thinking of giving LED a try

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DrFever

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Well after some researching and allot of bias claims from LED growers
I for one am not sold on LED anytime soon ,,, but have decided to actually give it a try and see for my own eyes results growth rates and of course Yields
With so many false company claims LED is one really hard subject to understand
this is what i so far came up with LED although many claim there by far more efficient one would guess with there 50,000 hr life expectancy and actually running there LEDS know where near 100 percent but in the 65 percent range know wonder they last longer there not running really at full peak EVER
Heat is another misconception Really i guess if you running 90 watt UFO but in reality its like 40 watts there would be no heat but this is really FALSE Claims cause i have spoke to many LED growers and They report to me saying that Heat is generated big time as you get up in wattage LED
Another thing i have been reading about is they do not really show out put power on LED systems ????? as a grower i could give a shat about in put power its whats coming out to me that matters Right ???
and most importantly PAR values on LED this is a good one you be surprised sure many led companies will show possibly very high readings By clustering the LEDs closely together and using narrow beam optics, it is very easy for a manufacturer to show an extremely high PAR measurement directly under the fixture. However, unless you are only growing one plant in this exact location, you need to know how much PAR is being distributed across the entire grow area. Since most LED lighting systems centralize the LEDs into a small fixture footprint, these systems naturally produce very high PPFD levels directly under the fixture. However, these light levels will drop significantly as you move the PAR sensor just a small distance from the main fixture housing.

Then we get into the LED companies mentioning 1 w 3 w 5 w 10 w or the amount of watts drawing wattage of the LED does not tell you anything meaningful about the lighting system’s performance. Since LED and fixture efficiency varies widely, the wattage of the LED is in reality stupid

So with that all said it sure puts a cluster fawk into deciding what LED is the one for you right my thoughts tho Do your Home work before shelling out lots of money
Now from what i have looked at for LED's i have broken it down to possibly 3 different companies will study further as well after talking with these companies on which one i am going to purchase and actually test it for my self once an for all
Enjoy here are the links to the 3 LED types i am very interested in

http://www.bmlhorticulture.com/spydr-600-grow-max-spectrum/ my first choice so far amazing spread light bar set up really neat

http://www.illumitex.com/illumitex-led-products/neosol-ds/ my second choice this is the one many claim that is the 1000 Hid replacement

http://www.topledgrowlight.com/mars-ii-1600w-led-grow-light.html#.U-aFtxBdWVN my third choice 1600 watt mars 2 and this one 1/4 price 1600 watts interesting for sure

whats your thoughts people ??
 
I really liked the Topled until I got a new one that I like even better. I am not at liberty to mention where I got it yet so I am really no help. The topled is nice. Has a veg and a bloom setting. For my space they said one would work, I didn't believe them and got 2. not sorry. But i have only had them a couple of months or so, so it is way to early to tell. I do think mine run at full speed or percent.
I also ran my flower alone which i found out after doing it for a month that is will blow up if you do that... The directions didn't mention that, but in hindsight I should have known. It is good they didn't blow. The fan is only on in veg..
 
I was a skeptic and very weary of buying an LED set up. I also have one of the panels from TopLed that Rose has and I am currently in week 7 of Flower with my Larry OG cut. They are more frosty looking this run than the last I did under HPS. But to be honest the yield is down a bit but I am chalking that up to being under lit in a 4x4 tent and not training my plants properly. Even with those mistakes my Larry cut has some pretty big frosty buds. I will be adding another LED light to the mix in the next week or so and then I will be able to do a proper run in a 4x4 tent under LED.
 
i too am just about to set up a flower room of LED in the next week or so---the technology is there---from my thimble of knowledge on these i take a leap of faith based on some friends experiences---concensus says we need to look for the proper specific spectrum's for flower and veg of our herb---the drivers tend to wear out sooner on the less pricey models than the actual led light itself---key is a buying from a reputable company that sells replacement bulbs and drivers that take the place of the ballast
 
whats your thoughts people ??


The passive heat sinks scare me on the first two. Haight was one of the first to try that tech and it failed miserably. That said of the first two I like the second one better. Basically the same wattage, but the light spread is about half and where I think it should be. The first one does allow you to add more bars and power supplies so you could technically build a fixture for that footprint, but at a whole lot of money. There are certainly better deals out there with what I think is better, safer tech.

The Mars lights use 5 watt LED's. They do put off quite a bit more heat than 3 watt diodes so that needs to be a consideration. They do allow more wattage over a smaller space and the spread is not as extreme as the other two. That for sure would be the upside of the three you have listed. The downside at least for me is that 5 watt LED's are not needed and most of the rest of the LED builders world wide agree.

http://www.theweedblog.com/led-grow-lights-3-watt-vs-5-watt-vs-10-watt/

If you're in to that kind of coin, I think I would add this to your list as well: http://www.hydrogrowled.com/336X-PRO---500W-LED-Grow-Light-P87C60.aspx

I also would put the California light works on the radar.

