That 14watt panel is only good for sprouting clones. gives off almost no light. and that "1200 watt" is definitely not 1200 watts. Any of those cheap led lights on ebay are complete garbage. Stay away from wasting your money there. You're going to want to buy fluence or top shelf led lights if you want real grow leds and they will cost you. It's very tempting to go with the eBay knockoffs but even when they are the right wattage of light the diodes are cheap and more often than not they aren't even the right par spectrum the plants can photosynthesize which means you're drawing 600 watts from the wall but the photons the plant actually picks up are much much less making you waste electricity for wattage that goes to heat and the wrong spectrum of light.
Bullshit. There are plenty of inexpensive lights that will grow decent bud - this just ain't one of them. One need not pay $1000's for top shelf, overpriced, over hyped, LED lights.
I wasn't saying there weren't less expensive lights that get the job done I said the lights on ebay that are like 100 dollars for a 6-1200 watt led are garbage. The lights I suggested are not overhyped... they are tried and produced some of the best crop per watt of light with less cost on electricity, meaning you save more than the lights cost after 2 grows.
"You're going to want to buy fluence or top shelf led lights if you want real grow leds and they will cost you." That's a direct quote. And its utter BS.
I assumed that they want to do it the best possible if you're spending that much money to grow. If you know anything about light consumption on the par spectrum and the diodes used in led lights you would know that the chips in cheap leds are 20 year old technology and the new chips are heads and tails above them. I'm not going to argue about something I'm well versed in with someone who's willing to accept an inferior product
"I assumed that they want to do it the best possible if you're spending that much money to grow." LOL - Oh that's funny. "spending that much money to grow" - Where did you infer that from? They were wanting to spend fifty bucks on a "bottom of the barrel" light - did you forget that part? This is clearly NOT someone looking to dump $2500 into a grow op. But you quite clearly told them they "are going to want to buy Fluence" or some other ridiculously expensive "top shelf" light. That is simply horrible advice to give a new grower - particularly one that's clearly not looking to spend a ton of money.
Yeah you're right just waste a hundred bucks and have to buy something better anyways. you can get a good light from those places for around 600 bucks for a starter light. it's better to save up for something quality than waste money and have to do that anyways later, or worse get a light that gets you half way into flower and then stops being enough power to even finish. Mars hydro is the bottom of the line that you want to go... and my advice would be to not even waste your money on that.
Man, I've never seen anyone backpedal and spin so much in an attempt to defend bad advice. Good advice would have been to asses his actual lighting needs and his budget available for lighting and go from there. Not everyone needs or is willing to pay $600 for a light.
I'm not back pedalling at all. you got all angry that I didn't give him good enough advice so I said rather than ebay shit Mars is also garbage but the best of the garbage. I think it's entirely pointless to spend a few hundred dollars on a light when you could spend a few more and get an amazing crop with way better yields and quality, paying for itself after a few grows in energy costs alone, not to mention product. I stand by the fact that the lights on ebay for anywhere near 1 and 200 dollars and under are a complete waste of money. I also stand by the fact that top shelf and fluence are two of only a small handful of led lights worth purchasing and the reason I mentioned them is because I too, when I switched to led, went through the same stages of searching ebay, actually purchased one of those panel lights, and had to do hours and hours and weeks and months of research to find out all the information and where to find the best possibly lights for the money. I thought I would save this guy some time and money by going straight to where endless research would get him.
Mars are a good lower budget light . Anything under 300 watts is a waste of money .Don't expect much with a pissass 14 watt that is really less than 7 watts . A 600 watt Mars (old series light) for about a hundred or so is a good light for hobbyist growers , as are the 300 watts ones Remember if you are growing for yourself you don't need a huge tent , many plants , or over expensive lights . A small 20 inch x 36 x 60 inch tent can grow two plants than can net you 3-4 ounces or more ...each .... as a nooby . when you get better grow 3 plants or scrog
Take a minute and read about Fluence...they spend decent effort to educate potential clients before they buy. Yes..they are high end and for a reason. The efficiency alone is enough to interest someone watching their money. I've not seen other companies explain PPFD, PPF, and PAR. No need to get all pissed off...it's not like TightNodes was getting kickback from Fluence. They're superior lights if you can afford them.
Angry? Pissed off? Not at all. I just call out BS when I see it. It was a BS answer that had little thought about what the OP actually wrote. It was the equivalent of telling a guy that's contemplating buying a $1500 used Kia, that he really needs to get this $200,000 Ferrari if he wants to do some "serious driving".