Hey everyone, So I successfully finished my first grow, with photoperiods. Currently I am trying one auto with 150 W cfl, and while she is getting fat, the lower buds are very strechy and airy. So I am moving out and when I get to my country I want to be able to grow enough until it's time to plant outdoors, and I wanted to invest in something better than cfl's but also with low electricity consuption. I would like your opinion on whether I should get one 150 W hps to grow 2 autos at a time, or if one of those cheap LED's on ebay represent a better bang for buck because of the correct plant spectrum etc. Best Regards, João Belo
Hi Odissey. If it were me, I would go with a good quality hps over a cheap LED fixture. I will admit, they are tempting because the prices are so good and there is a VERY active thread on here called "The Mars Hydro LED...something"...that gets a ton of posts, but that old saying, "You get what you pay for just keeps ringing in my head." LOL I read an article a while back on the cheap LEDs and though they might work, if you're looking for decent quality, long-term use, save your money for a better fixture or go with hps. TWW
lol my Mars lights work awesome and the qaulity and quantity are there .lol don't bash until you buy it i got 4 lights lmao. They def work well. Or if you didn't yield shit or the qaulity wasnt there then you just can't grow. But yes some leds are fakes but not mars lol alot of mis information In These forums these days
Thanks for the input guys. So here's the deal: in my first grow I used a 400 w HPS, but I had a lot of trouble with heat and I think that was a major yield killer. Now I am going to Portugal where temperature will be even more of a deal. So I was looking for something that wouldn't give me temperature problems, and with low power consumption. Also, since in Portugal it is sunny very often even during winter, I would like to be able to turn off the lights when it's sunny and put the plants under the sun, which with the hps wouldn't be recommendable because of the ballast and with the LED I don't know. Has anyone tried those Mars LED's and an hps side-by-side?
A 300 - 400w led (150 - 200 actual draw) should be just as good as a 150w hps. Just dont believe the hype that these cheap led will double the yield of an equivelant hps. Check other forums as well. Its interesting how opinions are different on forums where mars isn't a payed sponsor. For low powered, higher yield lights the 315w agro lights look much more promising than cheap led.
Thanks a lot guys! I think I will compare the price of both, see how temperatures run , compare the electrical bill costs and decide. When I do I will post my girls
ive used both 180 watt mars led and 400 watt hps.. Much better yields with the HP's I found my LED is great for veg
thats probably because of the watt output I wouldn't expect a 100 watt led to compare to 400 watt hps any day doesn't matter who produces it . Just my opinion
He used 180w LED and 400w HPS, that's kinda what LED company's claim to be equivalent result. LEDs and HPS seem to give about the same amount of plant material(usually heavier on HPS) but top colas get heavier with HID lights and bottom buds get bigger with LED because of better array of light and penetration, that seems to be the case.
But were the results comparable? Because 360 W LED has an actual draw of less than 300, so it's not a fair comparison right? Anyway, I was asking a 300 W LED vs a 150 W hps because both draw about 200 W from what I've read, and it seems to me that for the same electricall bill the LED could prove to be a better investment