Mountain_Monkey
Member
I read a lot of literature claiming a 90W LED UFO is a replacement for a 400W HPS and so on, 300W LED replaces 1000W HPS the list goes on on. What do you think your LED is the equivelant to? For instance I'm running a 357magnum which my equipment reads as having an output of 204-205W when on full spectrum mode. I have found that IMO it's the equivelant of around 400W HID, for Vegging purposes anyway as I've only just switched to 12/12 and haven't seen it's flowering potential. I must say I'm a little surprised at how well it'a aquitted itself so far and the internodes on the plants are so tight it's very impressive. Even though visibly I can't see any light penetrating much past the canopy the lower areas of the plants are all in very nice shape so either something is getting through or the amount of food from the canopy alone is sutaining the plants which I don't think is happening as these plants are so densely packed into the small area they are in that even the canopy is just a mass of overlapping leaves. Still there's no way I could say this thing is a 600W HPS replacement. Perhaps if I had a larger area to fit more plants into to test it it may prove me wrong in veg but the simple fact is this light doesn't have enough footprint to out perform a 600W in flower. I'm very interested in what all LED users here have to say regarding their respective units and the equivelant HID light it would take to match their lights. I know there are quality factors involved also such as trichrome coverage etc. but I'm more interested in outright power/W ratio vs HPS/MH. Any and all comments and opinions would be highly appreciated as the myth of LEDs being super highly ultra efficient and that 200W of LED replaces 1000W of HID (which I have seen advertised) is rubbish and frankly I think it damages the reputation of this excellent technology. If you could add which unit your using or if it's a DIY, the specs of the unit in your posts that would also be great as I believe it could be of some help to those of us thinking of building our own units as LED type/brand/output and color is highly relevant in such cases. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this post, hopefully we'll see some opinions shared and the like as this topic is one that I believe is important to those wanting to switch to this technology and the clearer we can make the picture for them the better.
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