Shouldnt be a VS. Both are good. LED you have to spend a whole lot to get a good one thats worth it. With LED seems to be a mixed bag because the making of it is complicated results and quality vary. Usually you hear more negative then postive which stands to reason. If I spent my money and no one has unlimited money on one and it was shit Id be pissed and rag on them forever. Usually with HID its 100% good every time. Cheaper entry as well.
Well, you need to make a friendship with anyone you buy from. If you think it weak just say so and ask for your money back or a discount in the future. The people I buy weed from are usually smoking their weed with me for free very often so I can't usually complain. If its low quality, ask for a lower price. If it down and dirty you should never pay more than 80-100 for an ounce and request 5 grams for 20. I have never had weed that wasn't worth 5 for 20.
Do they run cooler? Produce more? Use less energy? The only reason I would consider them would be for better spectrums but I don't understand whether or not they are good for large scale hydro grows.
Thats subjective. Watts still mater even in the LED world. I have a 800w 5 watt LED panel thats pulling 690 watts actual. 690 watts 5 amps of juice generates lots of heat. I have to have my fan on max just about...have a speed controller to keep it at 80. If I didnt have it on my tent would be over 100 easily. Maybe 110-115. Get a tiny little 100 watt unit well it doesnt generate hardly any heat because its not pushing much of a load. Be aware that most LED panels actually only use half the rated wattage on average. If you through in my fan which is about 90 watts I think, then fan I have clipped on inside Im using about 800 watts. As for light spectrum...I think its superior. With HID were forced to use only 1 of 2 spectrums for the most part. Now those might be the spectrum the plant uses the most in that stage but a plant uses many spectrums. Plants adapt to whatever though. I think a good combo would be to through in a LED panel with a HID grow. You also pay alot more for high out put LEDs. I got my Solarstorm on California Lightworks Growers program and rather then pay 2k I paid 1k. 1k is a lot of cash.
Well obviously I want to keep smoking if not i wouldn't ask the question *facepalm*...I'm pretty sure there is a way/trick to pass a saliva cotton swab drug test...I just don't know what it is