Lots of ** to wade through on this tech for sure.

Best of luck.
 
PJ i herd about the passive but it does come with 3 year warranty thats a bonus was thinking 2 of them with 6 other single light bars run vertical or go two 72" long and run them on ends and do a 48 x 96 scrog either way looks like its going to be around 2500 any way you look at it,, Or go mars 2 but i hate the thought of chinese made crap there is a reason 1600 mars 2 is for 650 a Big reason

PS PJ have you ever herd of LED fixtures rusting from inside out ????? i have herd a few horror stories with fans from to humid environments GReenhouses etc i like running my rooms high humidity in veg and early part of flowering
 
Fever, give one of those expensive ones a try, I would like to see what they can do.
 
PJ i herd about the passive but it does come with 3 year warranty thats a bonus was thinking 2 of them with 6 other single light bars run vertical or go two 72" long and run them on ends and do a 48 x 96 scrog either way looks like its going to be around 2500 any way you look at it,, Or go mars 2 but i hate the thought of chinese made crap there is a reason 1600 mars 2 is for 650 a Big reason

PS PJ have you ever herd of LED fixtures rusting from inside out ????? i have herd a few horror stories with fans from to humid environments GReenhouses etc i like running my rooms high humidity in veg and early part of flowering

I have "heard" but not seen any rusting. I have run around 8 brands now and have seen no issues in that area.

As far as "cheap Chinese" I think you'll find that no one in the US uses an all US built Diode and to my knowledge every company out there is sourcing internationally. Most of these companies are Chinese, and they lead the world in the actual tech. US companies are cashing in now because they have had the chance to actually grow with the lights unlike the Chinese and are making adjustments to get them better.

And then there are a whole lot of people using sites like Alibaba finding cheap lights not seen in the US, renaming them/branding them and making all kinds of false claims and selling them as a brand new light.

Saw recently 2 guys get recently called out for that type of thing when their lights started failing almost immediately because they started selling before they were even tested...
 
PJ so you telling me there is no difference in a taiwan made Diode then a one made in the USA????
I am also sure there are tons of scams out there,,, As for my second choice finding the price really high for just one unit
I am confident that the lighting industry mark up is high so in reality i am hammering them to lower it as for being a documented grow which will be unbiased and i will do the best i can.

So i am leaning towards the BML spydor as for the spread of 36 inch by 36 inch the unit itself is 36 x 36 to begin with and will cover 4 x 4 area i am not going to really on something that is smaller and said to cover 4 x 4 area where i think umol readings will really suffer in real time settings or the angles the have them at makes a huge difference in everything still going to work on lowering the price of the units
As for the passive cooling have a read thinking the tech is and will replace fan cooling in the near future

http://www.ledinside.com/knowledge/...cooling_high_power_led_light_engines_20120308
 
PJ so you telling me there is no difference in a taiwan made Diode then a one made in the USA????

Actually I said nothing of the kind. There are several colors used in LED's that are not made in the US. It's like a company "claiming" they use Cree diodes, which in some cases they are. Fact is, Cree only makes about 2 of the colors used in say a 7 band array. So the first question to a company using Cree should be, ok so what do you use for the other 6 colors outside of white?

Fact is, If you're being told that a light is using all US diodes and everything else, you are being lied to.

Lastly, that article is almost three years old when the solid state stuff was about to come out. It failed, and failed miserably.

Has it been improved?

Guess you better hope it has if you go that route.
:farm:

PS, A good LED light, and by good I mean something that is better than HPS is costly to build. The key is to find one that has been built with integrity with high end parts, and little profit. Even then they are not going to be cheap which should tell anyone in the market.

Good LED's are not cheap, and Cheap LED's are not good.

Did a little checking last night after I saw your links. Those first two lights are way too high on price. They should be half that cost or less. The COB tech is way too new, and to give a 3 and 5 year warranty is insane.

Perhaps you can work a 90 day money back deal on one? Without any proven documentation, I'd hate to play guinea pig to those...

:2cents:
 
Maybe you can check the Apache led and area 51 , real good quality ones .Area 51 use cree led chips , cree led chips are the best one in the world . Philips led cann't beat Cree LED chips.
 
Have used 2 Advanced Diamond Series 300`s for 5 grows. For my money, and yes they are expensive, but worth it in the long run. Very happy with the results. Think I did enough research before I bought them. And yes you can have heat issues with LED`s, I do in the summer. This is because my grow room is very well insulated for growing in the winter. Top, bottom and walls are insulated. Can`t imagine the heat issues with the "hot" lights. My grow room, inside is 7'x7'x7', painted ceiling white. Use back half for growing, so 3.5'x7' gets covered good by the 2 lights. Just my 2 cents worth. Peace.
 

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