Whilst the unit is rated as 300w, that is the power consumption, not light output.
The bulb it self is outputting around 180w I believe, whazzup can confirm this.
The light source itself is very efficient, but to get to that light in the process you have losses. Theere are the psu losses, the driver efficiency, the transmission losses and the emitter losses. As LEP evolves it will get more efficient. Don't count on a higher power lep to become available soon.
I know cba likes to stir things up but in reality there will not be (any) new model available on the market before August next year. There are not even final specs for a new emitter yeat and Luxim already changed the specs a few times. They show prototypes but they are not even near to pre production models. All our fixtures go through UL/CSA/CE/FCC etc. which is a long process too.
As for the flowering under LEP: the problem also you do not get enough IR on your crop. To compete with a 1000W lamp the calculation in micromoles is simple:
- 1000W Philips 400V Double ended: 2000 micromoles
- 300W LEP: 300 micromoles
So you would more look at SIX leps to compete with 1000W HPS. Some people though will get similar results using less LEP, because they do not use the highest efficiency 1000W lamps or(air cooled) reflectors. Companies that say the LEP is as efficient as a 1000W MH or even HPS do not know what they are talking about. That's bad product information to hype the product, like the LED manufacturers did a few years ago (and some still do that).
I attached the measurements of US lamps for example, compared to the philips (Ulbricht sphere measurements!). Remember that you need to multiply this with the efficiency of the reflector (for example the HR96 reflector used in this set-up does 96% which is the highest in the market).
cfls are really terrible lamps to use in reflectors. The shape of the lamp does not allow you to create optimal reflectors and there is a lot of losst light due to the shape of the lamp. T5 is the easiest lamp to produce a good reflector for as it comes to cfl. Being a very long light source is can only be used at close proximity and inverse square law does not apply: that starts working at about 5 times the distance of the maximum length of the light source. So with a 60 cm light source inverse square law starts working at about 3 meters.