LED's are kind of like incandescents. LED's have a working voltage range usualy +- 2 volts max. A change in color most likely represents the burning of the diode inside. You can always underpower an LED but over powering is when you have issues. They give you a voltage range to work with because power sources vary in voltage output and can have spikes. Its usually best to stay at the recommended voltage because of said instances and you really dont want to burn the diode out. I have popped many LED's in my experience and it ****in scares me everytime i do it. These luxeons are designed to work at 700ma and a decrease in lifespan would be minimal at best since it is in its "working" range.
The max continuous amps is refering to how much current it can handle consistantly. 1000ma was stated as the max, for you to acheive that, you would have to increase the voltage. You want to try and achieve your 145 lumens, you need to put 3.15 volts to achieve the 145 lumens and 700ma current. The max voltage rating is 4, so im assuming that woud produce the 1000ma and max lumen output. Now the luxeon main doc says typical voltage of 3.4 volts to achieve 700ma, i would go with that spec over the rest. Its rally annoying how there are like 10 different versions of specs for the same info.
If i were you, run them in parallel so that that if one burns out, they all dont burn out. Series would work if you put 3 of them inline, but if one goes they all go just like christmas lights.
Now i dont kow how muh further you have gotten, but this is general knowledge for you and everyone else as well, for thos who are newer to this stuff.
btw, those are def good options, what i have been looking for
i think i might be using those as well, just the tricolor ones for mixing and stuff. Ontop of that, i plan on putting them to dimmer switches
. I like the site your getting them from, better than oznium in this case, woot.