How much interest is there in LED light systems?

[TroubleGuy]

This is a project that's still in the works. It actually just started a few days ago.

LED light systems are easy enough to make, I know a handful of people locally who'd buy them if they were cheaper, so we're wondering what the interest is in areas other than just our city...

So let's say LED systems that are a bit more affordable than the current ones were available in a few months... Is this something people would be interested in?

Right now the biggest problems I know of with current systems are 1) price 2) heat or 3) not powerful enough. We're going to try and work all those problems out, but we really won't know for sure what can and can't be done until we get to work on them.

We're trying to guage interest to help us decide if making more than just a few for local growers would be worthwhile... So vote in the poll and let us know.

 

[PastorJ]

If the price were better I would use one to clone.

 

[DocLeaf]

The price of these units is every falling ,, and new models are now being custom made with cannabis growers in mind. Initially these units were product designed for the melon industry and other tissue culture. The main advantage is that units with a blue and red spectrum can be used for veg. and flowering... and many homegrowers are getting nice results over autoflowering genetics using them. Hope this helps.

 

[TroubleGuy]

All info helps - never know when someone might know something we haven't found yet.

We have a couple ideas that'll appeal to cannabis growers, for sure. After all it's being designed by growers with growers mind. I can't be too specific because nobody's done it yet and I wouldn't want to give anything away, but if we can make it work it'll be a big improvement over what's already available.

 

[sallyforthDeleted member 75382]

Already seen some interesting cannabis grows with the LEDGirl section. I'm beginning to be convinced. I still however, think they don't match up to HPS for yield yet. However the autoflowers and small scrog/sog do very well with these LED's. However I like me plants big and I tend to enjoy sativa's so penetration through the canopy would be important for us. Also they need to come down in price.

If it can be done, I would like to see them in Europe so I could buy a few.

 

[Lapides]

I voted 'NO'. No interest whatsoever in LED lighting. They don't grow good buds.

 

[Flying Goat]

I'm very interested in the new LEDs... I cannot grow outdoors in summer, or I'd have 3 crops a year... Forced to do indoors. In my warm, humid area, heat build-up is an issue. I like the fact LEDs don't cause a cooling problem.

If I could find an LED board that would effectively replace a 400w MH/HPS for about $350, I would buy it - just to try it out! I have read that LED requires only about 1/3 the electricity of HPS, plus it only provides the spectrums used by the plant, instead of wasting excess lumens producing heat...

PM me if/when you get ready for a test of this product... I've always been a DIY kind of person, but am disabled now & don't have time to invent the wheel...

Cheers!

 

[jonnypp22]

I have 4 ssunshine ufo's and the yield looks good so far my first grow, and my friend is growing the same strain(hps/mh) and we are on the same pace so its pretty even my look a little bit helthier.

 

[jonnypp22]

i will post pics soon

 

[Capital G]

I voted 'NO'. No interest whatsoever in LED lighting. They don't grow good buds.

i agree with this statement. the results i've seen have been lackluster at best no reason for a commercial grower to mess around with these at all, but, you should add another choice to the poll:

yes, only if they're cheaper and out produce hid lighting

 

[GroAnGreen]

I'd be interested as long as it could out-shine my 1000 watters, or boost my yield!

 

[Cruzin]

If you are attempting to make LED's the light of choice for growers. You are going to need more value then just saving them up front money on the lights. As the polling indicates it has to be powerful enough to replace HPS. So these are my thoughts.

Your LED lights could be 3x the cost of a HPS if it was able to sufficiently replace the HPS on lumen's and heat which would remove the need for all those damn fans, ducting and flipping AC units. I would spend 2k per LED light tomorrow if it was able to simplify my grow to that extreme and I run 6 1k lights, so thats me willing to drop 12k on this if it was able to provide the above.

Honestly there is mad interest out there for LED's. Everyone is always talking about them. But its always about how they are not ready for prime time and will "some day" meet the market demands.

Its not that the consumers don't want your product its that your stack of value is not as big as their stack of money. -zig ziglar

 

[Hydro-Soil]

We're going to try and work all those problems out, but we really won't know for sure what can and can't be done until we get to work on them.

