Re: 420 Consumer Reports Competition - Haight Solid State vs. Hydro Grow LED
a ton of pics bro, oh yeah, lovin it.
they all look very healthy, and your doing a great job keeping the canopy even.
it looks like the HGL has got a step on the HSS, but only you can really tell. looking forward to the finish bro. 1/2 way there.
@bmarduk:
Hey SS I have a question for you. To your trained eye, do you see a difference in the total biomass in one tent vs. the other? Both sets of girlies are looking good, all dressed up and no where to 'ho.[I guess nobody told that that they will be slayed before they get laid.]
I know that you are amazed at the biomass generated @ this wattage, but this is the whole point of engineering a light that only generates PPF(PAR.) HID lights are very efficient in the infrared [read heat], but not so much in the PPF(PAR) range. HID growers spend alot of $ venting and cooling a significant amount of the IR light[heat] that they generate with these inefficient [in as far as PPF is concerened] fixtures. With the LEDs efficiency can aproach 95% with little heat waste as they were engineered to light plants, not warehouses.
I'm not sure where you got your info from bro, but HID is actually fairly efficient (compared to some other technologies). It is actually pretty difficult to quantify useful light output, and there are many different ways to do it. . . for simplicities sake I'll use lumens since it is the most standard measure. . .
the HGL light is 126 watts, and puts out less than 5000 lumens. thats 5,000/126= less than 4 lumens per watt
A standard 600w HPS puts out 90,000 lumens. thats 90,000/600=150 lumens per watt.
now, the LED's are focused spectrum, and it is true that plants are more efficient at processing certain wavelength bands, and it is true they will make less heat, but the thing you have to consider is that these plants have evolved under sunlight, and they probably use different bands for different things, like blue-veg and red-flower. . . but it is reasonable to think that the plants use other bands for other purposes. . . thats why most of the "new" leds are including all kinds of different wavelength bands into their lights.
so is the "spectrum focused" light really
38 times as effective as the enhanced spectrum of an HPS HID?
I don't think so. It's a common misconception that plants dont use green light, or other types of colors. . . in fact plants are capable of photosynthesizing (to some degree) the entire spectrum of light to grow, including green light, and non-visible bands such as ultraviolet and the far reds. plants do use certain bands more efficiently than other, but that's because they dont get a ton of them, so they evelved to be more efficient. To me that doesn't signal that pumping only those bands will produce way more bud/watt.
considering price, and all other variables, if you want to grow in a 4x4 area or bigger, HID simply can not be beat
yet. Even if they were originally made to light warehouses, today they are spectrum corrected growing powerhouses.
now if you have a specific need, like a confined space that is sensitive to heat, then this technology is obviously (as SS is showing) ready to tackle some nice personal sized plants.
someone who wants to grow a pound cheap and easy has to stick with HID for now. bro. . . .
here's to dreaming about high output low input!!!!!!! and to any new technology that achieves this end at a low cost to me!
sorry for the slight rant SS, you are definitely showcasing the possibilities. Hopefully, g/w, you will prove me wrong in the end.
