best led products atm?

[Binarylogic]

Heya - VUKMAN - Awesome response! Thank you for clearing that up for me. I had a feeling some greenthumbed sparky would set me straight.

As for where I got 540w from - no clue. Again, you're correct it should have read "480w".

Cheers!

 

[barnyard]

I'm finally using LED's for something other than night lights. Picked up a 12 dollar 5.5 watt LED bulb that really lights up the front porch nicely and fits a standard socket. Its supposed to be a "60 watt equivalent" but seems closer to a 100 watt bulb.

Also got some of those LED touch lights that run off of AA batteries. Great to put them anywhere and quite useful as backup light in the event of a power-failure.

Also got some photography LED lights. I checked out LED camping/emergency lamps but seemed expensive for what you get. The photography LED's also run off of AA batteries and will light up an entire room. I put them on a tri-pod so they can be set up anywhere.

Probably not quite the feedback the OP was looking for, but keep in mind that LED's are a developing technology. I really like that they don't contain mercury like the compact CFL's.

I bet we'll see LED's that make great grow lights in the next few years...

 

[vukman]

Very interesting topic. I'm here just to follow along and see where this thread goes.

However, I wanted to say that I'm not a math person Binarylogic, though i am trying to figure out how you came up with 540w? Using a calculator 3x160 = 480.

Just wondering if you were adding in electronics/cooling power as well?

Vukman, if you get banned, I will be the first to protest. Your sitting almost at 980 posts, you've contributed so much to the forums and I've gone through a lot of your posts. Same with other members on this forum.

Speaking of posts, I love your DIY LED panel. Once I either move into a house, or get more space(currently living in a Studio apartment), I plan on building one just like yours. Seems like yours is quite powerful but a good layout too.

Thank you brother... you have no idea how much that means to me to have someone compliment my work..... Thank you very very much...

Any help you may need, please do not hesitate to ask...

Good Luck

 

[Bennyweed1]

Jackflash starting week nine on 12/11/12. 3x120w panels w/3chip leds. Total power consumption 460-475 total watts and thats because these lights are not over rate but rather under rated. Each panel pulls a minimum of 150w with fans accounting for about 9-12w of that total. These plants are completely organic with no added nutrients aside from organic amendments.

 

[Dank §inatra]

wow..they look very nice benny!

 

[420choochoo]

I have four 600 watt and two 300 watt Advanced LED Extreme lights. I'll never go back to HID lamps. Master Kush in an Ebb Monster and I couldn't be happier. Working with Advanced on my orders couldn't be easier. Personal service is a plus. And the lights do produce!

 

[Nader]

welthink makes a decent panel for sure! future plans are to flower withone of these and a 150w welthink supplemental flowering led (80% 660nm, 10% 630, 10% 600) and compare the finished product to 1000w hps.

 

[vukman]

Jackflash starting week nine on 12/11/12. 3x120w panels w/3chip leds. Total power consumption 460-475 total watts and thats because these lights are not over rate but rather under rated. Each panel pulls a minimum of 150w with fans accounting for about 9-12w of that total. These plants are completely organic with no added nutrients aside from organic amendments.

Excellent looking specimen there my friend...kinda feelin' jealous at the moment actually..............

 

[Kindest]

Tagged trying to decide what to buy next.

 

[WeedIsGod]

I think one or two of those 40W, self-ballasted induction lights with 2-3 DIY knna-style LED panels made up of cheap Chinese 630nm+660nm Reds could be cool for a small room.

 

[Stargazer]

I have four 600 watt and two 300 watt Advanced LED Extreme lights. I'll never go back to HID lamps. Master Kush in an Ebb Monster and I couldn't be happier. Working with Advanced on my orders couldn't be easier. Personal service is a plus. And the lights do produce!

sounds great. how large a space are you working in?

 

[Hammerhead]

is there a reason LED vendors dont make true watt units??? 600w led= 600w...None of this 300w will equal 600w of hid stuff. why dont they just make units that are 600w. A 600w led still run cooler the a 600 HID wont it???

 

[rives]

The application and nomenclature of LEDs gets confusing because of the way that LEDs themselves are termed. "1 watt" or "3 watt" or "whatever watt" really has nothing to do with the power that they will use when installed in a light fixture. It's very similar to a "2x4" board, which isn't even close to 2" x 4". Depending on the effectiveness of the heat sink, they can be powered from way under the nominal specification all the way to powering it at several times the nominal value. In most cases, when a manufacturer says a light has "X" watts, they just mean the total number of leds x the nominal rating.

The LEDs that I used in the Hybrid fixture are "One Watt" LEDs, rated to be powered from 400ma to 1 amp, or a range of 2.5x. This will change the wattage anywhere from .85 watt to 2.25 watt each. This just refers to the actual discrepancies in the engineering description - once the marketing hacks get a hold of it, it gets even worse.

