Lol, sure hope I wasnt part of that peer pressure, though its clear i was. Tbh, my curioisty came from heat issues. My electric outlets and timers MELTED during summer. Thats some scary shit, good thing im home, cuz id know just what to do, but imagine if i wasnt So the options were spend a shitload on new electrical hookups and ac and a buncha other cooling shit or get some new freakin lights! And yes brother, a green house is the only way to go outdoors here. Too many gang members, tweakers and thieves. Heres the plans ive been studying for a week or so http://www.usa-gardening.com/greenhouse/greenhouse.html Wife and i have BIG plans for the next few years. Those leds should help me save some money to get ahead. But tbh, my electric has never been at or over 300 bucks a month, even with my family of six, cuz im a frugal mofo who instilled frugality and discipline into my young family years and years ago. I just lead by example and they follow. You see the new paint job i did in the jungle? Sucked every ounce of energy i had outta me, no shittin i sweated gallons out yesterday lol I dont wanna turn this thread into a chat thread so ill be headin over to your spot onight o see whats up with those glassworks. You got a cool glass business name yet? If not, pm me or ill pm you and we can figure out somethin catchy, im good at that sorta thing. I turned down a free spoon pipe last week because im waiting for ou to make me a thick, badass piece, not even kiddin, super excited.
Condit thanx for dumbing it dwn a bit..i think a lot of us ..well..myself anyway..are interested in the less heat generated aspect of led..hid's heat is always a problem and the solutions are pricy..hid you know the heat going into it is going to be significant and must be looked after...led cuts dwn or eliminates that..i can get a 600w hps for $200 sure but it's going to take another $200 easy to cool the heat generated dwn..and i'm not including pwr to run it..so what's more efficent may not in the long run be more practical..it all depends on what your budget is..and your style of grwng..having gone thru 3 brands to get my rigs switched over from hid to led..you won't know till you put whatever unit you choose into your cab.. for my rig's a 5w won't work cause not enough height in cabs for the heat it puts out..3w is just right..but you can't learn that from the numbers on chrts..you have to try it..best i can suggest is buy a unit with money back gaurantee and try it out..don't like it send it back try something else..PITA ..sure is..but i got what i need to do the job ..no more no less for the right price..if i don't need it i don't want to pay for it..i just can't justify the expenditure and it would bother me to spend money on a feature i can't see let alone understand right now in my stage of development..i'm learning so no need to go top of the line..ya luv your girl friend but she is not learning to shift gears in your Mercedes..you get her a rental..lol!
One other thing I forgot to mention is that when comparing HID vs LED or other light sources, lumen depreciation is also a pretty important figure to look at. There is a big difference between good LED chips and poor or generic LED chips in terms of lumen depreciation... yes I know, lumens are for humans, but when comparing equal wavelength lights sources, it still is invaluable information. What I mean by this is 2 things... first... better chips last longer... for instance Osram chips are rated at a 100,000 lifetime vs Epistar chips at a 50,000 lifetime... what is the difference in years... 50,000 hours of operation equates to about 5.7 years... so using a better chip is going to give you double the lifetime of the LED emmiters, an extra 5.7 years roughly.... So when looking at your ROI or return on investment, then this is a pretty important piece to consider. If your spending money on a panel that has the "economy" chips, expect that you will have to purchase 2 of these LEDs in the lifetime of an LED running OSRAM chips... so right there is a strike to ROI if you choose to compare from a financial aspect. With HID, bulb replacement should be yearly.... so if considering the cost difference between HID and LED, you must also figure in buying a bulb each year for the lifetime... For example... You pick up a 600w HID from your example vs the Advanced LED 300 I have.... around $300 bucks for a HID setup or so, and $850 for the XTE 300... now in the lifetime of 5 years.... the XTE will cost you nothing but electricity, but the HID is going to require roughly 4-5 bulb replacements to operate at peak effiency. So considering that...now the prices over 5 years are about identical....and this doesn't take into consideration electricity usage where the XTE is only using about 40% of the energy of the HID to produce the same uMOL output..(or roughtly similar) so over time, not only are you saving on bulb replacement, but also on energy effiency. Now part of this is due to lumen depreciation, and with HID/HPS bulbs are rated at peak lumen output and median lumen output. Median lumen output is described as the output at the half life of the bulb, and with most HID bubls, only 6,000 to 12,000 hours into usage, the Median Lumen output is about 30-40% lower than the inital peak output...meaning that HID bulbs ouput of lumens greatly decreases in about 9 months, greatly, where as LED's only may have a 20-30% drop of lumen output over the course of 5 years... So what this means, say you buy a 1000w hid bulb...about 9 months to 1 year after purchase, you will be using the energy of 1000w, but only outputting the light intensity/lumen output of around a 6oow bulb... Another part of this is based on LED chips and the brand... some brands lose much more light over time, some lose very little. Most better chips lose only 10-20% over their lifetime vs other chips that may lose 20-30% over their lifetime... so another point to consider when getting into the LED plant lighting market.
