[TripleDraw27]

Heres the deal guys...

I am at my limit of electricity useage. That being 2k HPS lights and a good chunk of T5s in other tents. Pretty standard stuff. I know I could add one or two more HPS, but i like where my Elec bill is as of now.

I have been playing around with the idea of supplement lighting, or from what I've been reading " hybrid" set ups.

I love my HPS, I'm an HPS guy. But I am also open minded and I really like LEDs. My reasoning behind mixing LEDS with my HPS is..im tired of giving my Girls just McDonalds. I know they would prefer something from Mothers Market once in awhile lol. I am aware that the spectrums led give off is good for the girls. I am also aware some of that HPS is just fucking bigmacs and chicken nuggets.

I have a new tent. 10x10x8. What I want to know is, will adding 2 340w LEDS with my two 1kw HPS be the same as or close to if I added two more 2kw lights in the tent. Will it help my girls? Price isn't the topic here. I need some peeps with the knowledge of spectrums and lighting in general to help me out here.

Thanks alot guys. Hope I was clear enough. If not Ill try and explain better.


trips

[Bennyweed1]

Originally Posted by TripleDraw27

Heres the deal guys...

I am at my limit of electricity useage. That being 2k HPS lights and a good chunk of T5s in other tents. Pretty standard stuff. I know I could add one or two more HPS, but i like where my Elec bill is as of now.

I have been playing around with the idea of supplement lighting, or from what I've been reading " hybrid" set ups.

I love my HPS, I'm an HPS guy. But I am also open minded and I really like LEDs. My reasoning behind mixing LEDS with my HPS is..im tired of giving my Girls just McDonalds. I know they would prefer something from Mothers Market once in awhile lol. I am aware that the spectrums led give off is good for the girls. I am also aware some of that HPS is just fucking bigmacs and chicken nuggets.

I have a new tent. 10x10x8. What I want to know is, will adding 2 340w LEDS with my two 1kw HPS be the same as or close to if I added two more 2kw lights in the tent. Will it help my girls? Price isn't the topic here. I need some peeps with the knowledge of spectrums and lighting in general to help me out here.

Thanks alot guys. Hope I was clear enough. If not Ill try and explain better.


trips

Hey man I dont want to be a barren of bad news but at 340w LED is not going to match a 1Kw HPS. 75% of LED mfgs market their lights at 340w but actual power draw is way less. There are a few mfgs that actually list real power consumption and those are the honest mfgs with will time and tech behind their lights.

I have been following LEDs heavily on and off since 2009 when they first came about. Through all the side by sides I followed, personal testing and grows I did, and shared information I came up with this.

LEDs do not have a difficult time producing 1gpw, in fact its pretty much standard but you must know actual power consumption to consider it accurate.

there for a 340w LED with an actual power consumption of 340w (5-15w for fans) should produce 325-330g of bud no problem given the grower knows what they are doing.

So I believe LEDs are for sure more efficient then HPS because rarely do you hear about a solid 1gpw hps grow. It happens dont get me wrong, but it just doesnt happen as frequently as it does with LEDs.

And thats where the area gets grey. A entry level grower may use a 600w HPS and yield 225g do to lack of experience where the same grower could have used a 340w LED and yielded 300g thus claiming LED is better while consuming less energy, emitting less heat, not needing bulb replacements or changes, and no air ducting.

Mean while an experience grower could supplement with Co2, use environmental controls, know everything about plant nutrition and yield 620g with the same 600w HPS. While that number sounds good, a true measure of efficiency is measured in total power consumption of took to produce 620g of buds.

You have to take into account the A/C which is generally about 1500w
the fans for cooling and ducting
CO2 cost......

and the picture begins to look a lot differently

Its all about style, experience, and dedication. 1w for 1w LEDs wont (IMO) bet an HPS yield weight wise (quality is a different story).

And a 340w LED will never in a million years be able to match a 1000w HPS. It is impossible. Thats claiming 2.94gpw.....completely unheard of and it it were the case...people would have converted completely over to LED by now. But for now the average grower doesnt see the benefit in spending $600+ dollars on a single light to eliminate the need to change bulbs and run simple air duct cooling.

If you are interested....I will be starting my second bloom tent using 490+ actual watts of LEDs against a vertical 600w HPS. Im still guessing the HPS will win but I could be very surprised.

The LEDs consist of (3) 120w marketed LED panels. Actual power consumption is higher then the marketed numbers though.

Panel 1: 152w
Panel 2: 173ish
Panel 3: 171ish
(1-2 +/-)

[TripleDraw27]

Thanks for all that, but I need my question answered. Will two LEDS help with my two current hps? I don't want this to be another comparing type thread. What I do know is the spectrums that LED give off, is..lets say Healthier for the girls. Id like to include that light into my current room. Does that work? Lets drop the watt comparison for now, cause HPS guy and Led guy will start a Laguna Beach Sword fight. I don't need that atm.

Will LED with my HPS work? Or is that a waste of time? I feel like the light from the HPS that the plant doesn't use, the LED will help with. Is this wrong?

Id like to combine old technology with the new.

[Hazeo]

Hey TripleDraw27,


i am not so deep into these things concerning spectrums and stuff.
But i think a really exact and "sure" answer is hard to get (here/anywhere).

A mandatory answer could be only given by a scientific study it think.

If the money/electricity is not the problem, just give it a try.

In my opinion the plants would certainly profit from that extra light(-spectrum). But keep in mind that you have to attach the LED´s quite close to the plants; it will be a little tricky to install them that they don´t beshade the light from the more remote HPS´s.

You could first install some LED´s on one side of your room to do some kind of side-by-side perhaps...

High regards
Hazeo

[T_B_M]

Get one fixture and put it off to one side to see how it differs from the side with only HPS on it. The LEDs aren't going to affect the opposite side of the room since they don't have much penetration reach unless they have really narrow lenses. There is a lot that goes into LEDs. I don't see them doing much if you grow huge tall plants, but for the squat SoG type grows I find they work well.

I have a small cab with a 250W HPS vertical in the center of the cab and 3 LED panels on the outsides that use about 80W. No complaints here. Helped the growth. I did make my own LED arrays though so I could make them the size I wanted. Most panels you buy will still run pretty warm since they don't really design them to be passively cooled. So heat reduction isn't as good as the claims from the retailers.

[Phaeton]

These are 357 driven watts each of LED angled in from the sides of 800 watts of CMH.

The difference is phenomonal. The units put out an actual beam spread of 5 degrees, putting the entire 357 watts into a 2' by 3' area. The beams cross directly under the center of the CMH's. New plants have to be edged in over a few days.

There is an identical room without the LED, just CMH, it is used for clone/veg as it cannot compare, really, too much difference for a side by side. Plants look like different species the growth is that different.

What ever else is a parameter, the 120 degree beam LED's are weak even for clones. LED light should focus all it's energy directly on the plant, not off to the sides.

The magnum plus's used here are too tight a beam for budding plants, for budding the HydroGrowLED 336X-PRO is used.
448 driven watts with a 60 degree spread, good intensity from 18" to 36", enough for a sativa.

My nickel's worth, cost was not a factor here either.

[Phychotron]

try throwing one of these in there, they have a 90 day money back guarantee. call them and they can knock a few bucks off the price. My bro has one and it gets the job done.