What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

CLF vs HPS vs LED!

verllar

New member
Hello everyone! Which from these lamps is better and why? How much % more I can take out of grams from best at the comparison to worse? : dance013:
 
G

Gr33nSanta

forget about CFLs, HPS vs LED you will have to learn about each and see which is better in your context, everybody will have different opinions, you have to try and see for yourself, but no CFLs!
 

Dropped Cat

Six Gummi Bears and Some Scotch
Veteran
HPS and LED for the GPW win.

CFL's are the go to for those micro starting grows,
but swiftly being outpaced by the screw in LED's

All lights produce heat, and it's the management of
that heat output that determines the GPW thing.
 

thejact55

Active member
#1- i think the gpw is a bunch of crap. If your a new or crappy grower, it doesnt matter initially. If you have a bad, or just lesser producing strain, its gonna be skewed.

Hps- will give you the largest yeild generally. Heat output is substantial and has to be controlled. I only run hps in the winter.

Led- ive been running one for a year, and it actually exceeded my expectations. Heat is less, but light penetration is not as good as hps. Yeild will suffer slightly. I use it during summer months.

Cfl- great for seedlings, and vegging. T-5 lights work decent for that. Dont expect much for yeild if you use it for flower.

I dont know if there is a percentage, but a random guess: if hps is 100% yeild, led is 80%, cfl is 50%
 

DjKinetics

Active member
LED ftw. Depending on height space etc. of course. The thing I like about LED is the ease of setup,plug and grow basically and virtually no heat issue.You do need the height though. I don't buy the hps/mh cheaper start up cost arguement I often hear considering you need a reflector, ballast and have to replace the bulb every couple grows...
 

angelgoob

Member
LED's rule now.

No other lights compare.

If you want more info just ask. I'll tell you, you can modify spectrum.

And these new samsung's, if you haven't heard about them on the quantum boards and such, you're very behind the times.

Yup, HPS you gotta change bulbs, heat.

People used to use bad blurple LED setups. Now they're using high-efficiency whites, because that's what the industry created the most of in r and d, trying to find out the best way to architect a chip.
 

PoweredByLove

Most Loved
having used all 3, i would say hps has best penetration, but also most heat. the cfl has the most heat and least penetration par for par ;) and led if we're talking those screw bulbs has the least amount of heat and produces the best light watt for watt with everything else. if you have the cooling and space to fully utilize hps i would go with that, if you're micro or on a budget i would go with the screw in LED over the CFL. cfl is pretty dead with the advent of LED bulbs.

never used one of thoe LED grow light rigs. but from what i see on the yourtubes they're pretty good compared to HID lights. but expensive. but i think they throw off less heat and use less watttage.
 

Easy7

Active member
Veteran
A watt produces 3.14 btu's of heat no matter which system. A 1000 watt LED produces the exact same btu as a 1000 watt hps. Given if the actual at the wall watts are the same.

CMH is prime right now. Far far cheaper than LED and preforms top notch. Long life and without many problems of older systems. People are also happy with DE HPS but do not run MH DE in these systems. DE MH is not safe. Possibly producing UVC.

For the money LED could have more comtrol systems. Some have spectrum choices or built in timer. Dialing down watts is important to keep people interested. Over all value is important.
 
penetration is a hoax, wattage has nothing to do with penetration, the best "penetrating light" would be a 1mw laser light, it goes on foreverrrrr!
use INTENSITY instead
yes you need a certain amount of intensity to flower succesfully but not nearly as much as we tend to use
lower your lights, spead your lights, have a great overal spread and you dont need to worry about intensity
 

PoweredByLove

Most Loved
maybe if you only want buds at the very top of your plants. cfl and led screw bulbs are only produce useful light to 12 inches. your average hps 100w and above light is useful 2+ feet away.

also most of the heat in an screw in led/cfl bulb comes from the ballast built into the base of the bulb. most of the heat in a hps comes from the actual bulb itself.

i dunno wtf you guys are on about but im outta here. peaces.
 

Easy7

Active member
Veteran
Nah, heats comes from where there is current.

Penitration is far from a hoax. It depends a lot on spectrum that plants do not use. Certain colors in the light help the light travel. That's why some led add yellow.

Light tech and theory are stull evolving.
 

Carraxe

Well-known member
Veteran
"penetration" is something related with sex. I don't know why they started to use this term, but in the field of electricity, lighting and lighting efficiency this term doesn't exist.

Cheers
 

angelgoob

Member
Inverse square law.

We all know.

That's why you use 90 degree lenses.

It's funny CMH and HPS are coming out with "new technology" as their stupid old street lamps are being replaced with LED! hahaha
 

Carraxe

Well-known member
Veteran
Inverse square law.

We all know.

That's why you use 90 degree lenses.

It's funny CMH and HPS are coming out with "new technology" as their stupid old street lamps are being replaced with LED! hahaha


You know, in public lighting ICR is veeeery important, that's why they are replacing. MH were the lamps with a good chromatic response and have been surpassed by LEDs.

Now is the moment we growers start replacing our sodium lamps by leds. The technology is there, efficiencies are already these of HP. We just need price reductions. I'll keep my 600W HPNa for a couple of years.

Cheers
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Imo, no experience yet...

LEDs are the future.
They've got a relatively long life (when manufactured well) & their spectrum is improving constantly. I've been looking at manufactured units made by CA Light Works because I'm nowhere near an electronics parts supplier for DIY. (Fawk)

@Easy7,
I'm curious where you got that fugure from? & has it been tested in the real world?
Is that figure good for any electrical conductor or is just copper or aluminum?
The physycal differences in the various conductors leads me to believe that what you state is a simple generalization. Ie... Silver oxide will conduct electricity much more effeciently that aluminum. Since heat is a result of friction wouldn't the material that has less resistance to electron flow run cooler? (If even a bit)
 
Top