ya see? the fuck'd up thing with LED's is that the green matter has be directly under the leds ...my 600 can throw light up to 5' radius .can a LED do that ? ......i don't think so.
There have been quality LED systems in the aquarium reef trade for several years. Even ones where you can control the K value of the light by increasing/decreasing the amount of acitinic wave length leds supplying lighting. They are far from cheap though. Around about $1500 to $2000 to provide a lumen output equivalent to a single 400 watt metal halides. Reef aquarium keepers that are propagating corals are far ahead of horticultural growers in having supplied their demands for better led lighting. However they seem much more inclined to spend huge amounts of money for such led lighting systems. You can put thousands of dollars worth of corals under just one lighting system which they use to supply light to just 4 square feet. However they are usually not dealing with lighting distances beyond 3 to 4 feet. Usually they are only using 2 foot deep tanks.
HPS gets a better yield
Proof?
I'd love to tell you specifically about all the LED stuff I do, just not a good idea on a site like this, my work is very unique.
I have my own manufacturing shop where I build specialized LED light engines. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get some of these modules to assemble into complete working fixture and break into the LED horti market. I think these illumitex modules could actually compete with an HID in a high enough density.
So far every LED "grow light" has just been a mashup of previously commercially available LEDs that were originally designed mostly for signage and backlighting.
Finally there is now an actual LED with a tailored spectrum for photosynthesis.
http://www.illumitex.com/horticulture-lighting.php
I'm not affiliated with these people at all, I just got a newsletter through one of my suppliers for my real life job and thought people here would be interested.
Looks very promising. Alas I was unable to find pricing
Looking for plug N play