Lighting Bring your led setups here!

[TshirtNinja]

then why are you in this thread saying hid is the way to go when its clearly an led thread and 45w ebay panels aren't an indication of the growing power of led bro....... look at your energy and bulb costs with your HID system and you'll clearly see its more expensive to run HID in the long haul. but don't say its all the same watt per watt and come back and tell us that you dont want to argue which is better when you did just that.....i consider you a led troll at this point in the thread. also enjoy your HTG supply metal ballasts ughhhhh those have HORRIBLE reviews. even on a budget most people can afford led if they look at the math and save up. its this i need to do everything all at once mentality that will eventually jack up your grows. you can little by little upgrade your space no one says you have to deck out a grow area with over 1000w of led out the gate its a process of upgrades as you go otherwise its useless to pretty much anyone as i wont be doing that either and i LOVE led.

 

[kernalkronic]

I have been seeing these 225 led panels for less than 50 bucks, are they good enough? maybe 1 or 2 per plant.

one thing i have been seeing with leds is that the 630nm red is the best over all, someone did a test with 3 different red leds and by the 3rd month the 630nm red had surpassed the other 2 by leaps and bounds.

---------- Post added 08-11-2011 at 02:24 PM ----------

http://www.hydrogrowled.com/%2F205W-Penetrator-LED-Grow-Light--P43.aspx

this place has some excellent led setups, a little pricey, but in the energy consumption and maintenance being very minimal compared to hps and mh they pay for themselves in no time.

 

[TshirtNinja]

if they are the ones im thinking of on ebay they are a LOW wattage total like 15-30 total watts with no lenses on the leds which is like putting an incandescent bulb in a wall and wanting it to only shine at the ceiling.... its just not going to happen, te light is running all over the place. give us a link and ill tell you if i know anything or how it looks personally

 

[kernalkronic]

http://cgi.ebay.com/450-LED-GROW-LIGHT-2-HYDROPONIC-PANELS-28W-RED-BLUE-/390331630620?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae194041c#ht_3508wt_982

http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-grow-light-includes-red-and-blue-dim-switch-USA-/310324160918?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4840c2e996#ht_634wt_698

http://cgi.ebay.com/900-LED-GROW-LIGHT-PANEL-RED-BLUE-HYDROPONIC-LAMP-110V-/290597447429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a8f52705#ht_4089wt_1030

http://cgi.ebay.com/225-LED-Hydroponic-Plant-Grow-Light-Panel-14w-all-Red-/220827035325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336a5126bd#ht_4111wt_932

there is a few examples of ones that i found with a quick search on ebay for led grow lights, the 900 ones are new i havn't seen them on there before, but the 225 were on there.

 

[TshirtNinja]

http://cgi.ebay.com/450-LED-GROW-LIGHT-2-HYDROPONIC-PANELS-28W-RED-BLUE-/390331630620?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae194041c#ht_3508wt_982

http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-grow-light-includes-red-and-blue-dim-switch-USA-/310324160918?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4840c2e996#ht_634wt_698

http://cgi.ebay.com/900-LED-GROW-LIGHT-PANEL-RED-BLUE-HYDROPONIC-LAMP-110V-/290597447429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a8f52705#ht_4089wt_1030

http://cgi.ebay.com/225-LED-Hydroponic-Plant-Grow-Light-Panel-14w-all-Red-/220827035325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336a5126bd#ht_4111wt_932

there is a few examples of ones that i found with a quick search on ebay for led grow lights, the 900 ones are new i havn't seen them on there before, but the 225 were on there.

The fact that the only list lux and not wattage make me believe it's garbage to be honest. Save up and buy a better quality panel.

 

[whatsgoodie]

I agree with TSN. LED is a hit or miss technology, you buy crap, you'll be an LED hater. You buy good lights, you'll love LEDs.


Don't buy from eBay for LEDs is lesson #1.. Unless it says BlackStar

 

[Muddy]

LEDs are hot right now so a lot of people are trying to cash in by selling cheap Chinese made junk. I've seen people get descent results with those cheap 1 watt units only when they have added supplemental light, usually CFLs.

I agree that if you take the time and do the math, a good LED is going to be more cost effective than a HPS system. Besides the reduced cost of electricity you also need to factor in replacement HPS bulbs. If you change bulbs once a year, that's potentially 5 bulbs over a comparable 5 year life span of an LED unit. At about $100 a pop for a 400 watt Hortilux, it's easy to see that in the long term, the LED is much cheaper to operate.

I bought a GLH Spectra 180 after I quickly found that I couldn't keep the heat down with a 400 watt HPS system. My area is small, 2' x 2.5' with a 4" exhaust fan. Temperatures with the HPS were hitting 105 degrees. Since switching I can now maintain the same temperature in my grow area as what the temperature in the house is. And that's with my fan running on it's slowest speed. I couldn't be more pleased with the production I'm getting from it. My best grow so far was 4 Mi5s that averaged 65 grams with the biggest one hitting 72.

I've been using the HPS system in another area and will soon be replacing it with another LED. IMO, LEDs and autos are made for each other.

 

[TshirtNinja]

muddy you know exactly what i mean thank you!!!! plus you have to think of ballast replacement for your HID if its not a digital ballast which im sure its not for those kinds of prices.

 

[Muddy]

Yep, I understand perfectly. No, they couldn't sell electronic ballasts for those prices and you're right, at some point it will probably need to be replaced as well. So add in another $150 - $200 for a good electronic one.

I know watts per gram is a common method of rating the effectiveness of a HPS setup. While it's not really accurate for LEDs, if I look at my Mi5 grow, I got 1.4 grams per watt. With a little more fine tuning of my soil and nutes, I think I can push that to at least 1.75.

What I would be interested in knowing is how LED light effects nute uptake. I know when Smashed was having his issues the manufacturer suggested that plants under LEDs were so effective at using nutes that part of the problem could be caused by a deficiency. That's been the focus of my research lately, but so far I've not found much useful information.

 

[Auto-snooch]

LEDs are the best way for me to grow. I only have a tiny cupboard so the combination of efficiency, convenient shape and size, low running cost, low heat etc. allow me to maximise the useable space that I have.

I give LEDs the thumbs up.