[Pollard]

I don't buy into that watts equivalent thing but this thing is supposed to be 500 watt equivalent. I go by how bright it is in the real world. I didn't know that high power LED drivers use thermo-grease but I suppose it makes sense. I still haven't gotten away from that seedling “spindlyness” yet. I see pics where people are growing nice squatty plants under not much light and/or lights that aren't up close to the seedlings but all mine are daddy long legs. Maybe I should try this high bay light as a grow light.

Yeah it's LED and I originally bought it last year to light up the high tunnel but not as a grow light. Just to light it up at night as I finish building it and later on just to have light in there without installing a dozen fixtures. Since the peak is 16 foot up, a high bay light was the answer. It was a closeout at homedepot.com and the last one they had. ETI Lighting brand. Funny thing is that even thought it's a discontinued model, they still use a pic of it for their website, etissl.com.

I really wanted a second one since the tunnel is twice as long as wide but never could find the same one. Seems I bought the last one in existence. Someday I'll pick an equivalent model and get another for the tunnel and one or two for the shop/barn. I like the ease of installation for the round ones with single hanging point.

It's China but "good china", not no name fly by night crap for the dollar store. All their stuff has a 5 year warranty and according to about page, they use Samsung LEDs. https://www.etissl.com/about-nvc-international/

Of course that 5 year warranty probably doesn't apply to my closeout purchase from homedepot which now follows the amazon/walmart "marketplace" model which use to be called drop shipper. Regardless, if a company has a 5 year warranty and have managed to stay in business, it must be decent stuff.

[Paul R.]

It looks like you have storms just west of you! Practically speaking, “watts equivalent” is a real rabbit hole. No disagreement there. More on that later, perhaps. :-)

[Paul R.]

A quick clarification (I’m just altogether too busy with interesting “investigations”!): Usually it is not just the LED driver that needs heat sinking, it is the 10’s if not 100’s of LEDs themselves in the light fixtures that need to have heat better sunk away from them. (I opened up yet another example today.) This affects both light output and reliability (which few LED light fixtures live up to, though they “can” More on this later... :-)