area, but not very far out from the source. The larger single flashlight would illuminate further out, but not as wide. Beam pattern, driven by diode design and / or optics can make a good deal of difference, but more power - in a single source - generally leads to packing a bigger punch. That said, compare the quality of output from the myriad of cheap Chinese LED bars on the market that have dozens of low power LEDs to a higher quality bar with fewer - but higher powered LEDs. It's not even close.

BTW, as has already been said, Watts is a measure of power consumption, not output. Lumens would be a better measure of light output, but LED manufacturers seem to be smoking crack when they state the output of their products. And each manufacturer seems to be smoking a different brand of crack, so their stated outputs cannot be compared with a different manufacturer. Bummer.