What type of LED light should I use?

I went into the top asked questions sticky on this forum and there is a question of "what lights I should use" but the link for it is broken so I'm asking again.

Assuming LED's are the best light(maybe debatable) I am considering grabbing one for myself because they are cooler and I can put it closer to my plants without frying them and they've got the full colour spectrum thing going for them.
I am really confused on which to get though as there is so many options.

I will start by saying NO to hydrogrowled.com as those lights are stupidly overpriced and they are the reason I have not gone LED sooner(I assumed they were all that expensive).

The main options where the LED lights are concerned seems to be 3w or 5w(I'm assuming that is the wattage of each individual bulb). also there's ones that have reflectors such as http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/reflector-series then there's the ones like http://www.viparled.co.uk/collections/vipar-series-c/products/vipar-c600-5w-led-grow-light then there's this design http://www.viparled.co.uk/products/vipar-b3x3-5w-led-grow-light or these http://www.viparled.co.uk/products/vipar-v300-3w-led-grow-light
Also some have control panels, digital displays, switches .etc

Personally I have no idea which are best, I need one that's at least near equivalent of 600w and suitable for veg and flowering cycles, anything else that helps yield would be great.

DIY cxb or vero

Anything else won't beat HPS enough to justify the high price.

If you have to ask, your best bet is probably HPS, at least for now.

^ what he said! CXA3070

Xephier said:

I went into the top asked questions sticky on this forum and there is a question of "what lights I should use" but the link for it is broken so I'm asking again.

Assuming LED's are the best light(maybe debatable) I am considering grabbing one for myself because they are cooler and I can put it closer to my plants without frying them and they've got the full colour spectrum thing going for them.
I am really confused on which to get though as there is so many options.

I will start by saying NO to hydrogrowled.com as those lights are stupidly overpriced and they are the reason I have not gone LED sooner(I assumed they were all that expensive).

The main options where the LED lights are concerned seems to be 3w or 5w(I'm assuming that is the wattage of each individual bulb). also there's ones that have reflectors such as http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/reflector-series then there's the ones like http://www.viparled.co.uk/collections/vipar-series-c/products/vipar-c600-5w-led-grow-light then there's this design http://www.viparled.co.uk/products/vipar-b3x3-5w-led-grow-light or these http://www.viparled.co.uk/products/vipar-v300-3w-led-grow-light
Also some have control panels, digital displays, switches .etc

Personally I have no idea which are best, I need one that's at least near equivalent of 600w and suitable for veg and flowering cycles, anything else that helps yield would be great.

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It's funny that people think that.. I used to think that but the truth is it needs to be a certain distance for it to work properly... I'm pretty sure with the right ventilation you can get a 600 watt hps light closer. Why are you so eager to spend money? u should use what you already have.. do you have any growing experience?

mr sunshine said:

It's funny that people think that.. I used to think that but the truth is it needs to be a certain distance for it to work properly... I'm pretty sure with the right ventilation you can get a 600 watt hps light closer. Why are you so eager to spend money? u should use what you already have.. do you have any growing experience?

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I don't but I've heard good things about LED lights. Are they over-hyped or what? Is the yield just as good with HPS? Take into account that I just have a Light enerG super HPS and not a Horilux bulb(I hear the light output on Horilux is around 10% better than the usual bulbs).

I'll spend what I have to in order to maximize my yield but I am not prepared to get into the nutrient craze just yet. I don't want to overcomplicate things on my first grow or add too many variables that could mess with things.

I guess I'll just get a centrifugal fan for now in order to cool down the HPS enough to make it practical.

So to be clear, short of getting a horilux for a small boost or spending 1000ish on leds, regular HPS is the way to go?

Most LED lamps will not beat HPS in efficiency, and will thus generate more heat than radiant power.

It's a trap. People get LEDs because they think they will generate less heat and save them power, but the best double ended HPS lamps have an efficiency of about 42% fresh, which is very hard to beat. Most cheap chinese LED arrays are more like 20-30% efficient, and cost more than HPS. Completely pointless!!

If you underdrive cxb at a low current, the startup cost is very high, but then you can start seeing efficiency 45-65% depending on how much you underdrive (how much money you throw at it). For someone starting out, it's really hard to beat HPS. If it's your first grow, there's a chance you may never grow again, and the leds will never pay themselves off. HPS is a clear winner in most cases unless you really know what you're doing.

@ xephier You're setting yourself up for failure you are already way over complicating things, get a grow under your belt before you worry about yield..right now you don't even know if you can keep it alive. Don't worry about the light use what you have...u can have the best light in the world its still not going to make you better. .that's like thinking an expensive baseball glove is going to make you catch better..I'm not trying to be a dick you just need to hear the truth..Goodluck on your first grow.

