[gmanwho]

Been looking back an forth for awhile. Been using 600 hort a 1k hortis for some years now. Looked at some 8 band 600+ watt units up on ebay. Anyone try any of the no name. some of these bulk packs can be $1400 for 3 600watt units. Dont want to downgrade lighting, so what would be comparable for a 600 watt or 1k wat horti , but not 2k for the led setup??? man, these things got me confused. 8 band seems the way to go. would like to do 2 600 hortis vs 2 600 leds. b-safe..

[Mr. Bongjangles]

Man, I don't know of any panel that can properly replace a 600 or 1000w HPS alone for flowering without approaching the same heat and prolly more watts. Looked hard myself recently as I have an extra 4x4 space now but can't really deal with more heat or the noise from an extra fan on blast to cool a HPS.

Some neat high power LED units out there now, even ones with built in uv bulbs and stuff, but they are not producing quite like HPS and people say they throw a ton of heat and videos showed they are all pretty loud due to the multiple built in fans.

I was really interested in the LED bars that Mr. X and some others use with success, but I am told the company is all messed up. Website down, all that. And would those lights scale up if you put a bunch over a grow, to duplicate the penetration of a 600w hps? Dunno.

So for now, for flowering, in my opinion LEDs are best used to supplement another kind of light.

I've decided for that 4x4 space to go with a 300w plasma light, the Gativa LEP, and two 85w Kessil magenta LEDs to supplement the red side of the spectrum. The plasma light won't even be here for a few days, and I've only seen them used to supplement HPS or used without supplemental red, so like, I'm kinda going into uncharted territory, so not really recommending this to you, but yeah, catch up with me in a few months and I should have a good idea of what that combo can do

I think it should get a lot closer to the production of the 600w HPS than LED or LEP alone and have a really low heat level.

[PetFlora]

Well, I have a completed journal on IC where I used 432w HO T5s + aquarium bulbs.

My new thread has both the T5 and awesome results from my ufo 90 + a few low powered leds to supplement. Photos there. The leds are probably a total of ~ 60watts, and performing as good, or better than the 312w T5

One cannot just go by watts alone. Spectral balance is a key element as well as light intensity (too much is bad)

[Keep goin]

I would suggest that you go for multiple light sources, not single high watt panels.

I recently got a lumigrow es330 thinking go high end and I wouldn't be disappointed. Oh well. I was not thrilled with the lack of light off the side edges. Intense light right under the unit, drops right off as you move away from the panel.

I love the results right under the light. The funky look (of the LED light), the root development (notably increased) , the overall health of foliage. Very impressive. But effective coverage area SUCKS.

In my humble opinion splitting the panels would be ideal. To stay under 2K, replace the 600w- 1000w I would say you could go with 4 to 6 of the 200w (actual draw 165w) California Lightworks Solar Flare. You can get them for 399 per. On paper anyway they seem to be close to the Lumigrow. (They have discontinued their 165w units). Obviously 4 would be the only way to stay under 2K.

The same concept applies no matter the manufacturer. Do your homework. Go with 3w-5w chips for decent penetration. The more the merrier. Just remember, not much light away from the panels. The concept of multiple source spots for lighting is never more needed than with LED.

Good luck

[medmaker420]

Keep goin - Agreed on coverage and why I think having wider lenses on the perimeter of the panels would make a ton of sense. I will be testing a led panel that you can move the angle of the led panels different modules so you can direct the light in different directions.

Other than lifting the light to allow for a wider spread the above is all I have thought about as far as fix wise.

[Phychotron]

I think the first question to ask is how large of an area do you plan on using? LED footprints are much smaller than HID and its best to space multiple fixtures out. With the 90º or less lens angle you have better penetration. With a high quality light it gets mounted 18-30" above the plant. The space between the fixtures should be covered by both.

I think the problem with the Blackstar is that the 120º lenses make the light spread out too much and need to be lowered much closer to the plants for better results.

For a 4x4 tent I was planning on getting two 400w Diamond series from Advanced LED. It is shaped perfectly for that area. I told them I was thinking about a third but they said no, it was not needed. ~$2000, sure its more expensive to go through them, but I think they make a much higher quality fixture than what the Chinese have been pumping out. The problem with a lot of the cheaper fixtures is that they have a lot of potential corners they can cut and your really rolling the dice when it comes to quality.

If the fixture is lacking in spectrum or underpowered and does not have the light intensity then it will be harder to get those large dense nugs, no matter how close you get the fixture.

[vukman]

Originally Posted by medmaker420

Keep goin - Agreed on coverage and why I think having wider lenses on the perimeter of the panels would make a ton of sense. I will be testing a led panel that you can move the angle of the led panels different modules so you can direct the light in different directions.

Other than lifting the light to allow for a wider spread the above is all I have thought about as far as fix wise.

Fully agree brother.........there remains a lot of work to be done in the field of LED's but we're on the right track.

For now, the idea of using multiple sources of light remains the best so far...

Good Luck