Looking at the long haul

[Robo Jester]

As I have been reading about lights I have gotten the impression that MH,CFLs T5s,and HPS all need to have the bulbs replaced every couple grows.

How about LEDs?
If you can run them " forever" or close to it and not have to buy new bulbs it seems that would be a BIG money saver over the long run.

Also makes me think twice about buying any lighting equipment used.
Hate to have my first grow messed up because my lights are not up to par.


Thanks all

Robo

 

[TiKanis]

Hey Robo... I wouldn't say that the LED's last forever but they do save you money, and last a long time. Money saved in electricity as well as not having to use an additional AC to cool the room. I use 2 Mars-Hydro 98x5's and I love em. They have a 2 year warranty as well as stated to last 100,000 hours or more.

.....Plus the price is pretty damn good.

 

[Robo Jester]

Those ballast type bulbs are kinda spendy to replace every 2 grows which is what I am reading is sugested.

Since I have a permanent condition I plan to grow the rest of my life once I get started.

So the less consumables the better

 

[TorturedSoul]

HID (MH and HPS) bulbs don't generally burn out during use in a grow (although anything can happen, of course). They degrade over time, and that's why people replace them. I don't remember offhand at what number of hours it's recommend to replace them. I think the real issue is that they have to degrade fairly significantly before our eye can tell the difference, especially since the degradation occurs over time - it's not like we'll be looking at our grow and suddenly the light will dim. Therefore, since the average grower doesn't own a real light (or PAR) meter... we tend to just pick a schedule for replacement.

I used to replace mine every couple of grows. I'd give them to a friend so that I didn't have to dispose of them - and he'd use them until I gave him the next set of bulbs. Were they producing the maximum amount of illumination when I gave them to him? No. Did he ever have to buy his own bulbs (during the time when I was giving him my cast-offs)? No, lol. He was happy with them. <SHRUGS>

If you can find someone that is willing to give you their used bulbs - and if they replace them often enough - you can get by. It's not the most efficient way to grow, but if you're growing for personal use (IOW, you don't sell) then it'll save you a little money on materials.

LEDs are great - in theory. I've seen advertisements that state up to a 50,000-hour lifetime. But I have seen a lot of posts from people who have had partial failures of their LED panels, too. There have been a lot of advances in LED technology as used in grows during the past few years, but it's not a fully mature technology as of yet, and there will still be some growing pains. That isn't to say one shouldn''t use them, of course. I wouldn't mind trying one (or more) of them, myself.

I couldn't begin to guess which type of lighting averages better than the other in terms of time between failures / necessary replacement due to degradation. To be honest with you - and I am NOT a rich man - I probably wouldn't base my decision on which type of lighting to purchase on which one I thought would last longer. I'd be more concerned with efficiency (initial cost, cost per month in terms of electricity, et cetera), the light's ability to penetrate into the canopy, the spectrum it produced, the heat it produced, and so on. Even if I had to replace every bulb I ever used after just one grow... my cost of growing an ounce of cannabis versus the cost of going out and buying one would still make it a bargain. I think I figured it out once, and - roughly speaking, and subject to my fragile memory - I don't think I ever spent more than, IDK, $30 per ounce to grow it. That is, of course, highly variable depending on circumstances (choice of materials, et cetera); obviously, one cannot purchase seeds of an expensive strain and then go on to grow ONE single ounce for that amount of money. But with reasonable sized grows, averaged out over time... It doesn't cost a great deal of money to grow your own.

Electrodeless fluorescent lights are said not to degrade like the "traditional" ones do. The last time I checked into them, it was hard to find ones available in higher wattages than 300-watt ones - and efficiency was said to drop off markedly above 300 or 400 watts (I don't remember which). I also wasn't sure about their penetrative ability. But that was several years ago, and the technology may - or may not - have improved, IDK. It's another option, I guess.

Some years ago, I read promising things about sulfur plasma lighting. They were NOT cheap, lol. I do not know if that technology ever took off (for agricultural use) or not.