I would have to agree with Mr Sunshine on this you seriously need to get a few grows under your belt before you even think about spending a shit load of money on a light, you can have the best light on the planet and only get 10grams due to under/over feeding your plant, get your self a budget 600w for about 80 quid and give it a few grows to dial in on your grows first, we have all been where you are at the start thinking about getting shit loads of bud and the quickest way to do it but it all comes down to experience and these guys on here, were not out to piss on your bonfire were just giving you some friendly advice on the mistakes that we made, good luck with what ever you choose

mr sunshine said:

@ xephier You're setting yourself up for failure you are already way over complicating things, get a grow under your belt before you worry about yield..right now you don't even know if you can keep it alive. Don't worry about the light use what you have...u can have the best light in the world its still not going to make you better. .that's like thinking an expensive baseball glove is going to make you catch better..I'm not trying to be a dick you just need to hear the truth..Goodluck on your first grow.

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Ya well I just turned on my 600w for an hour and the damn thing set high (as in hight) as it can go set the room ablaze(not literally) 101F, My plants were drooping and I was freakin. I frantically fanned out the room and opened my bedroom window and watered the plants just a bit to cool down the soil temp and now they're back to looking healthy but DAYUM... I need to know, will a 435CFM 6" fan be enough to take down the temp by around 25 degrees or will I NEED to get a closed hood in order to bring down the heat to normal temps?

ok first off how big is your grow space???

smokeyjoejoe said:

ok first off how big is your grow space???

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Closet, bout a 4X2

that's way to big for that grow space your in, I would defiantly get a 6" exhaust or even go to 8" if i'm honest, and get a fan to blow the heat from the tops of your plant to, a 400w would be better in that space and would lower your heat by about 20%

this 1000 watt is in a 4x4 tent...The tent sits in a 10x10 room with a window ac. my in line fan is exhausting air into the attic threw a hole that was cut into the ceiling of the house I have a 435cfm inline fan .The air is pulled threw the carbon scrubber.. threw the light constantly pulling out heat and running fresher air over the bulb..then out the tent and out of the room the tents in to the attic.. my intake is passive meaning while my fan is sucking air out the tent it's also sucking air into it... I also have central ac in the house ,that and the window ac get the job done... I also have a fan mounted in the tent.

Xephier said:

Ya well I just turned on my 600w for an hour and the damn thing set high (as in hight) as it can go set the room ablaze(not literally) 101F, My plants were drooping and I was freakin. I frantically fanned out the room and opened my bedroom window and watered the plants just a bit to cool down the soil temp and now they're back to looking healthy but DAYUM... I need to know, will a 435CFM 6" fan be enough to take down the temp by around 25 degrees or will I NEED to get a closed hood in order to bring down the heat to normal temps?

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Your plants will die soon, if you leave them under that heat. It's only getting hotter..summers coming bro.

now that's the set up you need to be looking for, just like mine, you don't have to worry about the heat problems of the light as the exhaust pulls it out before it gets to the plants, I would either drop your 600 to a 400 or get that 6-8" exhaust

mr sunshine said:

Your plants will die soon, if you leave them under that heat. It's only getting hotter..summers coming bro.

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Now that's a problem, June, July, August when heat peaks another 10-15 degrees, you would be able to fry a steak in that space

My current grow is in a basemt and room temp down there has stayed consistently around 62-67 degrees. I run air cooled hood and have to keep my 6" inline fan on low just to keep my room above 70. I can literally touch and hold my hand indefinitely on the glass without burning it. Maybe in June/ July it'll be different. Try air cooled hood. Better yet try a cool tube. They run even cooler than air cooled lights but usually dont have as good a coverage. Good luck.

By the way, I've grown with the CLW solar storm 440 and it does well. Puts off heat but less than hps. Also look at apache tech, area 51 and Hans panels. All pricey but you get what you pay for in LEDs. Good luck.

Oi.. I live in an apartment that's partially submerged meaning that it's not a basement but it's about 3 1/2 feet below ground. Apartment being the key word, I can't do anything to do with an attic but I could get a 435 CFM fan, currently I have 4" vinyl ducting.. I guess I shoulda gone with 6" or does it matter? I may also need to get a closed hood but the cheapest I see one of those even on Kijiji is over 100$, I think at that point I'd be better off getting LED, I could try to resell my HPS set-up and use that plus the money I would have spent on a closed hood to get LED. I'd still need a 435CFM fan for the summer likely but going LED may lower my heat enough for now.

With that said, would going to either of the lights that I linked in the OP be better than a 400 HPS but lower heat(the price range of the LED's I'm lookin at is 2-300$ CAD)? I'm not really looking to dish out 1000$ on top ranking LED's but I also don't want to swap to a 400 HPS(only 2/3 of my current light).

mr sunshine said:

Your plants will die soon, if you leave them under that heat. It's only getting hotter..summers coming bro.

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No shit about that, in the process of freaking out I turned that light off and put the florescent strip back on, I won't be using any other light until the heat issues are resolved, I've been sitting around 78-82 with the strip.