Lighting Hps or LED?

[namvet25]

With LED'S it's more about the spectrum than the par readings.LED lights do not have the coverage area of HPS and that is the main reason there not used in many commercial green houses.HPS lights are a great light for growing large crops but thanks to LED'S you can grow excellent weed without all the heat issues and money spent for cool tubes,ducting,blowers and etc.They both have there place and as indoor growers we should be thankfull for both.

 

[oldster]

Im talking actual watts. Cfls are internally ballasted. A real watt 55w actually draws more power than 55w described as amp draw. On the 55w light its lable states it uses .8a which equates to 96w @120 v . So in reality you're paying for 96w to the power co but only giving the plants 55W. IM not stating compared to watts but actual cfl watts.

My gavita is very efficient. It only takes 630w to produce 600W.



Try out a kill a watt meter they are pretty cool.

Hi Grow, I said in my previous post the HPS was more efficient than CFL, no argument there. I do have an equivalent to a kill a watt meter. Yes, CFLs are internally ballasted but all HID lights use a ballast as well it just happens to be external.

No question that consumer CFLs are allowed to be mislabeled to exclude the power used by the ballast and the cheap ballasts they tend to use to keep prices down use more power than a quality ballast like the one that came with your light.

My only reason for posting to the discussion was that CFL, HID, and LED can all grow great plants and advocates/manufacturers for each type sometimes skew info in favor of their preference. At the end of the day it comes down to how much of the energy consumed gets turned into light that the plant can actually use. An LED light can be more accurately tuned to those frequencies than a CFL or HID light so will be more efficient. That efficiency is lost however if you also depend on the heat generated by the light to keep the growing area warm enough in which case the higher initial cost of an LED is hard to justify when you have to add heat from another source.

The heat generated by a light like yours for someone wanting to grow a plant or 2 in a small tent is going to require a lot of ventilation which also uses energy and even if you operate it at 50% is still might be overkill. Just trying to point out that there are no magic bullets and that it is important to make light choices based on each situation, one type does not fit all IMHO

 

[oldster]

Im talking actual watts. Cfls are internally ballasted. A real watt 55w actually draws more power than 55w described as amp draw. On the 55w light its lable states it uses .8a which equates to 96w @120 v . So in reality you're paying for 96w to the power co but only giving the plants 55W. IM not stating compared to watts but actual cfl watts.

My gavita is very efficient. It only takes 630w to produce 600W.



Try out a kill a watt meter they are pretty cool.

Hi Grow, I said in my previous post the HPS was more efficient than CFL, no argument there. I do have an equivalent to a kill a watt meter. Yes, CFLs are internally ballasted but all HID lights use a ballast as well it just happens to be external.

No question that consumer CFLs are allowed to be mislabeled to exclude the power used by the ballast and the cheap ballasts they tend to use to keep prices down use more power than a quality ballast like the one that came with your light.

My only reason for posting to the discussion was that CFL, HID, and LED can all grow great plants and advocates/manufacturers for each type sometimes skew info in favor of their preference. At the end of the day it comes down to how much of the energy consumed gets turned into light that the plant can actually use. An LED light can be more accurately tuned to those frequencies than a CFL or HID light so will be more efficient. That efficiency is lost however if you also depend on the heat generated by the light to keep the growing area warm enough in which case the higher initial cost of an LED is hard to justify when you have to add heat from another source.

The heat generated by a light like yours for someone wanting to grow a plant or 2 in a small tent is going to require a lot of ventilation which also uses energy and even if you operate it at 50% is still might be overkill. Just trying to point out that there are no magic bullets and that it is important to make light choices based on each situation, one type does not fit all IMHO

 

[pop22]

Also considering a 400w cmh is very cheap but performance is bar none. Nothing touches the cmh in the 400w range.

I disagree with this statement. IMO, matched on a true watt for watt basis, LED will match any MH/CMH for PAR/PPF and produce 35% less heat. I replaced a 600 watt MH light with a pair of 300 watt LEDs ( true wattage for the pair is 380 watt ) and they have matched it for growth and flower and reduced heat by at least 35%.

