Show me an LED that actually yields what it promises

[SOTF420]

I am suggesting something he can order today right now and that is backed up by a reputable company with a great long 5 year warranty not something made in someone's garage. He asked for an LED light that is proven to really yield and people have experience with, the Lumigrow ES totally fits this request and I have the pictures to prove it and no reason to make this shit up.

Not trying to get in a ego battle here, and a 5 watt will penetrate better than the 1 watt if all lense angles are the same plus I never said a 1 watt cannot penetrate I said it does not penetrate as well as the larger LED because it's producing less light & less focused intensity.

 

[VerdantGreen]

i get good gpw yeilds with both HPS and LED - if you take the actual wattage the lights use (bearing in mind the LED's often use less than their rating and HPS use more)

i get 10-20% higher yields per watt from LED's - seldom less than 1 gpw from either.

VG

 

[toohighmf]

Thanks Verdant. I always appreciate your insight. I believe some heat is good thing, particularly for co2 augmentation, and to increase photosynthesis. If I don't have to air cool or run AC, and pulling down an elbow for every 2 330w Units, I would be a happy man. I am retailer with a resellers license so I'm looking for the Best Damn LED to test in store, and advise my customers on. I will test both CREE, advanced, Lumigrow, and I have a new dual spectrum 500w induction lamp I had built in china for testing. I'll be testing beside my new Guru hort dimmable HID's...
Thanks all for the input.

 

[SOTF420]

You can definitely pull down a bow with 2 of those 330 watt units no problem if it's a half decent grower with healthy plants. Like I said though I supplement my canopy perimeter with the thin striplight HO T5's for extra spectrum and also because supplemental lighting has always been part of my garden because it produces such nice results and give the ladies the extra little bit of light they need on the outside edges.

 

[Rowdy420]

http://www.enluxled.com/r30w_wide_flood

Honestly these folks have a patent on the drivers for their LEDs, solid equipment for those concerned with carbon footprints.

 

[georgeforeman]

i use (2) 360w advanced led (extreme flower). Like i said before, the verdict is still out as i have only done a few grows with them. I looked at lumigrow back when i bought these. I am happy to see they are now competitively priced.

 

[Herborizer]

give me a 600 unit that pulls like a 600 w no heat hat lasts 5 years and i'm sold.

Isn't that the issue.... The part I can't get over is that I can get 16-20 zip under my 600w hps/magnum xxxl hood, over my 4x4 table. No co2. total cost was about $600 bucks or 1$ per watt.

Show me a led that will provide the same coverage as my 600w, produces 16-20 zips on a 4x4 table, and uses at least 15% less power. It must last more than 5 years too. My current setup costs me $200 a year in bulbs. So for my hps setup it will cost me $1600 over 6 years.

 

[alkalien]

Those manufacturer claims can never be met. They base them on assumptions that are not plausible.

Take for example a 300W LED, that means either 300x1W chips or 100x3W chips or 5W or anything. So the W-rating is only an indicator for how many chips they used. They don't drive those LEDs at their rated power, I guess it's about 80%. They go on telling you that 1W LED has the same lux output as 2W of HPS or something like that and that those lux/lumens/micromols are fully in the range plants can work with. That is of course correct, the spektrums are better but that does not mean you can ignore the rest of the spektrum like they do for their calculations.

So they only compare the parts of the spectrum a plant uses according to the chlorophyl chart of a hps to an LED. Then they multiply that by the wrong total of power while using false values for the actual power draw and for the efficiency of the single LEDs.

LEDs do have quite a few pros on their side!
- you can distribute the light evenly over huge areas where a hps and its reflector will allways have hot spots.
- you can use way less power for the say area getting about the same yields
- you can build very efficient small arrays for side lighting or mini grows
- you can let your plants grow up to 2 or 3 cm away from the light
- you can hang the light at the top of your room or tent without having to fear you burn down your house
- if you build your own you will pay arround 3€/W for your light but you gotta bring a lot of working power and mathematics to do so

What you cant do is take a 1m² space you used to light with a 400W hps replace that with a 400W LED and double your yield, but you will most likely be able to replace the 400W with a 200 maybe 300W LED and get the same yield while your growroom does no longer sound like a starting jet. The difference in price you can get back when you sell you AC.

 

[Rowdy420]

Grams per kilowatt used would solve so... much debate. Wouldn't matter what type system you were using, it would all be solved by how much specific electricity was used to grow X amount of herb. I'm on the fence about the LEDs for now but think they have a place in our future BIG time. Nasa uses em for growing because they are so much more efficient on electricity than anything we have on the planet and you can dial a specific kelvin range you want. Interesting thread, I'll stay tuned!

