the main reason people are disappointed with LED's is because they dont use enough watts compared to hps. i think LED's will allow you to use around 20% less actual power draw than hps.
DONT expect to use half the wattage and get the same results. check the actual power draw of the led fixture before you buy
Once the price drops enough that we start using 10W-20W colours along with the already available whites which are being used to a certain degree, the ratio of the wattage difference between LED and HID will become much more pronounced with the same or very similar growing results.....
They are out there...If you go here and check their catalogue, you will see what's available but.........the costs are really out there. For the 'regular' marketplace that is anyway. If you have the money and are into DIY, then that catalogue should help you immensely....German made too so should be pretty damn good, I would think anyway.Do have an educated guess as to when 10/20 watt diodes will be the exception rather than the rule? It seems like Advanced or whoever is using 10 watt whites or something like that, but just a few relative to the 3's for Red's, blues, etc. I have not heard of 20 watt diodes being used, but I don't get out much. I would guess it could be a year or more before there will be any units featuring mainly or exclusively 10 or 20 watt LED's. What do you think?
I should be testing some 5w's in the coming months and wondering how they will perform compared to the 3w's currently being tested.
10's and 20's sound like a blast to play with but wonder how they would do with canopy distance and bleaching.
Same as applies to "Moore's Law" with processors. Basically states that processor speed will double every 18 months.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitz's_law