LED Lights

[jemma.rylee]

Hi All Has anyone had any experience using LED lights. Am looking for a way to reduce my power bills, and have heard that LED is the way to go. Will just have to work out the ratio of blue, red and yellow.

[BehindTheLine]

Hiya jemma

I've just purchased an 120w LED from a distributor down in VIC. I dont think LED is going to solve ur power issues. I've purchased mine as a bit of an experiment to see how it goes. I'm hoping still for an average 1g/w which means only bout 120g So if you wanna go LED prepare for a drop in bud production. I think the only way to match a HPS is get the same amount of Watts worth of LED to ur HPS so if u have a 600w HPS ur gonna need around 600w of LED so ur not really saving money on power that way. But as they dispell next to no heat ur not gonna be using ur fans to try and battle heat. But you still need to exchange air to get sufficient co2.

This is my opinion and i'll know for sure in around 9-10weeks. It would be ideal though to swap a 400w MH for a 120w LED also my opinion. Your just gonna have to weigh the pros and cons for ur situation. I like to use an example that goes a lil like this. U cant buy a smart car to do the job of a 4x4, not until they bring out a smart car to match the perfomance of the 4x4 or better with todays technology anyway

[El Gato]

LED is not the way to go. Forget anything good you may have heard about them.

[Ozzy420]

Welcome aboard.

 

I have move your topic to the correct area for your question, lighting and ventilation,

[Stix87]

has any led growers ever pulled 1g a watt? dont worry bout power bill coz when ya growing ya own ya already saving money maybe stick with 250w hps for now i wouldnt bother with leds unless you get a good one that would cost thousands$$ look what everyone else is using hps all the way

[merl1n]

LED technology hasn't advanced far enough yet to match HID. It will in years to come but as yet we wait.

As others have said matching watt for watt there is no comparison. The reduction in lumens one foot from LED compared to HID is huge.

As for power saving, I grow HID for medical purposes, my last crop was quite a bit larger than I ever expected. So Ive packed up for a bit to enjoy the fruits of my labour and to pay off my power bill. It was a large bill but one big crop and I don't need to continue burning power and my regular payments start to balance everything out. And I have enough smoke to last. In short if you want the quality then you need to spend the $$$$$. You will not get the results to match HID from LED and as somebody else has said to match watt for watt is a waste of time, other than a reduction in heat. Some ppl here have had some very good results from CFL and although I'm not a convert I would look at CFL's before LED for a power reduction, but still HID the whole way for me. I want both the quality and quantity.

 

Merl1n

 

P.S.

BTL, I love the smartcar vs 4x4 theory.

[nitram]

hi jemma & welcome to os

 

Hi All Has anyone had any experience using LED lights. Am looking for a way to reduce my power bills, and have heard that LED is the way to go.

 

jj .... LED is not the way to go. Forget anything good you may have heard about them.

 

There are bennifits that come at a high cost - this cost is in yield, time, bud quality and likely bud potency.

 

I bennifits are best achieved where a combination of LED & HPS is used (at appropriate stages of the plants cycle).

 

Your aim in growing can determine the light you need. When new peeps think about growing I'd reserve and /or alter expectations if as is often the case yours is too high like mine were ..................

Grow well & make good choices jemma

Nitty.

[everest]

hps ........... yay

 

ev

[jemma.rylee]

Hiya jemma

I've just purchased an 120w LED from a distributor down in VIC. I dont think LED is going to solve ur power issues. I've purchased mine as a bit of an experiment to see how it goes. I'm hoping still for an average 1g/w which means only bout 120g So if you wanna go LED prepare for a drop in bud production. I think the only way to match a HPS is get the same amount of Watts worth of LED to ur HPS so if u have a 600w HPS ur gonna need around 600w of LED so ur not really saving money on power that way. But as they dispell next to no heat ur not gonna be using ur fans to try and battle heat. But you still need to exchange air to get sufficient co2.

This is my opinion and i'll know for sure in around 9-10weeks. It would be ideal though to swap a 400w MH for a 120w LED also my opinion. Your just gonna have to weigh the pros and cons for ur situation. I like to use an example that goes a lil like this. U cant buy a smart car to do the job of a 4x4, not until they bring out a smart car to match the perfomance of the 4x4 or better with todays technology anyway

Thanks for your input, would be really interested on how you go in 9-10 weeks, I am in the lucky position that I know somebody that builds LED lights for aquariums, and is going to build one for me to replace my 2x400 HID, (just doing it for a trial) is doing the research on it at the present time, he has agreed to build it for me just for the price of materials (nice to have a brother that will do that for you ha ha). I don't have a problem with heat this time of year, in fact its perfect temps here in Brissy, but in the summer months it is so humid, I almost need an air conditioner. If you have to pay for LED set up at a distributor, I'm sure it would be expensive to purchase, as I know what my brother normally charges for his aquarium lights. Please keep in touch and let us know how your experiments goes.

[jemma.rylee]

LED technology hasn't advanced far enough yet to match HID. It will in years to come but as yet we wait.

As others have said matching watt for watt there is no comparison. The reduction in lumens one foot from LED compared to HID is huge.

As for power saving, I grow HID for medical purposes, my last crop was quite a bit larger than I ever expected. So Ive packed up for a bit to enjoy the fruits of my labour and to pay off my power bill. It was a large bill but one big crop and I don't need to continue burning power and my regular payments start to balance everything out. And I have enough smoke to last. In short if you want the quality then you need to spend the $$$$$. You will not get the results to match HID from LED and as somebody else has said to match watt for watt is a waste of time, other than a reduction in heat. Some ppl here have had some very good results from CFL and although I'm not a convert I would look at CFL's before LED for a power reduction, but still HID the whole way for me. I want both the quality and quantity.

 

Merl1n

 

P.S.

BTL, I love the smartcar vs 4x4 theory.

Hi Merl 1 n

 

Sounds as though you have had some success, I'm still looking for my one big crop, so just looking for other means, but I probably agree with you HID is probably the way to go, but while I can get the LED light set up for next to nothing, I think I might try it, will let you all know how I go LED lights should be here from Vic in about three weeks

 

Regards

Jemms