Good luck, Peace

 

[headband 707]

I actually don't think they have this one perfected yet but I really do think they are right on the edge LOL .. I know that sounds lame but I think so..
I think it might be LED Plus whatever light for enhancement.The Chinese are great at this shit and they have been working on it for years now .. peace out headband707

 

[Herborizer]

Lumigrow + plasma?

 

[Oxygen_Man]

so, Dose a LED system really put out 75% less heat compared to a hps? how much less heat percentage wise would that lumigrow 330watt system put out then a 400 watt hps, side by side comparison without cooling the hps system by air. I want to obtain a percentage value so I can easily see if its worth getting.

 

[toohighmf]

o2man.. heat is the real enemy. the less to remove, or cool the more efficient they really are. if the yields are comparable...

 

[Oxygen_Man]

thats what im wondering tho, how much less heat a 330watt led system will put off then a 400 watt hps....

 

[rives]

I think that if I was going to do it over, I would get multiple Lumigrow ES165's rather than the ES330 simply because the footprint would be much more versatile. Also, (2) of the 165s are cheaper than a single 330. Keep in mind that, while the LEDs put out substantially less heat, it can be trickier to get rid of it with the way that their air flow works vs a vented hood.

 

[georgeforeman]

I think that if I was going to do it over, I would get multiple Lumigrow ES165's rather than the ES330 simply because the footprint would be much more versatile. Also, (2) of the 165s are cheaper than a single 330. Keep in mind that, while the LEDs put out substantially less heat, it can be trickier to get rid of it with the way that their air flow works vs a vented hood.

perfectly said rives! i use (2) 360w in a 4x5 area

 

[SOTF420]

If I had to do it all over I would buy more Lumigrow's when they were on sale last year lol

Big difference between the smaller and bigger one is a 2 year less warranty and less cooling fans total. If you are looking for yields I would go with the full size units and compared to a 400 watt HPS I would say it's probably less than half the heat but it's a different kind of heat it's just warm air being exhausted from the unit while the LED's are being efficiently cooled because they have massive heatsinks inside the unit for longevity of the chips themselves. (which is why the warranty is so long) With an HPS the bulb is blazing hot and there is alot of radiant heat from the infrared light it produces, plus the heat from the bulb itself, the hood and ballast (less if digital).

So they are very much different in the type of "heat" they produce. The Lumigrow runs warm to the touch never hot and it won't burn your hands or anything at all. Under the unit itself the light being produced has no real detectable radiant heat. The intake/exhaust air moving out of it's multiple internal cooling fans provides a nice steady air movement for the plants as well since it is circulating the air itself constantly in the grow.

You can also dim the unit with the individual knobs for the blue or red/white LED's and if necessary in a smaller space you can dial it down to less intensity and thus it produces less warm air and of course less power is used and less light produced which is nice for tender seedlings or clones. You can dial in more red or more blue as you see fit to accomodate desired plant growth as in making them more short and stout or more tall & stretchy as needed for your strain.

For the heat subject, in a full size bedroom say like 12 x 12 or something you could easily run multiple units as long as your house A/C was set at something like 75F and the room temps would likely be in the low 80's with just a semi-sealed environment which is perfect if you supplement with CO2. If you have a dedicated A/C system in the room or a tent with intake & exhaust the heat will be a non-issue although there will be some but again it's a much different evenly distributed warmth not a thousand degree searing hot big glass bulb ready to burn anything it touches and blasting out tons of infrared cooking heat.

That is the other major benefit is your risk of fire is cut way way way way way way down. You can leave the house with the LED lights running and not really worry about it as long as you have not overloaded any circuits but even then they have multiple built in safety & protection features. The Lumigrow unit actually uses the stated power as well right around 330 - 340 watts.

 

[MPL]

I looked into LEDs but I don't think they are quite there yet to compete with a 1kW HPS, especially when comparing prices. For me to light a 4x4 table, grow 3' tall plants and yield enough to be semi-commercially viable would have required somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.000 - 6.000USD. I spoke with rives and several others about it and after all was said and done it would have just cost too damned much.

If I were going to buy new today and I wanted to do more than a smallish personal grow, I'd definitely go with 1kW MH/HPS.

If I were going to buy new today and I only had a 2x2 area or so I'd definitely go with a single Lumigrow 165 or 330 or make a LED array myself. For each 2x2 I'd add another array.

Give LEDs another couple of years (probably less) and the story will be very different.

 

[MIway]

I'm gonna have to stop reading your posts SOTF... if not, gonna end up buying a whole bunch of LEDs & only running Sweet Tooth!@#*! ;-)

 

[toohighmf]

SOTF I wanna be a tester of your toof! can I test some beans bro?