I'm about to buy LED lights, help me choose ~$700

B

bigm

New Member
Hey 420ers, i've been lurking your forums for awhile and finally decided to make an account. i'm leaning towards LED because brightness doesnt drop over their long life.

so far, to me these look like the best deal i can find, the guy said he would sell me 6 for $120 a piece shipped so looks like im getting 540w for $720.

Before i bite the bullet as thats a lot of $$ to me i want to make sure that these would be a decent spectrum and price.

Specification:
Voltage: 110/220v
Output power: 90w
Measurement: 204*204*H60mm
LED Configuration - 90 x 1 Watt LED, 70 Red + 10 Blue + 10 Orange
WaveLength - Red=630nm, Blue=460nm, Orange=612nm
Cover material: flame retardant PC
Color temperature: 3500-6500K

20PC New 90W LED UFO Triband Hydroponic Grow Light

thoughts?
 
Japanfreak said:
That is a whole lot of money for just 540 watts. You do realize it would be much cheaper to buy HID lights which would give you more bud right?
Click to expand...

yeah, i know it's not even debatable. i guess im worried about the heat a little too. hps is worth another look though, you're right.
 
^ hah, if thats all i had to choose from i would be getting hps for sure. not saying it doesnt work but not ready to spend $3+ watt.
 
Before you go laying out all that cash - I would do some basic math. Your considering purchasing LED because of the expense of bulb replacement and possible heat.

The increase in yield that will be achieved with HPS over LED is going to far exceed the cost of bulb replacement. I mean seriously 1k bulbs are only $120 (400s and 600s are much cheaper) for Hort Super HPS, arguably the best flowering bulb on the market. All you would have to do is grow an extra $120 worth of weed to break even on the cost of replacing the bulb every harvest..... I don't know where abouts your from, but around here that is a measly 1/4 ounce. But the reality is the HPS out preforms LED by much more... just read some LED/HPS comparisons.

You can buy a switchable hydro-farm 400 or 1k kit for between 300 and 400 dollars - they come with a hood, bulb and ballast - great starters package. than take the extra money you saved and buy your self a can fan and a carbon filter.... some ducting etc. and your going to be around $800 total. Now you have air cooled lighting with odor control... unless your growing in a closet the 400 doesn't even need to air cooled IMO. I would go with the 1k.... I only use 1k's for flowering, nothing else compares - especially if your only going to have one light - I would get a switchable ballast so you can veg MH or flower HPS.

Search the forums for threads on LED comparisons. LEDs are good for Veg but fail on flowering.

Another thing, you can always check craigs list or ebay for some great deals.
 
I'd be doing a whole lot more reading/comparing/research before ploinking down that kind of $$$$$$.

DD
 
there is no doubt that LEDs will bloom...that has been proven here. there is a small footprint but the LEDS do work really well in the right apps.
 
PitViper said:
there is no doubt that LEDs will bloom...that has been proven here. there is a small footprint but the LEDS do work really well in the right apps.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I was going to post in this thread about why I feel that $700 spent on an LED system would be much more economical in the long run, versus a GD system, but it seems the thread originator has decided to go with GD, so I suspect my pleas would fall on deaf ears.


Personally, I refuse to use GD lamps inside of a small space like grow tent, so for me LEDs were the logical choice.

Little did I know I'd have to cut my veg cycle times IN HALF because the LEDs are sooooo amazingly effective at getting your clones to sprout up like they were possessed -- I've never seen such rapid growth in my life. LEDs are, already, clearly superior to any other lighting system for veg, in my opinion. Try putting any size of MH lamp near a fresh clone and see what happens. LEDs are so cool, they can be placed within inches of a plant in any stage, even fresh seedlings that have just sprouted. Even though LEDs still generate more heat energy than light energy, they are still almost totally cool when running. That fact never ceases to amaze me... :smokin:

LED's spectrum is tailored specifically to what cannabis (well, really most all chlorophyll-using plants) wants from its light -- the ranges of ~450nm wavelength light (blue-ish to our eyes) and the other at ~630-660nm (orange-to-bright-red to the human eye)

Cannabis only uses about 10-15% or so of the light from a GD lamp. Most of the light from all GD lamps is in the "yellow-to-green" part of the spectrum, which as it turns out is the part of the spectrum that we as humans are most sensitive too. Plants are green because they reflect all of that green and yellow light -- all. It's just how they (well, chloro-A and B absorption, to be specific) work. That turns 100,000 lumens of illumination into about 10,000 PAR (photosynthetic(-ly) active radiation) lumens. The rest is wasted heat and wasted electricity. Almost all of the light from an LED system (assuming the LED's are actually emitting at their specified wavelength -- cheaper systems can be off by 10% or more, which much seem small, but is in fact a huge margin of error and will have a bit impact on growth) is used by the plants, as almost all of it is in the exact nanometer wavelengths that the cannabis wants most. Pretty simple really -- you give the plant the light it wants, and it responds by being able to produce very rapid and robust growth.

Yes of course with 100,000 lumens, even if most of it is not absorbed at all, you will get great results -- 1000 watt HPS lamps are like little miniature suns, they are just god-awfully bright, almost painfully so. But are you being efficient in any sense of the word? No. Not even close.

LEDs are the wave of the future. They work -- there is no debate about that. If you have any doubt, do what I did -- research. Search these forums, you'll find the evidence yourself. PitViper's 600 watt LED grow is a perfect example -- his results are undeniable...
 
StormChaos said:
If I was a betting man I'd put my money on Sulphur Plasma Lamps.... they will eventually - sooner rather than later get a piece of the horticultural lighting market. PLASMA INTERNATIONAL - PLASMA LIGHT SYSTEMS
Click to expand...

Thank you for that!

