I've been thinking about starting my own grow room for a long while now. And I think I'm about ready to start collecting the equipment needed to make a setup.

I'm in the states, and one of the things that bothers me is the energy usage of most grow lights, so I've been doing extensive research, and stumbled upon LED lights being used to grow plants. Although I can't find any information on these lights being used in cannabis cultivation. But it should stand to reason, if NASA can grow potatoes using these lights, than they should be able to be used in growing marijuana. One company that produces fixtures and LED grow lights even boasts, "Promotes the growth and development of all photosynthesizing organisms (plants, algae, bacteria) commonly found in hobby, commercial, and scientific areas of interest. This is the highest performance, most spectrally rich plant light source in the world."

They seem to cost around the same as any HIDs, yet only use about 9w and produce virtually no heat.

Just curious if anyone has experimented with an LED grow light setups, or might know someone who has, not even necessarily with growing marijuana either. Just in general.

I originally became interested after reading Wikipedia's article on indoor Cannabis cultivation, they have brief mention of different light sources and LEDs are mentioned.

Here are the links I've found most useful so far in trying to determine if this would be a viable alternative.

Indoor Cannabis cultivation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to Enlux Lighting.
Kevin Folta Laboratory at the Univeristy of Florida
LED Growlights.com Sales
LED Grow Master lighting for plants and planet
Lettuce and LEDs: Shedding New Light On Space Farming

AH YES! Wanted to say that I've been a lurker for a really long time, this is my first post, so hello to all of you, and all the beautiful crops I've seen!

Search for that tmc kid's post on his attempted LED grow... didn't work out well at all for him. Maybe NASA is growing potatoes with them, but NASA also has millions of dollars in funding. At this point the evidence is too sparse and the price is too high to consider buying LEDs. You're much better off getting a 400W HID from htgsupply for $150.

Alright, well I guess I'm too paranoid then... 400W (possibly x2) going for 18hrs a day and 3 months isn't going to draw attention to myself? I'm trying to go the most energy efficient way.

a lot of people on this forum will bust your chops for trying out another form of lighting because they think you should be using exactly what they're using. Why? Because they have the best setup, of course. Arguments nonetheless on behalf of led experimentation abound, and they have budded plants out on other forums, namely Cogi's LED experiment - Reefer World

These lights are more efficient, the problems are only with wavelength. Everyone brags about HID inefficiency when babbling on about lumens. Lumens are important, but to what end? Driving photosynthesis and other plant processes. So much light is wasted and reflected from the plants with HID's that you're really only operating 100W of light anyways (as it only has 25% efficiency) and the plants use only a small portion of the actual light output. So people like to forget that they're paying for four times more electricity than they need to grow the same crop because they're crop turns out so well and there's a big number on the box that says it puts off lots of lumens. It would be like rating an engine to 500 horsepower and driving a honda civic. Better to start off on our end, with 90% efficiency, then at 25%. It works, but it'll never change unless some people say that with new technology that number is no longer acceptable. It will, after all, be someone experimenting with pot growing that will develop a light harnessing these technologies that becomes rich. All the critics will be wishing they had researched and defended their case with evidence instead of spewing off reasons why you're an asshole for trying something different. Led's are a good start. Just accept the fact that you're experimenting. But that should make it all the more satisfying if you can make it work.
good luck in whatever you choose, and research led grows on other forums. You won't find as much info here as the environment is not ready for it...

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"From the psychopharmalogical standpoint we now understand these [religious/mystical] states to be changes in brain chemistry. From the sociological perspective we see that they tended to be connected in some way with religion."
--Huston Smith, "Do Drugs Have Religious Import?"

Check out my first grow ever: White Widow and Santa Maria! Input obviously accepted...
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...nta-maria.html

he also bought a commercial system which hasn't matched the output of the homegrown systems that I have seen succeed in budding. Of course you should shy away from shit like that. People are trying to prematurely turn led grow lights into a business. that will take a long time. But convincing someone not to experiment is less desirable than warning them they might not succeed. Besides, everyone here has spent so much on pot already in their life that a little cash is not such a big deal if it's in line with your hobbies. Have you all forgotten how fun it is to invent something?

Does millions of dollars magically make a light work differently? I've never heard a physics explanation that lacking. These people who have actually experimented with it are using the same technology, the same wavelengths. You're benefitting from that million dollar research because you read it for free. What an odd objection...

__________________
"From the psychopharmalogical standpoint we now understand these [religious/mystical] states to be changes in brain chemistry. From the sociological perspective we see that they tended to be connected in some way with religion."
--Huston Smith, "Do Drugs Have Religious Import?"

Check out my first grow ever: White Widow and Santa Maria! Input obviously accepted...
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...nta-maria.html

I bought everything for my cold cathode system, running 160W and with a light output of 1,200,000 cd/m2 for $150. Seeing as the plants could use all of this light, what are the objections again based on evidence

The only one I can imagine is that it hasn't worked yet on par with HID; as was mentioned, "the evidence is sparse". But this has much to do with the intensity that was unable to match HID's. Perhaps that can already be overcome.

__________________
"From the psychopharmalogical standpoint we now understand these [religious/mystical] states to be changes in brain chemistry. From the sociological perspective we see that they tended to be connected in some way with religion."
--Huston Smith, "Do Drugs Have Religious Import?"

Check out my first grow ever: White Widow and Santa Maria! Input obviously accepted...
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...nta-maria.html

the proof being in the pudding of course...

__________________
"From the psychopharmalogical standpoint we now understand these [religious/mystical] states to be changes in brain chemistry. From the sociological perspective we see that they tended to be connected in some way with religion."
--Huston Smith, "Do Drugs Have Religious Import?"

Check out my first grow ever: White Widow and Santa Maria! Input obviously accepted...
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...nta-maria.html

LED lighting is the absolute future in the USA. Brighter, cooler, cheeper, longer lasting, and smaller. How this will fit into the growing world, I don't know. BUT it is not premature. IF they work, then the business that sold it early will have market share. Market Share means brand recognition. The leaders make the big money and the followers see you making it and want a piece too. Plus business pushs for technolgical advancement.

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To see my Growroom and Plants click this link
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...tml#post257239

I love how NASA endorces so many products. Remember Tang lol? No one ever talks about the stupid shit they do like this.

In the mid 1980's NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that could write in space. After suceeding, in order to recoupe their costs they actully sold them to the US public (you may remember this). They also contacted the USSR and asked if they would like to buy space pens that cost millions to make. They replyed, no thanks, we use pencils.

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To see my Growroom and Plants click this link
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...tml#post257239

To be honest with you, I didn't realize how complicated, yet precise this could actually be. I was thinking more in relevant terms I guess, not actually working to build a cannabis growing LED technology. Which is essentially what Cogitus seems to be doing with his experimenting. It's been a great read so far, so I thank you for that! I'm only about 8 pages into the thread and already I've got quite a bit more of a handle on what I would have to do in order to have a successful grow. I'm thinking what I might do is end up emailing that Ph.D from Florida (link provided in my first post) to see how far down this rabbit hole he's gone. I don't know if I'll be explicitly telling him that I want to grow weed, but I mean.. he is a college professor in horticultural studies, so he might understand my position trying to do this with one of the most interesting plants on earth (I doubt too many of you on this forum can argue me on that point!)

I appreciate the encouraging words and for that great link though.