Many brands use misleading wattage specifications

You will come across red light therapy brands advertising very high wattage ratings  (e.g. 1500W) with the implication that their panels are extremely powerful. However, this is a trick because:

1. What they are doing is using the maximum power rating of the bulbs not the actual power being run through the unit e.g. 300 5W bulbs and calling it 1500W (300 x 5 = 1500)
2. But no light would ever draw this much power - if it did you would have a huge safety issue because the whole thing would overheat!
3. In reality only a fraction of each bulb's potential output power is ever used (this maximises efficiency and is also why 5W bulbs offer no benefit over 3W bulbs and are a waste of money - see our previous blog post)
4. The number which matters is the irradiance, a measurement of brightness

Note: inputs wattages can provide a rough guide on irradiance, but are not the most accurate because more efficient designs like the Hero300 can produce higher irradiances with lower power consumption. But if, for example, you see a panel with half the input power it almost certainly would also produce less irradiance.

This is why we use the number of LEDs to signify the model name, hence we sell the Hero300 and not the Hero1500!