HPS vs LED? Depends on climate

[Scottxb73]

mars often switches out both the chipset and drivers for cheaper components. not a big fan. at least a third of the mars rigs on the board have shipped with unadvertised changes. make sure you get the rig you pay for.

edit : binning is crucial to the chipset as well. pay attention to that.


most of the board sponsors are a good bet. just hold mars to their word hard if you go that way.

It seems cheep mars have shit diodes and driver but expensive model ok that sound right. I'm struggling with the tech but It appears Samsung 301h is the best? I've also seen Samsun 28 something in other lights that seem ok ..
I used to have sp150 X 2 on either side of my hps, to this day still best coke bottle size buds fat as thick as the best I ever had that result since I foolishly got rid of them, was a hot grow but and heavy on power but in hindsight it's probably really a good set up.. anyways moving forward

 

[Chrondocious]

Though a topic widely discussed, I started a new thread because its hard to find the important stuff amidst a lot of reading. And that is, LED and HPS are both excellent, but the choice of light depends on what temperature you are growing in, more than the quality of the light.

As a rough guide, you use LED in summer, and HPS in winter. Or a combo of both. No point using an expensive LED if it's 10 degrees C in your tent. HPS heat is often regarded as a negative, but for me in winter it's generally a positive, something I want.

Recently at the shop I got talked into getting a modern white spectrum 500w LED for my 4x4 with the promise of higher yields and cheaper to run. So I'm keen, but I asked what about temperature, its winter (min 6C max 20C average) so will it give me enough heat ? Sure the shop guy told me, it should be good.

Well it wasn't. It just wouldn't heat up enough. I tried less ventilation time to save the temp, but the plants got air starved and suffered, drooping leaves and yellowing. I put a heater in there, but I cant see the point of all that wattage for heat, defeats the purpose of a low power LED, so may as well use a light.

So I'm back to my HPS (600 and 400W in a 4x4). But I'll use the big LED in the shoulder seasons for sure. I've grown combo LED cob / HPS for years and I like LED, it works, and apparently the new gen white light LED give excellent yield. The extra intensity they're getting these days is impressive.

But HPS heat ain't necessarily a bad thing. And they're so cheap these days with the LED competition. they're both good. So forget the technical analysis nerd stuff, its too complicated for stoners anyway

Just for reference, 600 watts is 600 watts. So a 600 actual at the wall LED will produce the same amount of heat as a 600w hps. It's just that the equivalent of a 600w in led is like 250-300, or so. Also, HID bulbs give off a lot more IR heat, which is not good for plants. Which is why we can run led at a higher temp. But I would totally do what you do in your situation, or just run both all the time if I could.

 

[Scottxb73]

Ok I done a little research
Phlizon use Samsung LM282B
Mars and viparspectra use LM301H
Green fingers LM281B
I don't understand anything about those other than It would appear the LM301H is the best and next the LM282B Ten the LM281B.
Just a guess and by the prices to.
As for the drivers I'm screwed I assume the best model in the range is a good start... The 450 Phlizon look ok but I'm not sure of there status, when I bought my Phlizon 320w I just thought it was a cheapo Chinese crap I planned only to use at veg to save power I never considered using this stuff for flower, but apparently thease are good mmm time will tell this Phlizon 320w
has 4 weeks to deliver something substantial from this grow or I'll just scrap the whole idea, it really expensive shit led and a 600w hps is $150 with Phillips' bulb, so I'm really in 2 minds right now, the thing I don't like is the RF interference from a larger magnet ballast as my nabours tv not so far probably ten metres away so there's that to

 

[Scottxb73]

I hindsight would only use a 600 w hps for 6 weeks at 12 hours so mmmm let's see
150 buks for hps ballast and Phillips lamp... Vs
$500 to $1000 for Mars and then the full set up probably require to actually make something similar to hps.. mmmm plus all that heat that can't be sucked out independent from room .....
Yah know what... Screw the led I'm just going to run my 320 for veg and start of bloom for 2 weeks then turn the hps on 600w in winter 400 in summer and cmh UV the last 2 weeks taking it to 10 weeks bloom,
2 weeks led, 6 weeks hps 600, 2 weeks CMH.... F .. it that's my final solution, when you put the cost of the leds and then add supplements you still at 600w of power anyways plus all the heat ... Nah that won't work here no... You just cannot beat that hps for balls and running cool in ducted system.. doing this way is a full hybrid system, I done it before and trying to change it it just not feasible in hindsight.

 

[Scottxb73]

Does anyone know if you build a box led lined with extractor fan and vent, would that stop RF from magnetic ballast and what the interference range of a , 600 magnetic, thease days people mostly online on there tv, virtually no Cabal or sat tv here just normal tv and internet how would it affect interference say ten metres away for example

 

[Scottxb73]

Done $130 hortitek ballast and Phillips lamp too easy to cheap no problems guaranteed goodness 100% no bull ... That how I roll

 

[bluter]

i run my veg led rig about 10 ft away from my tv with no interference. i don't have cable. the majority of modern led rig drivers are shielded and do not tv/affect radio waves or cause a detectable disruption.

