Hello I in the market to get a new grow light and have been considering led but dont know much about them. I was leaning towards a 300 watt mars hydro until I read a few reviews about light going out and the hassle of getting them fixed. One of the reasons I considered led was heat issue but I also read leds can produce a lot of heat. So my question is for anyone with experience how much heat do leds produce compared to a 400watt hid, what is a good quality led thats not super expensive, or should I avoid led and get hid with an air cooled hood? Any info/input is appreciated. I am growing in a 2' × 4' × 6' tent.
I got the rapid "onyx" led lights. The bloom, flower ones, they make veg ones also. They do have some heat but far less than hps. They have new ones now with heat sinks so the fan in them is one less thing to get fixed. I know there is several others here who will vouch for them. Its been a great change for me. Glad I switched and dont know anyone who has the onyx or the area 51 lights that dont like them. Do some searching around here and read the rapid onyx or area 51 lights threads. There is several sizes on the onyx to suit your needs. You can look on their web site and see which size will suit your needs. They have inportant info on their site about light foot print and light spectrum, their quality of leds and other parts are top notch and the price will amaze you campared to others. Things to remember, les heat means less cooling which means more savings with electric. No bulbs to change for like 15 years so more money saved, you will get a week faster flower, less nutes, less electric there also, more thc frost you will notice. There is more, but read the link below and you will see the truth before your eyes. Here is some good reading material, note that this was put out before the new onyx light came out, but near the end of the thread There is mention and pictures of the new lights with out the fans in them. http://forum.growkind.com/showthread.php?t=47965&highlight=Leds#.Vt5PGkY8LCQ
I am using the california light works and the area 51 right now, woth seem to be doing the same job but i can only turn the area 51 on half power because i waited to long to flower and they are to close, if i go full power it light bleaches them but heat wise it dosnt bother them one bit. My thoughts are that the spectrum quality seems to be the same but the area 51 would probably cover more area then the california if i had the head room to turn it on full power.
A couple of points... Heat: while its true that the LEDs produce less heat then your typical HID set up, they still get hot and you're still going to need an exhaust fan to keep temps in check. For a small closet grow with a single light heat won't be much of an issue but if you need to cover 20-35 sq.ft you may as well plan on duct work and fans equal to what you'd want using HIDs. FLowering time: I've not seen my garden maturing a week faster using the LEDs, my 10 weekers still need 10 weeks to fill out. The look damn good n ready at week 9 but they're still bulking up so to me that indicates they still want to go 10 weeks. YMMV... my set up using INDUS led light bars sold by Rapid LED. http://forum.growkind.com/showthread.php?t=48991&page=3 Duc
Best bang for your buck is DIY by far. Very simple to build. For premade best price and proven performance will be area 51, rapids fixtures, and a couple others like Pacific lightning concepts or PLC. Something with Cree cxb or bridgelux vero COB diodes would be more ideal.
^^^^ Skunky has a kick ass DIY led light thread. Search for it and it may just be the magic you seek.
My build was far from badass. LOL But thanks! Pretty barebones. I could definitely help whether personally or just sharing other info. Lots of good diy builds on rollitup. Actually a good amount of the good led lights come from members over there. Area 51 is owned by eraserhead, Pacific light concepts is greengenes707, heaven bright is Aquarius panta, then tastybudz is by rahz, and can't remember who it is that owns go green led and optic. All of those are great choices. Actually looking at it tastybudz, PLC, optic and heaven bright would be your best options for max performance at reasonable costs. Only thing more cost effective is building your own. Still not cheap though. Also, you don't even need to know how to solder for most applications now. If you can use a screwdriver and crimping pliers you're good. Fairly basic understanding of electrical principles. Some people have gotten more sophisticated with dimmers, timed programs, and additional fail safes like additionally grounding heat sinks. Fairly simple yet can be overwhelming all at the same time. But eh that's growing in a nutshell. LOL
And sorry it's tasty led not budz. LOL ooops. http://www.tastyled.com/ http://www.pacificlightconcepts.com/ http://opticgrowlights.com/ http://www.gogreenleds.com/store/p3/300W_6_COB_Cree_CXB3070_Grow_Light.html http://www.rapidled.com/horticulture/ http://www.a51led.net/
I'm with duc, honestly I think led will heat a room up but it's not concentrated like hps on your plant. Small grow I think you can get a couple onyx units without issue. Personally I don't think they spread as much as they say, but I'm use to hps as well. But led will roughly match hps watt for watt as far as yield, a little less but worth the saving on no large exhaust fans etc on small grow
I agree with the led being a not very wide footprint, it is ok thou, the foot print gets good penetration which is key when you want nice size lower buds if you dont trim off all your lower branches like alot of people. I tell you my lowest buds at picking are twice the size at least than my hps. Mainly because you can get closer to the plant with led than hps with out dammage. (Also great for hight restrictions) If you have a couple lights like I have, heat is no problem, simple exaust takes care of it, my 2 led bloom light closet temp is 78, hps was 86+ with one 600w cooled hood light with same 375 cfm exaust fan. If your going big grow with short funds, hps is good, but factor in all the electric and cooling cost, changing bulbs, its going to cost you more in the long run. Main thing is you will be glad/happy if you get a good led light and get it dialed in.
that's true, you could crush total output of led with hps if you don't trim up bottoms, but then you got a lot of fluff instead of bud, and led does get solid lower buds, specially when compared to hps
Still diy is the way to go. About to build a little over 500W CXB3590 36V for about $600 for a buddy. I guarantee that thing will never see under 1.3g/W with the strains he's running and more likely a consistent 1.5 or more if he rotates them right. These cobs out now really shit on the previous CREEs. And to explain how shortly for instance in every cxb 3590 there are 168 LED XPG/XPE type dies within a single cob. That equates to 8.3 miliamps per die at 1.4Amps per cob. XPG and XPE are what A51 used to predominately use driven at 700mA per die. Now leds work best when driven softer. That's how cobs make much more efficient light and cost less. To make a light with cobs is about $1-3 per PAR watt. To do that with XPG XPE diodes and drivers would cost around $20 per par watt to get the same result. XLM and XLM2 used by rapid are more efficient single die diodes that only boast a 20% efficacy advantage over XPE and XPG x series lamps. Even the cxa I built and used would not perform on the same level as CXBs or Vero version 2.0s, which is still considerably much more efficient than using single die emitters. Also greengenes707 @ PLC just got a new shipment of CREEs. Top bin CXB 3070 AND 3590s. 10% OFF with code DIY10, $32.40/ea 3070 or $42.30/ea for 36v 3590. Both could be ran at 1.4Amps the same no problem. Though the 3590s have more dies and produce the most par per watt for the greatest ppfd coverage.
If I read your initial post correctly. 1. Stay away from Mars or really any monochromatic multi spectrum lamp other than bonsai hero, a51 Rw or sgs lights, or apache tech. 2. Heat. Much less, though the extent to how much less depends on the driving wattage that equates to efficiency of the fixture. Higher efficiency = less energy lost to expended heat. 3. Read everything else here. If you were in a 2x4 area like I think you said. 6-8 cobs. 6 ran like stated above would be a little over 300W at the wall after the fans for active cooling. 8 just a little over 400W. Another beauty of of rapid and diy is remote drivers which is equivalent to a remote ballast for hid. That way you can remove that heat source from the grow. As far as cobs and leds go the most radiant heat is generated by the drivers. Heat sinks and leds affixed will run just slightly warm.
