LED Buyer's Guide

[infinitylimit]

After reading around it's apparent that mis-information runs rampant in the LED industry (as well as the rest of the industry for that matter). I just recently made a purchase on e-bay on a whim thinking I was ahead of the curve only to realize after reading I might be in for a surprise.

What is a grower to use when picking out a LED for a grow room?

It doesn't look like they list the "quality" of LED that is used on almost all the lights I looked at on the bay. My concern is in my 1.25' (38cm) x 1.25' (38cm) foot print isn't going to be enough for a 55W LED to flower with run of the mill (112 x .5w) LEDs in it.

I have a light meter that measures in foot-candles but I noted that might not be enough of a indication of the light's power.

So I ask the community what are some hard fast rules for buying LEDS?

 

[Irie_Lion]

welcome to Ic Infinitylimit.....this is a great community and there is lots to learn here. First off u can search the growers forums for grow logs using leds and see how they perform etc...there are quite a few on here now using all diff kinds of methods of growing....Verdant Green, Hazy, Blazeoneup, Sleepy and a few others have done detailed logs. Ask questions to the ppl who have them etc.. and then do a lil research of your own to form a good opinion of what works and what doesnt....i own a hgl led panel (126w) and use it for veg with great results.....Hope that was a start on your journey for led info....have fun and take care!

 

[stealthnstoned]

660nm red.. not 630....... good ratio of colors.. i looked on ebay when i first was shopping for one.. if you want a better price on one.. go to www.alibaba.com.. contact a manufacturer and ask them to send you a sample one.. you can get them to custom the led configurations.. personally i just got mine from hydro grow LED.. they are on the ads up top of this site. good customer service. great lights. kinda pricy but its not asmuch as some of the other brands out there. They perform well too. My first grow ever i yielded 140g off a 205W penetrator. i believe it only pulls about 182 watts of power actually too including the fans.

 

[whiterasta]

First perhaps look at
http://www.icmag.com/modules/Journal/viewentry.php?journalid=631

For a comparison of the two leading large LED arrays Lumigrow and Hydrogrow/LED. It is good as they use very different LEDs. Lumigrow uses 5w emitters and Hydrogrow uses 1w narrow beam emitters.
As for the overall picture you look for a high quality driver system for the LEDs and efficient LEDs.
That said LED technology is really only to the point of working well on very small grows. Their small footprint and high cost make them impractical for large to medium grows.
Hope this helps.
WR

 

[infinitylimit]

Well I ran my light meter over the LED and there are few interesting things. The blue LEDs give off 6000 ft-candles and red 3000 ft-candles. Which was pretty close to the 42w and 26w CFL that it just replaced.

It did however throw it about a good 4 inches farther than the CFLs.