Why are so many new growers choosing blurple/led over hps/mh??

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
Metal Halide bulbs put out UV, but the glass in my air cooled hood blocks that UV light. HPS bulbs don’t put out UV at all.
Not to argue but if I'm remembering correctly, all high intensity arc discharge tubes create some kind of UVB, HPS being the least at 0.5% of its output.

1000w hps = 5w of UVB, running through tempered glass? -65% = 1.75w total, Its minimal yes but MH is only double that at 3.5w through tempered glass.
 

Fevs.

Well-Known Member
I have been growing for a number of years and have used many different lights. I have used California lightworks, Budmaster led, platinum led + several other leds, metal halide, hps and cmh. When I started I was growing in antique wardrobes with led. I learnt to grow just using blurple led for the 1st 5 years. I had good results. Cheap electric bills too, but always thought for the time i'm putting in that I wanted more out of growing.
I now grow in 7 3ft x 3ft tents with a 400hps in each. I stopped using led and sold all my panels. I progressed and expanded, but just couldn't take it that step further with led. Since switching to hps my electric bills are now £1500 every 3 months. It was £600-£700 when I grew with led. The yield has gone up a lot, but so has electric use so that was kind of expected.

I think leds do have their place, but how much weed you want to grow does come into play. It just got silly how much money I'd spent. I had £1000's of led panels which I would have lost had I of got raided. That was a stress. In the end I just I just wanted to keep it simple and stress free. Also had a few fans start to go, so moved them whilst they were worth a lot.
I stopped using 315w cmh after 1 1/2 grows for this reason. I had several powercuts and on 2 of my 4 cmh kits the lamps wouldn't fire up properly afterwards. I sold the 2 working cmh kits. By the way cmh is the best light I have used for quality and is a great light for a 3ft x 3ft area. I would of gone cmh in all tents, but that put me off. The lamps are like £90. I also found the cmh ballasts ran very hot too. Compared to normal hid ballasts they were just so hot and that subconsciously caused me stress. I even used a clip on fan to cool each ballast.

I went old school and got myself 7 magnetic ballasts and grow under 400w sylvania grolux duel spectrum lamps. I'm a bit shocked by how much the yield has gone up. Next grow is 3-4 weeks from finishing and I've still got this...
DSCN4646.JPG

DSCN4647.JPG

I have missed the balance here people. I'm a bit shocked by the yield. I'm going to buy 2 led panels for vegging to cut down some of my electricity use. They draw 180w and cover a 3ft area. I loved the way plants grew under led. Stacked nodes. Hps makes the a bit stretchy I find. Metal halide makes them grow leaves bigger than large hands. Led and cmh were very similar in appearance during the growth stage.

So if you want to do a personal grow to save you buying street weed, go led. If you want to cash crop or just grow in the winter grow with hps or halides and heat you house to save £ on heating you'd otherwise be paying for. I'm now only growing between October and February now every year. I'll just have too much weed. Plus I grow in coco and it's a lot of work. Two feeds a day, so I'll have my life back. lol

I loved how silent my extractor fans were when growing under led. Put the tv on quiet and you can't hear it. Hps growing in my place sounds like a factory. It's not good to live in these conditions. A Weeerrrrrrrrrrr noise never ending coming from the fans. All these lights have their advantages and disadvantages.

Anyway, it's been an interesting read this thread.
 

Old Newb

Active Member
To the OP,

I don't mean to stir up a hornets nest here, but I've noticed many folks in this hobby seem to be stuck on the 'a watt is a watt regardless the light technology' scenario. I chose an LED bank that is rated at the same lumens output as a 300 watt incandescent light source. I chose it because it is more efficient at generating that output, while only consuming about 130 watts from the wall. Additionally, I intend to grow 24/0 so less power consumption the better.

If you take a step back and apply the 'a watt is a watt' scenario, engineering CFL's and later LED's to replace incandescents would have been a waste of time and money. Unless there is something mystical about an incandescent watt and an LED watt, I am more than happy to read and/or learn about it. My electronics background says otherwise at this point though.

EDIT: Oh, and I think I just figured out what you mean by "blurple" - blue/purple right?

Still learning...
 

Clumpyoyster

Well-Known Member
looks like a 10g phat sack to me.... looks like a fun idea.
Thats a lot of bud on one plant. I haven't tried one plant one tent yet. I'm more of a sog guy but still leave them room to widen out a bit. Second grow so still lots to learn that why I want to know how long he vegged for
 

Powertech

Well-Known Member
Thats a lot of bud on one plant. I haven't tried one plant one tent yet. I'm more of a sog guy but still leave them room to widen out a bit. Second grow so still lots to learn that why I want to know how long he vegged for
It was my first grow, i vegged for 2 months, somebody else did 1 month before me, only on second now
 

THC-CK

Well-Known Member
HPS, a 315 CMH, or quantum is the only thing that makes any sense to be investing in at this point.

Even if you are worried about $$$ only, a 400w HPS setup is like is $200, and the same goes for a decent starter QB.

Blurples HAD their place.
 
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