A real led discussion

gonna jump early in the thread before the HPS or nuttin guys start killing it with gonna be dissapointed.. MY truth... ( as in my experiences) been on the site for over two years researching, reading, wasting time.. just getting informed blah, blah... joined maybe last year.. but I gotta say.. after alot of reading like trying to earn my degree in growing with a Dean's list check mark..........L.E.D. isn't gonna cut it.. for the full round-trip.. UNLESS you have special circumstances and OR you DON'T care about maximum return on effort... LED just simply will not add the brute weight of the hot HPS setup.. that being said...... MY personal approach.. I use LED UFO purchased off ebay.. Such as this example matches the same light i own http://cgi.ebay.com/90W-FULL-SPECTRUM-TRIBAND-UFO-HYDROPONIC-LED-GROW-LIGHT_W0QQitemZ250603383858QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a59202c32 same Seller and only sell's that light... I use it in combination with www.hidhut.com UFO satalittle 8 lights ring around job.... use the led and the satalitte attachmet with 8 6500 Kelvin Temp.. (color) bulbs 23 watter available at walmart.. or most any hardware store UFO calims to be 3650 lumens with all the right colors and with my cfl's add another 3-4K to that figure which is about good enought to produce 4 vegative/seedling stage beginners.... for a month then switch... to HPS... 600 or above in my humble opinion... So for my stoned buddies surfing the site... Use-a-holla the LED for veg and then once your baby is big enough.... Switch the bitch to High Pressure Sodium...

Thanks so much for your input Handygrow. I think if you put a little more research into some of the more expensive higher output fixtures, such as ones with 2 watt and 3 watt LED's in them, you might find that these fixtures offer much more intense light. But hey, even though your still an HPS user for flowering your on board for the veg cycle..half the battle is better than none! And again thanks for your input.

so what happened here no replys for days ? i got my seeds sprouted under light about five days now and look good . they are on 24/7 still , i will try to get some pics up i made some changes from the way i had it , its a good size room with a getto set up but its working for my funds .

It's refreshing to see an intelligent discussion of LEDs without all the animosity. I own 3 90w UFOs but I haven't given them a good test yet. I am on my first real grow now...only 2 weeks and I'm using the trusty 400w HPS (OptiRed lamp). I will be using the UFOs at some point so I can see the results for myself. There may be a place for them in my small cab that is almost complete. I would definitely want to use them together with some T5s for a better spectrum. Good luck to you.

.

I've got 4 x 90W UFOs with 30 x 3 watt diodes each UFO - paid for and being made now, should be shipped soon (5 or 6 band, it was a lot more important to them than me). As soon as I get my adapter rigged up I'll post pics - a spectrometer was too expensive so I'm using a Spectra PAR meter for testing, the results will be off but I believe the adjustments will be a matter of cutting back LED wattage since PAR meters often double the PUR watt estimate for some HPS lights.

It's only 8 in the morning and I'm only on my 2nd Volcano bag of White Widow, hardly awake yet. I'll check back to see who's around when I'm into the Flo.

.

The solution to the LED flowering problem is increasing intensity while decreasing wattage while increasing coverage.

.

hobbes man, you totally have it with that last line than you said...... and im serious when i say that i would love to know who is making your lights and an on the real pricetag you paid for them..... that being said, id love for you to post a follow up with some pics and a testimonial on what kind of penitration you're getting with those 3w's whe you get them in and use them

which brings me to the point i signed on to make! here it is: the verdict is in on my real life comparison between the intensity and overall penitration of 1w led's vs. 2w led's.................. and the winner is..... 2w leds BY FAR win that battle, if you have two 1w led's and one 2w led, the 2w led will outperform the ones hands down in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE
ok, they use the same amount of electricity, produce the same amount of heat, but the 2w led's on the market have PROVEN to have longer life expectancy and lower degradation rates than their 1w counterparts. past that, the visual light is WAY more intense from the 2w led......... i have absolutely no clue why this is, same curvature of housing, so same degree of dispersal.... why do they outperform? i dont know but they do! the absolute only drawback is that, that 2w is going to cost a bit more than those two 1w'ers. i can live with that.... now i'm on the serious hunt to explore differences in the 2w, 3w, and 5w performances.

thanks for all the great posts guys, keep this shit up!