Most people who have looked into LEDs know that the marketing ploy of saying "X = Y" is bullshit. LEDs are more efficient for plant growth because they only make very specific bandwidths of light. HIDs make a lot of light that the plant cannot use or uses only under very specific conditions. LEDs can target a plant's specific needs rather than blasting out a broad spectrum that goes largely unutilized. Unfortunately, we are really still pioneers at determining what part of the spectrum the plant can really use.

LEDs tend to be more efficient at turning watts into light, so that is another place where the above theoretical equivalency comes in, but HIDs are technologically evolving and getting much better.

If you are a car guy, it's a bit like saying that a car has a small-block Chevy in it. Without knowing the number of cubic inches it has or the horsepower that it is rated for, that information really doesn't tell you a hell of a lot.

 

[Bushwacker]

is there a reason LED vendors dont make true watt units??? 600w led= 600w...None of this 300w will equal 600w of hid stuff. why dont they just make units that are 600w. A 600w led still run cooler the a 600 HID wont it???

I hear ya. Its some really muddy water. Light / bulb / LED sellers don't tend to report what matters: PAR, @ total watts consumed. I blame it on the manufacturers... They report watts, lumens, yadda yadda. But what matters is what the plant/s 'sees'.

So, until you get a direct comparison of watts consumed and PAR, HID / LED you won't get a direct comparison.

Lastly, this doesn't take into account spectrum of light. So... just when you think its all sorted, you have to take into account wavelength. This isn't an LED vs HID or even Flouro thing. You could take 2 different 1kw HID veg bulbs and come up with significant differences in where your blue spectrum light is biased.

As pointed out by rives "LEDs tend to be more efficient at turning watts into light,"

The REAL reason(s) to be looking into LED's IMO are:
a) efficiency
only put the watts you need into your plants - by using only those LED's required to grow & flower your plants. Who cares about light that makes it look nice to humans, when it doesn't make a different to the plant, AND makes your room hot, and costs $? For those times you want to look at your lovely herbs, you just use a supplemental light source.

b) flexibility of heat removal (potential)
Instead of being limited to air-cooling (HID lights) LED's can be liquid cooled. IMO the best part of this, is the fact that you can pump coolant out of the grow, to a remote radiator, without concern about stink! While I haven't seen a commercial product for this yet, I have seen it in operation in a grow, and it ROCKS! The grower is a computer geek, and from his perspective - was natural to cool his LED grow the same way he cools his PC.

Sorry for getting slightly o/t... but if you're wanting to know: why bother with LED IMO the above are reasons enough.

Peace, bw

 

[420empire]

Hey guys, nice topic.

I wonder why there isn´t anyone mention Hans´s light fro ledgrow, looks very promising, but again I´am not a electronics engineer, what du guys think of his work. ??

 

[medmaker420]

is there a reason LED vendors dont make true watt units??? 600w led= 600w...None of this 300w will equal 600w of hid stuff. why dont they just make units that are 600w. A 600w led still run cooler the a 600 HID wont it???

This makes me want to pull my digi's out and test them on my kill a watt meters. How efficient are mag and digi ballasts compared to their listed wattage as well.

Has anyone watt tested quantum lumi's etc?

wonder how close to the 400w 600w and 1kw mark they are as well.

 

[LeeROI]

If I were buying a hobby horticulture LED fixture today, I'd be very tempted by the Illumitex NeoSol NS:
http://www.illumitex.com/led-horticulture-fixtures/neosol-2/

 

[trem0lo]

If I had the space and heat control, I would run hid lights. The led retail market is just too much of a mess, and hids are tried and true. The only way I'd run leds in a commercial setup is if I could build the fixtures myself. I see plenty of sparkies who wire their own rooms for thousands of watts; building a LED light isn't any more difficult. Just more expensive, and new LEDs come out all the time.

 

[420empire]

Think the Illumitex Surexi would be a good idea, maybe as supplement to hans panel..

 

[Django Masamura]

I just received my second UFO in the mail yesterday. I purchased one a few years back, a little 90W hockey puck, set me back about $500 and it was a complete waste of money. The new one I got off a Chinese site, 75W with a 3W chipset (3WX25). It was from Xsled and about three times the size of my old one plus this was only $80 with tax and shipping. The difference is astonishing, I had it on for barely a few minutes as I set it up, when I left the room everything looked emerald green for a while. The 3W LEDs have far better light penetration, it just saturates the area in blinding light. The unit gives off virtually no heat and even with the fan it is whisper quiet. This is a most welcome addition to my closet. I have a feeling 2013 could be a very good year.