Lighting Hps or LED?

[DrOttogrow]

Well everyone I am confused on what route to choose for my upgrade. I'm a small scale grower. I have the room for about 4 to 5 good size plants 3.5x3.5x9 grow space and currently use cfl's. A lot of them too. I'm at around 4000lumens per square ft. I am saving for an upgrade and I'm stuck choosing between hps and LED.
Im well educated when it comes to hps lighting. But I don't know to much about LED!?!?!
How much LED lights would I need for my space? What is the cost comparison between the two? Will LED last longer than HPs? I just don't know what to do!? As much info as possible would help me the most. I'll continue to pick through this site to find more info. But if anyone has experience with the two styles of light and could fil me in it would be great. Again, what kind of LED Would I need? How many? How much? Ect. Thanks guys

 

[A4]

Your going to get a lot of answers and you can chalk it up to HID growers are going to recommend HID and LED growers will recommend LED.

I grow HID and have tried LED. Hated it. But those were the days before the manufacturers began getting them tuned well. I would consider it now if the prices would drop to even a respectable amount of money. Problem is, they are still doing a lot of R&D so I don't expect the prices to drop in the foreseeable future. The plus is, the high end LEDs are tuned real nice right now but you are going to pay for them.

In my opinion, it comes down to money. If you can afford going with a higher end LED then I would definitely do it in the space you specified. If you were to get much bigger than that then I would be going with HID for a while longer. Coverage on the higher end is still limited and you will need to daisy chain a few to start cover more than a few decent sized plants. That is going to increase your cost substantially. Have a look at Tang's latest thread with the new GN LED. It is an amazing grow but they are damn expensive. He is over 1 gram/watt which is good yield though.

HID bulbs need replaced every year, I replace mine every six months. That is $100 for each bulb every 6 months. So when you figure that up over the next couple of years it will pay for your LED. For your space a 600W HID is needed or an LED capable of matching it. For a 600W HID setup you are looking at about 300 for nice gear, 450 for top of the line. For an LED you are looking at well in excess of that, pushing probably $1000. Think Solar Storm, Black Dog or something in that range. There are a lot of cheap LEDs on the market but it is hit or miss with what you get. My time is worth more than a few hundred dollars to test out a manufacturer's piece of equipment.

Hopefully that helps you some without trying to steer you in one direction or the other.

 

[Waximus]

Hi, drotto I'm using a 4x8 Jardin tent for flowering a perpetual grow, and on one side I have a 1000w HPS, running 750w-for weeks 5-finish.. On the other side of the tent, I have two 450w Growstar LED panels, real wattage is just under 600 for the pair-for flowering weeks 1 through 4. The Growstar's cost me ~$280 for the pair on eprey.. On a whim, I set three of the early flower plants half way between the hps and LED light spreads.. They always grow to the LED side. Always... It's worth noting. I use the HPS primarily for heat, as it is hella-cold and snowy around here, right now lolol I just bought another pair of the Growstars, and will use all four panels when it warms up, mid-Spring.
Here's how I see it...
The 600w of LED costs $280 + power, and will run at least 3 years. And, the plants LOVE them.
The 1000w HPS cost $250 new, with a cheap bulb. 3 Years of bulbs (I'd use 4 bulbs in 3 years..) is $400 in bulbs.. Ballast uses more power..more cost. Now, the HPS is a RIGHTEOUS spaceheater, and if it will help the grow environment, then thats a pro for HPS
My cannabis grows fine under either light type, but if saving $$$ is key, LED wins, imo. If extra tent/room heat is a plus, then a 600w HPS in your space would be a plus.
And A4 speaks a lot of truth, too. The high end lights use top components and finely tuned light spectrums, generally. In the "economy grade" of LEDs that I would recommend, and use myself, I'd put MarsHydro, Vipar, TopLED, Growstar as solid and dependable units, and their light spectrums are pretty well tuned, too. You get a lot of light for your $$$.
:Sharing One:
Best to you!

EDIT: No offense to any other light brand, or Mfg... I'm certain there are other brands that do as well or better than the brands listed. My experience with those brands is my only warranty lolol.

 

[growbiewon]

I may get crucified for this but in Europe there's huge greenhouses that run 20,000-40,000 1000w hps' made by a company in Holland called gavita. If there was any better light source i would imagine they would be running something other than those.

If the leds were as powerful and really saved that much money , these huge ops running mega watts of lights would easily run leds.

Colorado and Washington have huge legal and medical warehouses that run the same lights as the big greenhouses in Europe.

I personally upgraded to these type of lights from a standard 1000w air cooled.

I figure why not get the best equipment when i want to produce the best medicine.

i have the 600s and they are individually brighter than my old 1kw. When they are both running i need sunglasses in my 5x8 room.

Seriously these lights are the shiznit.
Best thing about them is you dont have to worry about matching bulb to ballast anymore.

Cfls waste a lot of power. (2) 55w & (2)26w cfls use as many amps as one of the 600w gavitas on half power.

Think about it that way maybe. How many watts of cfls are u using? Then check the bulbfor amp rating and you will be surprised how inefficient cfls are.

 

[Albert Eimstoned]

Companies don't continue running HID because they are definitely superior to LEDs, they do it because the HID lights are proven and they already have the equipment. The initial investment to swap everything out to LED (versus just buying new bulbs) would be astronomical. As the prices come down I'm willing to be you'll see large scale grows switching to LED. Just my $.02

 

[mephisto]

Next up for us to try out, Is the Gavita 300 lep -

 

[Albert Eimstoned]

Next up for us to try out, Is the Gavita 300 lep -

That thing is a monster!

 

[F.N.]

LED all the way HPS is old school hot out of date IMO

 

[Balarama]

Why not both?

I'd personally get around 300-400w of CMD(ceramic metal halide) and 200w of led(mainly deep + far red) lights for a 3,5X3,5 space.
More light sources = better coverage and distribution.

 

[gone1]

http://www.hightimes.com/read/grow-lighting-led-vs-hps

This was more than half a year ago, i would also recommend led they aren´t necessarly more efficient but they dropped in price and have a longer lifespan.