htgsupply.com
120watt LED.
Oh, that one. I thought you meant something
new as in "recently created." I wasn't thinking; if that were the case you wouldn't have had prior experience with it lol. My bad.
Never really cared for HTGS. Nothing against someone trying to make a buck, but that guy's taken greed to a whole 'nother level. Still, such is the way of the world.
As far as that particular LED goes, if it works to your satisfaction, that's great. I haven't had the chance to use one although - IF it's the one that he's selling for $499.95 & that he mentions the PhD Botanist (a Dr. E.R. Myers, I believe) but doesn't list any real specs - I did get to see one for about 30 seconds before the guy's wife came home. Couple months later he'd sold it. Don't read anything into that though - he was about three days away from splitsville. People shouldn't attempt to hide things from their spouses lmao. So I never got to see whatever results he managed.
the 120 watt is rated for like 25 to 50 square feet. Better turn that back to about 4, 3 foot high plants in a square.
You mean four square feet? If that's how you'd compare it to 400 watts of HPS, the last time I ran numbers like that I was using CO2 injection/monitoring, semi-sealed chambers, and other things that I wish I could forget because knowing that I gave every bit of that particular setup away. Actually, I think it was 102 watts/sq. ft. but close enough lol. In a normal semi-hobby type setup I would be setup for 50-75 watts per.
Regardless, if you can consistently manage at least 8 ounces of well-trimmed & cured bud off of it or say 35oz. or more per year than I'd say it would not only hit the range of a really good 400-watt HPS setup but be worth investing in. Of course I read that you've not grown much with your setup so I understand that you wouldn't necessarily be expected to max it out production-wise on your first run. Or even your second, lol.
If you have a HPS bulb like a 600 or more, cops can see it plain and simple if they waNT TO. sure they may not have found you yet but if you get busted for somthing else or a neighbor turns you in, you better be ready for an infared scan...
Never been busted for drug-related "offenses" and the only arrests that
did happen were LONG (as in decades) ago. I'm all grown up now, getting arrested (for anything) is for stupid punk kids. But I've partied with more than a few cops, K9 agents, etc. in the past 25 years. And one of them was nice enough to end my paranoia on THAT score about ten years ago when he bet $50 me he could pinpoint my grow within five feet the next time he did a flyover. Thermal properties, heat transfer, and the like aren't exactly black magic. Use a little common sense and put a little effort into design instead of slapping something together - which ought to be a given anyway whenever one is dealing with electricity and water in the same equation - and you'll find that you can easily set up an upper-story grow above which the snow won't even melt from your roof on a mild winter day; and a lower-story or below surface-grade grow which might raise the temperature throughout your entire home a couple of degrees (max) or add a little more load to your central air. Deal with the heat,
keep the smell separate from the heat, understand the principles of electricity, load-balancing, & proper grounding, properly set up all your plumbing needs, and
don't piss off the wife so badly that she decides that she'd like to see you rot in a 5' by 7' cell, don't leave empty hydroponics nutrient jugs lying around (or be caught carrying bags of soil in/out if you're a DIRTy guy lol) and you'll be fine. Assuming you keep your mouth shut & don't try to feed your ego, but that's common sense - like all the rest of it.
In short, grow with LEDs if you like. Do it because you like the challenge, because you can't afford the extra few bucks a month for electricity, because you like to play on the bleeding-edge, or because you wish to support the research (although, since typically only pennies out of the dollars spent on LED lamps are spent on research, you'd be better off just cutting a check just for research), etc. Just don't due it because you buy into the fear-mongering tactics of an ad-writer.
Ahh, well... At least you didn't say that HID lighting causes fires.
Tead said:
I keep waiting for them to come out with tri-band LED's. Not a tri band panel, but individual LED's that have 3 elements in them... red, green, and blue and have 4 wires coming out of the bottom (power for each element and a common)... these would allow you to control the spectrum of each individual LED and tailor your light output.
Sounds what you're looking for is a SUPER bright gigantic OLED. Me too. Maybe someday they'll get around to inventing one for us instead of the television, monitor, cell phone, and pda people.
