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Yo grow friends,

Wondering if anyone has tried out LED lighting? Some say it's better than HPS other's stick to their roots...

Lower Expectations Dude

So I watched a small LED grow, but account wasn't taken of the heat difference in comparison to the usual light, in this case a (ancient) 250w HPS with the ballast on board. That required the fan on all the time to cope with the temperature as it's a small ( W = 1m. x D = 65cm. x H = 1.65m) box grow. However the LED (90w tri-band) is virtually temperature neutral.

So long story short. The location of the box is very cold, (no prob with the HPS) so with winter coming on what to do? Location was fixed and unheatable, so to warm the growbox, first attempt was to fit 2 CFL's in but that managed about raise the temp. 3 or 4 degrees which wasn't much use nowhere near the minimum which I think is about 22c. The outside temp was getting down to 5 or 6c at night. So a couple more weeks with the plants coming on quite well in all other respects. (I'm an old stoner so my learning curve is slight incline now)

Next a small 60w heater was added in the box, again a marginal improvement but not enough to cope with night time temps., so finally, and about 5 weeks in to the 9 week grow (these were 60 day auto's) the temp problem was finally solved by making a fitted jacket with some brilliant thermal wrap http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermawrap-Loft ... 25&sr=8-12. Now looks like a silver time machine .

With the heater thermostat set at 24c and a nice winter coat everything was finally resolved on the climate front; but unfortunately too late for these plants. The outcome was a small amount of fairly mild weed but I put this down to the temperature rather than the light spectrum. With the next grow, and the seeds arrived from Paradise this very morning, we will see.

The main reason for using LED's apart from the obvious which is the cost of power, was hopefully to supplement the mains electricity with a wind turbine and some old truck batteries for storage.

Onwards and upwards . (old dogs and new tricks )

until they make them approach what i can do with hid lights,they will continue to be garbage...for little things and energy savings i recon they do the job ,buy if ya dont have those concerns,go with the monsters,and thats what you shall grow

spidergawd wrote:So I watched a small LED grow, but account wasn't taken of the heat difference in comparison to the usual light, in this case a (ancient) 250w HPS with the ballast on board. That required the fan on all the time to cope with the temperature as it's a small ( W = 1m. x D = 65cm. x H = 1.65m) box grow. However the LED (90w tri-band) is virtually temperature neutral.

So long story short. The location of the box is very cold, (no prob with the HPS) so with winter coming on what to do? Location was fixed and unheatable, so to warm the growbox, first attempt was to fit 2 CFL's in but that managed about raise the temp. 3 or 4 degrees which wasn't much use nowhere near the minimum which I think is about 22c. The outside temp was getting down to 5 or 6c at night. So a couple more weeks with the plants coming on quite well in all other respects. (I'm an old stoner so my learning curve is slight incline now)

Next a small 60w heater was added in the box, again a marginal improvement but not enough to cope with night time temps., so finally, and about 5 weeks in to the 9 week grow (these were 60 day auto's) the temp problem was finally solved by making a fitted jacket with some brilliant thermal wrap http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermawrap-Loft ... 25&sr=8-12. Now looks like a silver time machine .

With the heater thermostat set at 24c and a nice winter coat everything was finally resolved on the climate front; but unfortunately too late for these plants. The outcome was a small amount of fairly mild weed but I put this down to the temperature rather than the light spectrum. With the next grow, and the seeds arrived from Paradise this very morning, we will see.

The main reason for using LED's apart from the obvious which is the cost of power, was hopefully to supplement the mains electricity with a wind turbine and some old truck batteries for storage.

Onwards and upwards . (old dogs and new tricks )

Hey man,
Dude, did you jump through hoops or what? What a pain in the ass to go through what you did just to stabilize the temperatures. Is there really no place else you could find where at least you wouldn't have to go through this BS?
Just one of things I suppose, can't avoid it or else no grow. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt...

The things some of us will go through just for a lousy plant, and a weed no less...

Happy farming...

I know man, a tragic tale of bungling and incompetence .