Thank you all for keepin the discussion going in the right direction. I feel like i can finally ask my question again and get some proper answers... Anyone study the 10w crees? What do you all think of them? Just curious on some opinions.
Good read...I have purchased various lights and have run grows using the same strains (clones). The hard thing about doing comparison testing is that there are many other variables that can affect a grow. You can take ten clones from the same plant and you will get different genetic nuances from each plant. You can feed them the same nutrients and have them in the same containers. Light is one of the major factors but not the only factor. Humidity, temperature, soil conditions (medium)and even air movement can and do affect the grow. You also have slight variations in the lights themselves even if they are the same brand and model. Yes you can do a controlled test on the light itself measuring output, coverage, power consumption, heat generation. The sun in my humble opinion is the baseline for all lights. I went down the red / blue road and even though I grew good meds I never got the density as compared to my HID system. I now have run two full grows and am on my third using a white LED based light from AMARE. You have to compare apples to apples and orange to oranges but then you have to decide on what variety of "apple" you have. I don't own a MARS so I can't make a determination on how "good" it is. I know several growers who do have them and other brands of lights. If I crunch the numbers of the various lights using the data they have provided and base that on cost the AMARE provides the "best bang for the buck" when you compare actual light output and coverage... If your wondering I am not a sales rep or anything of the sort. I purchased my lights and hung around on the various forums in the background. One day after seeing the results I was getting I decided to start a grow journal to share my experience with fellow growers. Would love to see you take up the gauntlet and do some controlled testing of various brands of lights and post the results... You should search for Growers House (Nate) they actually do test a lot of lights and provide charts. Are they an independent testing facility no they are a business. Keep it Green
I think this guy called doc does. He's made his own cob leds and such...lemme go find his link Here we go....http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1315577-96Perpetualhempies%2CSCROG%2C4000wHID%26LED%2CVids%2CCo2%2Clightrails%2Cflowtables%2C900gKoiPond%2C12x25Growspace%21 He's safe as fuck aswell Chef.
Anyone with grow experience please chime in Doing a quick research study I am taken a survey on when growers start to feed their seedlings At what point do you start and what are you feeding. Are you on a modified Lucas feed schedule, also what brand are you running fert wise Thanks as always Stiggy Pops
Hey guys just started a new grow with test leds from mars hydro http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1344639-Mars-hydro-new-led-photo-grow-lets-have-some-fun!#entry20964069 auto help page if you need help with autoflowers http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1294434-Need-help-with-autos?-Welcome new vote page sept please vote http://www.dutch-passion.nl/en/photovote/2014-09-03-autoultimate%C2%AE-loki_1752/
Thought I would drop a pic of the tent in here under the IntelligentGro II intensity series led.. At day 46 and we have officially flipped the timer to flower..
^ beautiful hyper! Those plants are lovin that LED. You still got them 7 feet off the canopy? EVERYONE check out LOKIs new thread if you havent yet please. He's grasscitys auto KING! Seriously, dont miss this guys work, youll regret it! ~poke