In the meantime, have you talked to the folks at CREE?
Cree Introduces World's First IPx5-Rated Tri-Color LED for Full-Color Displays
DURHAM, N.C., JUNE 17, 2009 – Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces the first commercially available water-resistant, surface-mount, high-brightness LEDs for outdoor video screens. This RGB (red-green-blue) LED has an IPx5 rating, indicating that the LED is protected against low-pressure jets of water from all directions.
Cree Screen Master CLV6A-FKB LED"We've developed a water-resistant, red-green-blue LED that can be used in indoor and outdoor video screen applications," said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. "Previously, LEDs had to be encapsulated to protect them from water. By incorporating encapsulation at the LED level, we can help our customers save time and money."
"Displ'aire, working with Cree, is changing the rules for LED displays," says Leo Stearns, Displ'aire's CEO. "Cree's involvement started with us early in our development cycle, and they provided the support we needed to rapidly deploy our new technologies. Displ'aire portable, daylight-visible displays and the new water-resistant Cree LEDs are a perfect technology match for creating brighter, more efficient displays that can better stand up to the elements."
Source:
Code:
https://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1245244814243
They also manufacture some really freaking bright LEDs:
Cree Announces Industry's Brightest and Highest-Efficiency Lighting-Class LED Cree to Demonstrate XLamp® XP-G LED, Features 132 Lumens per Watt Efficacy, at LIGHTFAIR International
DURHAM, N.C., APRIL 30, 2009 – Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces it is demonstrating the newest addition to its lighting-class XLamp® LED family–the XLamp XP-G LED–at LIGHTFAIR International in New York, May 5-7, 2009.
The cool white XLamp XP-G provides 139 lumens and 132 lumens per Watt at 350 mA. Driven at 1 A, the XP-G produces 345 lumens, which is 37 percent brighter and 53 percent more efficient than the brightest XR-E LED. The XP-G LED has the highest lumen density of any available lighting-class LED, and it is based on the XLamp XP family package.
"The XLamp XP-G again raises the level of performance available from our XLamp LED family," said Paul Thieken, Cree, marketing director, LED components. "This product is designed for customers requiring the highest levels of brightness and efficacy."
The XLamp XP-G LED is being demonstrated at Cree's LIGHTFAIR International Booth #1463. Cree is currently taking sample requests for the XLamp XP-G and targets the product to be commercially available the third quarter of calendar 2009.
Source:
Code:
https://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1241094842732
In fact, I thought those were the brightest LEDs in the world. But I was WRONG lmao. A... friend of a friend works with LEDs (building them from components they order to spec) and has for a few years, so he makes a point of trying to stay current with the industry.
It seems that a company called Luxeon actually makes the brightest and most efficient LEDs in the world. They've got a little module that puts out just shy of 32 times as much illumination as the top 1-watt "high performance" LEDs. Of course, that comes at a price, lol so I guarantee that they aren't currently in use in ANY of the LED lamps sold as grow-lights. They currently run $186.73 - not per lamp, but per LED module! Oh yeah, I believe that's wholesale pricing for LARGE lot orders. Still, imagine 100 of them specced to the wavelengths you designate in one fixture. Would be a little pricey at $18,673.00 (plus cost of associated components which would be negligable, considering).
But since looking at one module for a second or two will cause some severe vision "artifacting" for several minutes and likely a couple of days of feeling like you forgot to drop your shield while welding (sand in your eyes?), I'd guess that a lamp like that WOULD out-produce the sun over a small area.
But as it sits, the 63W gives you about 30-40W LED per square foot, depending on height. The 126W gives you 20W - 35W LED per square foot, and the 318W gives you 40 - 55W LED per square foot. That's a lot of light within each unit's coverage area, which guarantees that you'll always have great results. If I used 120 degree LED's, in an enclosed area, even if the light does bounce off the walls, it is still not as bright of light as what is emitted in a 60 degree beam. Penetration is key to a successful bloom.