 

[Regrowth]

Last time I priced it out two FC3000s were cheaper than a single FC4800, and for the lower price you're getting more wattage and flexibility by being able to space them into separate areas or have one that still works if the other fails. Never heard of greenfingers so I'm biased, but I run two FC3000s in my 4x4 (600 watts).

 

[Scottxb73]

Ok nice

 

[Scottxb73]

How is the bud it produces

 

[Regrowth]

And the main difference between the 281 and 301s are in lumens per watt.
So by that I mean to match 600w of 301s, you'll need just slightly more watts of 281s to match it.
It's not so much that the 281s are worse but they're less efficient. The Phlizon rigs are probably a decent option too.
They'll both grow some wicked weed and to be fair, if you get 600w of either you're tent will be lit well.
In fact, I find 600w to be a bit overkill as all my plants foxtail, so even 500ish w would do lol. Nice to have some extra juice however. You can check the thread at the top of my signature to see my latest round with two fc3000s. Cheers.

 

[Scottxb73]

And the main difference between the 281 and 301s are in lumens per watt.
So by that I mean to match 600w of 301s, you'll need just slightly more watts of 281s to match it.
It's not so much that the 281s are worse but they're less efficient. The Phlizon rigs are probably a decent option too.
They'll both grow some wicked weed and to be fair, if you get 600w of either you're tent will be lit well.
In fact, I find 600w to be a bit overkill as all my plants foxtail, so even 500ish w would do lol. Nice to have some extra juice however. You can check the thread at the top of my signature to see my latest round with two fc3000s. Cheers.

Cheers mate

 

[Scottxb73]

What about all Thea's it IR UV deep red are they necessary or just gimmick

 

[Scottxb73]

I presume deep red is abundant in hps not sure of IR but there no UV in them

 

[Regrowth]

Good question. pretty sure my lights have a bit of IR added for deep red but from what I've read UV has to be used really specifically (only for few minutes at lights on or off), otherwise using too much of it can be a bad thing. So even if you may find lights with added UV, you're just better off to have the UV separate so you can dial things in properly. I just run my lights as is so I'm not much of a help.

 

[Scottxb73]

Good question. pretty sure my lights have a bit of IR added for deep red but from what I've read UV has to be used really specifically (only for few minutes at lights on or off), otherwise using too much of it can be a bad thing. So even if you may find lights with added UV, you're just better off to have the UV separate so you can dial things in properly. I just run my lights as is so I'm not much of a help.

Ok cheers bro, now I got CMH UV to finish last 2 weeks they reckon but just on the UV I have seen that mentioned but just for Interest sake... Grow outside in Australia and you punished by nasty UV all day it's of the carts at times so I assume those led would be struggling to make anywhere near that even if left on, the UV here in Australia can start being nasty from 9 am untill after 5 nasty burn the shit outta ya if you let caught in

 

[Scottxb73]

I can hear a noise like high pitched sound coming from my CMH lamp last time I used it not sure if it was the single or double jacket but I have a cheapo Chinese ballast probably the issue? It's says square wave but yeh probably just shit, working ok but who knows how long will last, got a spare anyways . Only use for finishing and veg sometimes and or before I bought led

 

[Scottxb73]

Ok this is my new light set up, 600w hps supplemented by 2 viparspectra 150w on each side of it similar to my old set up but bit better. The leds will come on for 2 hours then go off, hps come on for 8 hours then go off led comes back on another 2 hours, in my opinion it simulates the day and this is a proven way from the past and gave me the best results ever with coke bottle size buds .. was off the rictor they where huge

 

[Scottxb73]

I just looking at this, in my opinion thease p.o.s. have given led a bad name .. do they even work very well? I mean when you compare it to a real light like a hps pffft, I can't see how it could produce a nice fat as bud yeh right can someone show me me a picture of a half decent bud grown by One of thease lights? I mean it looks like something you'd keep scorpion under
It's got no white or yellow basically like a reptile light ? Wtf yeh I'm old and old school hps man but lol yeh I've got led for veg but it doesn't look like this, it looks hot and noisy to

 

[CaptainLucky]

I just looking at this, in my opinion thease p.o.s. have given led a bad name .. do they even work very well? I mean when you compare it to a real light like a hps pffft, I can't see how it could produce a nice fat as bud yeh right can someone show me me a picture of a half decent bud grown by One of thease lights?

Those are the older versions that people call blurple because of the purple light they put out. The newer led’s are usually the bar lights with the diode strips. CL