That is interesting, they claim 93 percent efficiency, but I have no idea where they got that amazing number from.

Anyway... just wondering. Plasma is a special form of matter that is only available and achievable when a gas has been super-heated way beyond what is normal. Extreme pressure is, generally, also needed to sustain the plasma in its special form.

Plasma is dangerous. Any release of gas in a plasma state could have very interesting consequences for any materials near it -- notice the unit includes a magnetron, which I suspect is used to contain the plasma reaction. I don't know of any physical material that could hold a plasma gas without becomming damaged by the plasma, but of course such a material might very well exist. Of course, using a powerful inductive magnetic field to contain the plasma would eliminate that problem... as long as that containment field was stable.

That unit's (the magnetron) total life is only 40K hours, but the lamp is rated for 60K. Hum... interesting. A failure of the containment system while the system is operating could be... interesting.

Assuming that there is only a tiny amount of actual plasma within the reaction chamber in the lamp, I don't think it would be that bad, but I just don't know enough about the subject to feel secure that the manufacturer has vetted this design thoroughly.

If anyone else knows more about how to generate light from a super-heated plasma, please post as I'm interested in the technology, for sure! :surf:
 
Dacob said:
Thank you for that!

That is interesting, they claim 93 percent efficiency, but I have no idea where they got that amazing number from.

Anyway... just wondering. Plasma is a special form of matter that is only available and achievable when a gas has been super-heated way beyond what is normal. Extreme pressure is, generally, also needed to sustain the plasma in its special form.

Plasma is dangerous. Any release of gas in a plasma state could have very interesting consequences for any materials near it -- notice the unit includes a magnetron, which I suspect is used to contain the plasma reaction. I don't know of any physical material that could hold a plasma gas without becomming damaged by the plasma, but of course such a material might very well exist. Of course, using a powerful inductive magnetic field to contain the plasma would eliminate that problem... as long as that containment field was stable.

That unit's (the magnetron) total life is only 40K hours, but the lamp is rated for 60K. Hum... interesting. A failure of the containment system while the system is operating could be... interesting.

Assuming that there is only a tiny amount of actual plasma within the reaction chamber in the lamp, I don't think it would be that bad, but I just don't know enough about the subject to feel secure that the manufacturer has vetted this design thoroughly.

If anyone else knows more about how to generate light from a super-heated plasma, please post as I'm interested in the technology, for sure! :surf:
Click to expand...

The technology was originally invented in the 90's I believe.... and has been improved upon since that time....

The basics of the lamp are a bulb Sulphur (with some other chemicals) that is heated up to a glowing plasma with micro radiation.

I don't think it would/will be released for use by the general public if their design is flawed and poses some great danger... especially in the litigious society that we live today.
 
FWI I never did the LED grow yet....I will be shortly
check Irishboy for his 600w grow and Setting Sun also did a complete LED grow...they are the ones to ask. Im just getting into mine
:peace:
 
bigm said:
thoughts?
Click to expand...

Beware fleaBay LEDs lofl.

StormChaos said:
If I was a betting man I'd put my money on Sulphur Plasma Lamps.... they will eventually - sooner rather than later get a piece of the horticultural lighting market. PLASMA INTERNATIONAL - PLASMA LIGHT SYSTEMS
Click to expand...

Sulphur Plasma lighting has been reported to be capable of eventually doing great things for indoor gardeners - for several years now. Yet they still do not have consumer-ready horticultural lights in production. I have read that someone (a university?) is testing one and that the cost was somewhere around $3500. (I could be off on the figure but it was prohibitively-expensive based on an estimate of its benefits over traditional HPS lighting.)

While I assume and hope that they one day enter the market, I would neither hold your breath nor put off buying a light in hopes that the SP horticultural lights are "just around the corner."

Dacob said:
That unit's (the magnetron) total life is only 40K hours, but the lamp is rated for 60K. Hum... interesting. A failure of the containment system while the system is operating could be... interesting.
Click to expand...

The magnetron is not the containment system. It is the engine. Just like in a microwave oven, its purpose is to produce microwaves.
 
TorturedSoul said:
Sulphur Plasma lighting has been reported to be capable of eventually doing great things for indoor gardeners - for several years now. Yet they still do not have consumer-ready horticultural lights in production. I have read that someone (a university?) is testing one and that the cost was somewhere around $3500. (I could be off on the figure but it was prohibitively-expensive based on an estimate of its benefits over traditional HPS lighting.)

While I assume and hope that they one day enter the market, I would neither hold your breath nor put off buying a light in hopes that the SP horticultural lights are "just around the corner."
Click to expand...

And this is why I said... They will eventually - sooner rather later will get a piece of the horticultural lighting market. The lights are already in production and available in Europe....

LG has a 730w unit for £804.26 about $1250USD - Sulphur Plasma made by L.G.Model number PSH0731A which is actually cheaper than the $1890 600w LEDs that are being sold.

They are currently only available in the UK/Europe - but I am sure they will be coming to the USA sooner rather than later... who knows... it might just be around the corner.

And insofar as me holding my breath and putting off purchasing lights... lol. I am running 3 - 400s and 2 - 1ks and if the plasmas become available in the USA similarly priced to the UK ones or LEDs I'll be one of the first people to get one....
 
PitViper said:
FWI I never did the LED grow yet....I will be shortly
check Irishboy for his 600w grow and Setting Sun also did a complete LED grow...they are the ones to ask. Im just getting into mine
:peace:
Click to expand...

Oooops!

Hehehe yes indeed sorry about that, I was thinking of Irishboy's 600watt thread, my mistake :)

Yes, that was the member I was thinking of, for some reason I got you and him confused... LOL!

Someone's medicated today... :cheer: :yummy:
 

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