Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

Can someone with more LED knowledge explain why Cree is so much better? The Cree chips are more powerful and put out more lumens or PAR right? What is the spectrum like? So with the Cree lights they would be, watt for watt, more efficient and they would produce more light than other chips like epistar? Is the increase in price worth the increase in power?

If someone could explain for those of us that aren't LED savy that would be awesome.:Namaste:
 
Hello, This has probably been asked, but I don't have time to read 900! pages to find answer.

Need good light for 2 foot x 2 foot scrog footprint.

Been looking at the 150w Reflector series, green with the veg/bloom switch.
Also there is the "old School" non reflector 300w version.

Old school is cheaper and has more watts, no growth switching.
Reflector uses less energy and has growth switches, lil more expensive.

Anyone with experience recommend which unit is better?
Light penetration I don't feel will be issue with a scrog, so i am not
considering the 5w series.

Thanks for any advice!

Oh guess I should ask if there is IR chips on these two models?
 
Yeah but the reflectors are glass free and therefore more efficient. Scrog dosen't need the mad
5 watts to penetrate a 3 foot plant. and 2x2 not 3x3, that seems like overkill. Though math
was always my worst subject. Removing the glass out of the old style 300w would probably be
a nice up in power.
 
Hello Sara, I see you are still working hard. Here is a Purple Buckeye pic , 4 weeks, under Mars 2 900w. Hope you are doing fine.
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Cannabliss89 said:
Can someone with more LED knowledge explain why Cree is so much better? The Cree chips are more powerful and put out more lumens or PAR right? What is the spectrum like? So with the Cree lights they would be, watt for watt, more efficient and they would produce more light than other chips like epistar? Is the increase in price worth the increase in power?

If someone could explain for those of us that aren't LED savy that would be awesome.:Namaste:
Click to expand...
I was wondering this myself, so let's explore the subject some...

A good way to compare the lights is to take a look at the datasheets for the LEDs. But the problem is that we don't know the exact Epistar part numbers for the diodes that mars-hydro uses for their current lights. What we do know, is that the new lights will be using Cree XLamp XP-E diodes.

What we could do, is we could take an educated guess at what Epistar parts M-H is using.

Here are all the Epistar products. Strangely, they don't seem to list any white diodes on their site?

But for the red part of the spectrum, I would choose something like the ES-SMBRPN42C, which is a 660nm 700mA diode, with characteristics like this:

Now lets compare that to Cree's XP-E Photo Red:

We notice that the Cree diode has around 40% more radiant flux compared to Epistar diode @ 350mA (the relative luminous flux increase for both devices is near linear for increased forward currents).

Let's look at the blue side of the spectrum. I would probably go with something like the ES-CADBV50, which is a 450nm 1000mA blue diode, with characteristics like this:

And compare it with Cree Royal-Blue:

0-20% more radiant flux, depending what group they choose.

What about the White? That one is a bit trickier, because it seems to be hard to find any information about white Epistar leds. This is the best source of information that I could find. So lets say the Epistar white diodes reach a radiant flux of 180-200lm @ 800mA and compare it to Cree XP-E:

So depending on the group you choose, a Cree XP-E white would have a radiant flux between 190-232lm. 5-22% more than Epistar.

Another thing to consider is the relative radiant flux vs junction temperature. Here you can see that for example with the red epistar led, radiant flux drops just below 80% when junction temperature reaches 50C:

And compare that to Cree:

At 50C, we still got ~97% of the radiant flux.

But things are much better for the Blue Epistar led: ~95% @ 50C

So the blue one comes very close to Cree :)

As for the White Epistar led, since I can't find a proper datasheet for it, so it's hard to say how it compares to Cree in this aspect.
 
Hi Sara. I ordered a 144x5 to put in a new 4x4 tent a couple of weeks back. It arrived quickly and I'm most pleased with the light. Here it is alongside a 128x3 that is a couple of years old. Your company did not sell the 128X3 long. It is an old style light with a grow/bloom switch and has been a trooper.

20150705_062850.jpg
 
Has anyone plugged a mars 2 - 1200watt Pannal into a energy usage meter?

Iv just had a look at my smart meter reading for the last couple of weeks.

Take today
My light + my inline fan + small oscillating fan plus 2 led tv's are all currently running right now in my home and my electrical smart meter tells me that the house is using a total of 589watts

I read and seen a mars video that said the mars 1200 pulls about 600 watt alone?
 
I have a question regarding the Mars II 700w Led. On the Mars hydro website it says this light draws between 300- 380w. Why is there such a wide variance ? And I think somewhere else on this thread someone hooked one up to a killawatt and it was showing a reading of 328w, can I take it then that this is the actual operating wattage for this light?
 
aphrodisia said:
I have a question regarding the Mars II 700w Led. On the Mars hydro website it says this light draws between 300- 380w. Why is there such a wide variance ? And I think somewhere else on this thread someone hooked one up to a killawatt and it was showing a reading of 328w, can I take it then that this is the actual operating wattage for this light?
Click to expand...

Yes....:circle-of-love:
 
:circle-of-love: very sweet weekend with families!
This weekend, I went to lotus garden to take dozens of photos:Love:Summer comes, the buds are all blooming. :Namaste:
MagicMediwana said:
My kids are all home for the weekend. We live in a small town so there will be a little parade and music and festivities in the park. I'm just happy to have them around for a couple of days. Right now my boys are working on my grow tent! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
:circle-of-love:
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Hi supergroomer, I am still waiting for the decision of the executive department. :volcano-smiley: What they care most now is the patent application. :circle-of-love:
supergroomer said:
Are you still looking for testers? :peace:
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