There's plenty of interest.

What you want to look at is what you'll be capable of accomplishing, that isn't being done by someone else right now.


Start with the local market... got any hydro shops in town? If you find a way to make it cheaper and more powerful while keeping the heat the same (still waaaay less than HID lol).... look into mass production.


Everything in life is as complicated as rocket science and brain surgery... it just depends on how far into it you look. Starting from 0 is a tough task and would best be helped by talking to someone in the industry. Be surprised what you can learn and often amazing how wrong your thinking can be.

Whatever you do.... do it right and be honest and ethical, you'll get a much better reward.

Stay Safe!

 

[SupraSPL]

I would spend 2k per LED light tomorrow if it was able to simplify my grow to that extreme and I run 6 1k lights, so thats me willing to drop 12k on this if it was able to provide the above.

Rough calculation is that you would need 3750 watts of LED dissipation to match your current yields (assuming an LED with high efficiency bins and sufficient cooling). That would cost about $14K at current retail prices.

The electricity savings would be nice, not to mention steady lumen maintenance for 8-10 years (no more replacing HID bulbs).

With that said though, radiometric efficiencies are still improving and costs coming down. We are seeing 40-50% on top bins that are actually affordable. It is promising that there is room for improvement still.

 

[pearlemae]

I'd be absolutly interested in LED's.!!!!

 

[cork144]

i think personally leds are just too specific in their wavelengths,


a hps or mh bulb will have a peak color temp, but will still give off other color temps,


i think leds need to have a range in the wavelengths of all colors,

so different reds, whites, blues, which ever, i think theyre just too tuned in and dont seem to give the plant everything that they need,

 

[SupraSPL]

To some extent that is true. For vegging it does not seem to matter, reds and blue alone in a very narrow spectrum are beating metal halides/fluoros. For flowering however, we need the white to fill in missing gaps in the spectrum to get best results. I recall KNNA posting something along the lines of "I find myself using more and more white".

 

[Lazyman]

I think that until we have 100 watt, 10K lumen LED's they are only good for tiny sog plants, maybe in a omega garden or something packed full of 380 2-3 gram plants. They don't penetrate well enough for anything more.

 

[foomar]

Penetration is currently low and demands a scrog and a good veg and a rethink on room design to yield , they are perfectly capable of vegging to a high standard and am seeing a shorter internode and more sidegrowth than with purps or T5,s in the same time frame.

From my observations the 120 deg option would be better for a veg box and get the plants a lot closer , PAR dropoff between six and twelve inches is considerable and little light reaches beyond thirty six inches , light intensity and spectrum varies wildly at closer than 10 - 12 inches to the panel with the 60 deg.

Par is of more use than lumens but proveing pretty hopeless for compareing LED,s with a narrow targetted output , PUR which measures energy emitted that is actually used in photosynthesis would be better but even more expensive to test.


If your existing veg is based on T5,s or CFL,s which allow plants to nearly touch and grow past the lights like in mine , switching to LED,s will probably need a redesign or rebuild.

To raise the same numbers of plants would require three 126 watt arrays to replace two 200 watt purp nurturelites so not much electric saveing here for me.

They are certainly not yet a drop in direct replacement for HID lighting , most of the advertiseing comparisons are optimistic at least and feel a true comparison is nearer watt for watt with HID useing currently available and cost effective LED,s.

 

[medmaker420]

No matter how cool or possible they are the only people who will be using them now are small growers. For the mersh out there, I don't see them dumping the money needed to fill up a warehouse with damn led panels.

Leds are great for those starting out, small grows or someone who just feels they need the latest and greatest WITHOUT adding yield.

If they would actually prove themself as far surpassing hps then I would go for it BUT I only see "close" but never WOW LOOK at that leds yield compared to that hps!

If they worked there would be the commersh guys doing it non stop, if anything less heat, less detection, less YIELDS as well if going LARGE i'm sure.

There is however great interest in the tinker growers who are using 400w/600w/1k/ single setups and supplying themselves. Most aren't getting super dense nugs with their current setup and THINK that the leds might help them when all they really need to do is fix their environment because those hps lights SHINE.