Would a 240w Blackstar (or similar) LED panel produce as much heat as a Sun Systems 150w HPS light? Please vote in the poll and provide any additional feedback, or other lighting suggestions below. If you visit my thread in my signature link it may add more insight as to why I'm aksing. I'm currently having heat issues in the cabinet with the 150w HPS. I'm hoping to eliminate those issues by switching to LED. Please, any and all opinions welcome. I'm really tired of fussing with the temperature.
I still have heat issues with the 240w. It does not emit heat directly at the plants, but it jacks the ambient temps up pretty high from cooling the chips. No experience with HPS so I can not comment there; just that the LED brought my tent temps up about 10 deg above ambient room temps.
Hey Case, Thanks for the feedback. If 240w LED only brought your temps up 10 degrees above ambient room temp that might be perfect for me. My grow is located in the basement right next to the central air so it says really cool down there in the summer around 65F and about the same in the winter too. I've also got 5 CFL's that I would leave in there too. They typically raise the temp in the cab around 5-10 degrees. If I could keep the cab between 80-85F consistently I would literally do cartwheels, though that would probably wreck my back since I'm such an old fart.
Which one runs hotter...I would say the HPS. I used to own a Blackstar 240w. With the blackstar your only actually pulling about 130 watts or so..have a killawatt meter here. So your pulling less wattage then a 150 HPS. If you read into lighting schemes the HPS generates more heat as 90% of the energy given off by a HID light is in the form of infrared head. With LEDs thats not the case at all. I could of licked the bottom of my LED panel when I owned it...not so much on a HPS bulb. The technology is just dramatically different with HPS a arc of gas is ignited and its made up of sodum and mercury vapor. That whole process generates tons of heat. LEDs generate light by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor. The later generates many times lesser heat. In fact alot of LED heat generation comes from not the diodes but the transformers, capacitors etc that are on the system board. Thats why theres a big ass heat sink on them with fans blowing on them...they resemble more of a computer in operation then a light. Anyhow the Blackstar with proper venting because it does generate heat will only add 5-10 degrees to your set up. You still need ventilation. From the looks of your set up thats the issue. Your using a solid material box which traps heat badly...why dresser grows tend to suck. Then that fan is very inadequate. You basically have a computer fan. Its cool to be stealth and all but it will never work right if you dont address that issue. One thing with LEDs watts still matter. A 240 Blackstar will grow 2 plants. 130 watts is 130 watts. Thats been the fallacy of the LED makers for years trying to say there low wattage units are equal to this or that. Got busted with that scam and if you look around at newer LEDs there much higher wattage and alot now tell actual wattage consumed. With anything that sucks wattage it generates heat. I own a 800w 5w LED Diode Solarstorm and the fucker puts out intense heat. If I did not have a inline fan my plants would be roasting in 100-110 degree air.
^ But I also have a S&P 100x in there pulling air out at a rate of 135cfm. I have 2 passive intakes and 1 active intake. So I really feel like I should have enough of that cool 68 degree ambient air moving in. And that's why it's getting so frustrating to me. Only thing left to think is that the beefy CAN 2600 is just too big for the fan and is not sucking air out like it should, however, when I put my hand up to the exhaust ducting outside of the cab it is coming out at gale force winds lol. Woke up this AM 87F, FML.
87s not bad. Hmm perhaps its just your box trapping the heat. Wood is not the best thing for that and its fairly thick..absorbs a fair amount of heat. If you can feel heat on the outside its generally a indicator that the inside is hotter, obviously. Perhaps you would be better off with a tent set up. The material dissipates heat.
I'd be lying if I said I haven't been considering a tent. Ah, the hobby that never ends in it's wallet abuse.
Right about that brother lol. It never ever ends..well kinda sorta on some grows I never had to buy anything. For your box do you have a inline fan on the top or sucking air outta the top? I cant imagine that doesnt cool it enough if you have a hole at the bottom and you have the door closed. That would be a tighter seal then any tent.
Yep I sure do. As posted earlier in thread. Leaving for the hardware store to hope and find a tempured glass that they will custom cut for me. If not I already found places I can order it online. Then I'll just create my own 'cool tube' on that 150w HPS.