And we still dont know what the LED's can do.

lampshade wrote:Yo grow friends,

Wondering if anyone has tried out LED lighting? Some say it's better than HPS other's stick to their roots...

Not me, but from what I've learned, it's still not there, yet.
Some may say it's better, I say Missouri (show me/prove it). If anyone can prove it, statistics only doesn't cut it for me, I want to see it for myself, I'm open.
The problem I see with the current systems available is that they don't project sufficient amounts of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) between 400 to 700 nanometers. Every instance that I've seen these systems in use (never in person), I see too much red during vegetation. Where is the blue? If these systems are to be used throughout the entire grow, I highly suggest acquiring a Metal Halide to supplement. Top end models that have options to raise the blue spectrum still fall short when compared to HID's.
Also something for the masses - PAR is for plants, Lumens are for humans...

Happy farming...

spidergawd wrote:I know man, a tragic tale of bungling and incompetence .

And we still dont know what the LED's can do.

Oh batshit, don't be ridiculous. It's growing pains, pun absolutely intended... and not...

As for LED's, sure we know, they don't work well alone, especially during veg due to a lack of sufficient 400nm range. At least this is what I've been able to learn, but there may be more info than I've been able to find. As you stated, learning curve and all that...

Happy farming...

The light in use has about equal red and blue spectrum LED's and a small amount of whites. I do wonder about it's ability to penetrate into the canopy though.

And I'm prepared at the end of the day to agree that they aint up to much. Hopefully a couple of months will give me the definitive, seen it with me own peepers, answer.

I bought a couple of UFO/RBOW types from Amazon fall of 2010 for $175 each. They're neat geaky pieces of kit, but the fans make quite a bit of noise and the light falls down in a fairly small circle- no dispersion, so you'd need a bunch of these to properly light up a grow area- and there goes the energy savings.

I returned them w/in thirty days, got a refund, and bought a far more effective 6-bulb 4 ft. T-5 fixture for a lot less than those two LEDs. I use it primarily for vegging. Nice thing about the T-5 is its tweakability- you can use however many bulbs (e.g., seedlings need only one or two) or what blend of spectrum (e.g., blue, red) you want.

I flower via a 600 wt. HPS/MH dimmable setup.

From the grows I've seen people are getting decent weed but shit yields.

I know of a grow using one of these: http://www.357magled.com/357-Magnum-Plu ... _p_15.html

I will let everyone know how they turn out...I personally trust this person, so if they come out well, I will be making the switch. They are working good so far...

ZBeebs wrote:I know of a grow using one of these: http://www.357magled.com/357-Magnum-Plu ... _p_15.html

I will let everyone know how they turn out...I personally trust this person, so if they come out well, I will be making the switch. They are working good so far...

Theres the future of indoor horticulture, programable too. I guess to optimise the spectrum to the particular plant ?

spidergawd wrote:

ZBeebs wrote:I know of a grow using one of these: http://www.357magled.com/357-Magnum-Plu ... _p_15.html

I will let everyone know how they turn out...I personally trust this person, so if they come out well, I will be making the switch. They are working good so far...

Theres the future of indoor horticulture, programable too. I guess to optimise the spectrum to the particular plant ?

+1, maybe...
What a set up, although I would argue that it's not really comparable to a 1k if the max covered area for the Magnum is 4x4/1sqm. A 1k HID reasonably covers at least 50% more, 1.5-1.75sqm. Splitting hairs, maybe, but they are the ones who are doing the comparison as a selling point. Food for thought...

At an asking price of $1,199.99, plus shipping it's a LOT of cash up front. I can't even afford to upgrade my 400w to a 600w, and that's less than 250.

Maybe someone will loan me theirs...?
Happy farming...

ZBeebs wrote:I know of a grow using one of these: http://www.357magled.com/357-Magnum-Plu ... _p_15.html

What a beast! Looks like it had a monster truck for a dad. Yes, please let us know how this thing works out. Pricey yes, but cheaper than this...
http://www.lumigrow.com/products/es-330-led-grow-light/