The gavita on 1150w is an hps light and as such is subject to all the same faults as any HPS, PLUS its way too expensive. When you factor in the cost of bulb replacement and the electric power used, I could replace it with 6 Mars Hydro "old Style" lights for a total of about 1140 true watts, equal or greater total PAR, AND tremendously less heat to have to get rid of, ie with high power fans and airconditioning, etc. Add to that no bulbs to change, and guess what, in a commercial grow the actual PAR means very little, its not a grow contest, they want healthy consistent plants. HPS/Plasma/MH-CMH is all dead technology and as the price on LED continues to drop, there will be less and less incentive to but them, its just a matter of time at this point

 

[namvet25]

I started growing years ago and started with cfl's and grew some decent weed. To me it's not what the light draws but how many lumens it puts out.If the CFL companys state there lights put out the same lumens or equiv of a incadensent than a 100 watt equiv CFL should have the same lumen output of a 100 watt incadensent bulb but the power to run it is much lower.

 

[growbiewon]

Good arguments all.

I have seen the large mars ll 1600w used in a 4x4 that didn't run any cooler than a 400/600w. Hid If air cooled reflectors are used the heat can be less than the mar ll.

 

[growbiewon]

I agree leds have the potential to best hids but to say they are better than hids is still opinion,
just, like i think hids are better because of my reasons and research. . The hid bulb spectrum wise is pretty cutting edge Still.
I have to agree that anyone can grow with any lights i just like to have the reliable bmw 5 series or porsche 911 of grow setups instead of the new tesla roadster. Lol

i love how passionate we are about our growing. Kudos all and much respect. I'm sorry if im wrong about certain things im always down to learn. I just love a debate.

Cheers mates!

 

[growbiewon]

With LED'S it's more about the spectrum than the par readings.LED lights do not have the coverage area of HPS and that is the main reason there not used in many commercial green houses.HPS lights are a great light for growing large crops but thanks to LED'S you can grow excellent weed without all the heat issues and money spent for cool tubes,ducting,blowers and etc.They both have there place and as indoor growers we should be thankfull for both.

I agree with you. 1000w Hps also has penetration on its side as well.

The 6" max fan will cool a 1000w air cooled hood or 2 600w open hood gavitas and exchange enough air in the room as well. Even led setups need air exchange.

For the sake of the OP.

i compared mars ll 1600w (800w) with the gavita 750 (up to 825w)
heres the skinny.

mars II 1600w (780w)
$650
http://topledgrowlight.kancart.com/item_detail/71-Mars-II-1600W-LED-grow-light-#!detail

Gavita 600/750 DE flex (400-825w)
$401.35
https://www.growitbest.com/gavita-pro-6750e-de-flex-400825-watt-120240-volt-p-4827.html

6" Max fan pro 420cfm 3speeds
$159.42
https://www.growitbest.com/canfan-max-fan-pro-series-6-in-420-cfm-p-4942.html


So including shipping you're paying about $50 less than a Mars ll 1600w. But you also get the best 6" fan on the market too.
.

These two lights are going to cost the same to run, power wise, but with no money left (after buying the led) for exhaust fan you have an incomplete setup.

I think both would give pretty equal results once you dial in the kits.

Am I in agreement that Every setup needs exhaust? why not choose the option where you get the best fan , and For free in this situation.

Now even consider you just get a 600w mag ballast and a Phillips lucolux bulb inside an inexpensive air cooled reflector( at the same site) you would have similar results but for a couple hundred cheaper and being several degrees cooler because of the a/c hood.

this example would be perfect for a 4x4 or 5x5 tent.

 

[elsamurai]

and so the debate continues lol. there is at least 1 commercial grower in Denver Co that use's LED. I seen it. didn't realize what I was looking at, but it looked cool. lol. good info exchanged here
DrOtto, so what did you go with? I got the mars-hydro as I'm only trying to do 2-3 plant's at a time and just supplying myself and 1 other.

 

[Bilbo]

I'm not an hps grower but I would presume that with one 6" fan sucking air through a cool tube you'll definitely have another fan running as an intake plus maybe another one filtering air out of the tent if you have the cool tube running running straight through?

So at least two fans, if not 3, all running together must make a hell of a racket! Whereas with an led grow even using three panels and cfl's totaling 600w true I've only ever had to open a third passive vent and turn my 4" rvk fan up to 3/4 speed to keep the tent nice and steady at 25c.
Now I'm happily down to two panels (which I've customised with whisper quiet fans) and the extractor at half speed and my grow is about as loud as a laptop and as cool as a 22c cucumber

I know it's always one camp or the other but as this is such a sensible debate I hope I don't upset any HPS users when I paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson and say that they are as different as a typewriter and a word processor.
We all know which way that one went as I sit here typing this and wondering if tippex is still a thing?