I use the 90w ufo's from prosource. I also use the sunshine systems glowpanel 45's both are great lights. I'm leaning towards going full on prosource though, 5 band tri spectrum. Great lights.

just an update, if you dont read our journal..... the internal fans on one of the ufo's we bought off of ebey, went out. all three fans are dead on one ufo light out of three lights total.... after 1 WEEK!!! that is telling me that there is a bigger difference in the quality of product than i thought. only time will tell if there is actually enough difference in high priced units vs low priced units to actually warrent paying over a thousand dollars more for them...

i used led lights for most of my first grow and i will say this for vegging they work great but for flowering they do not pack enough intense light to put that dense mass into ur buds like a hps light would. i still use them but only for seedlings and clones. midway into my flowering i went on and purchased a 400w hps and finished out my flowering with it. but the pros to using led lights are they are energy efficent , gives the plants the exact spectrum that is required for them to grow. as for the cons like stated above your yield will suffer because it does not give enough intense light and one more thing who ever said these led lights dont give off any heat is a lie these lamps still produced some heat just like any light would just might be not as much

ps if your using l.e.d lights one thing to remember what ever nutrients you are using what ever it tells u to apply cut it in half or you will over fertilize your plants

I've been flowering with a 400watt hps & I've been using cfl's on up to a 150watt hps for vegging. Lately I've been toying with the idea of doing a full led grow after this next grow but more than likely I'll still flower with my 400watt hps. I did acquire last week a 90watt ufo which uses only cree bulbs. This particular 6band ufo doesn't use the blue bulbs but a high output blue/white peak 440nm, a high output white, deep red 660nm, mid red 630nm, uv380nm & infrared 730nm for more of a full spectrum.

Photo taken today of 3 clones in 1 gallon hempy buckets under this ufo. I'll probably just use the ufo for vegging but I just may use it to flower these 3 clones for the fun of it. Good luck to you bonnie'n'klyde, I'll be keeping my eyes on ya.

mookie brown said:

I've been flowering with a 400watt hps & I've been using cfl's on up to a 150watt hps for vegging. Lately I've been toying with the idea of doing a full led grow after this next grow but more than likely I'll still flower with my 400watt hps. I did acquire last week a 90watt ufo which uses only cree bulbs. This particular 6band ufo doesn't use the blue bulbs but a high output blue/white peak 440nm, a high output white, deep red 660nm, mid red 630nm, uv380nm & infrared 730nm for more of a full spectrum.

Photo taken today of 3 clones in 1 gallon hempy buckets under this ufo. I'll probably just use the ufo for vegging but I just may use it to flower these 3 clones for the fun of it. Good luck to you bonnie'n'klyde, I'll be keeping my eyes on ya.

Click to expand...

Mookie Brown: Sorry man not to be a downer but I have to tell you something about your fixture, I have done tons of research including about 2 hours just tonight right before I read your post! Again I hate to inform you of this fact but cree does not even manufacture ultraviolet spectrum LED's or a "deep red" / 730nm LED. Their spectrum ends about 660nm.

I just wanted to be a friend and let you know so that you can take whatever repercussions you want to against the seller that sold you your fixture.

Thanks for the great post and the advice, hope to see you back on this forum.

bonnie'n'klyde said:

Mookie Brown: Sorry man not to be a downer but I have to tell you something about your fixture, I have done tons of research including about 2 hours just tonight right before I read your post! Again I hate to inform you of this fact but cree does not even manufacture ultraviolet spectrum LED's or a "deep red" / 730nm LED. Their spectrum ends about 660nm.

I just wanted to be a friend and let you know so that you can take whatever repercussions you want to against the seller that sold you your fixture.

Thanks for the great post and the advice, hope to see you back on this forum.

Click to expand...

This is to be a new product for 2010. Are you positive that cree doesn't make ultraviolet at this current day or the deep red ? I'm contacting cree & will get an answer. I now see 3 american hydroponic online shops which sell the ufo I have, & all 3 advertise it the same way.

sorry double post.

mookie brown said:

This is to be a new product for 2010. Are you positive that cree doesn't make ultraviolet at this current day or the deep red ? I'm contacting cree & will get an answer. I now see 3 american hydroponic online shops which sell the ufo I have, & all 3 advertise it the same way.

Click to expand...

I saw the same ufo led system that you have on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2010-model-90w-HO-Cree-Lighthouse-Hydro-6-Band-USA_W0QQitemZ280484962383QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414e34e04f
I was thinking of getting this because they have very high lumens compared to other led units. The only thing I dont understand is it more important to have higher lumens or correct spectrum.

I go to prosource website and this is what they have to say. The Yield.....This is pretty much what it's all about right? Well the output of our 90W Illuminator UFO is equivalent to a 400W HID......( Now we're not saying that the 90W Illuminator UFO emits more Lumens output than a 400W or 600W HID, but to state that the Illuminator UFO emits the same amount of absorbable light as a 400W HID, and it is this ability to only emit key absorbable light that your plants are able to use that makes it possible to achieve the parity results with an HID at just a fraction of the wattage. Lumens output is not a key factor in determining plant growth, it is the ability of the plants to absorb and transform the light energy into photosynthesis and which wavelengths are to be used to achieve those key absorption points. Lumens are a common measure of output that is used to measure the intensity of HID Lighting, but really has no direct bearing on determining plant growth. Remember that over 85% of the light emitted from an HID Light is waisted in the form of non-absorbable light waves as well as heat energy.

Dutch growlights have there own led light fixtures 400w and nutes tailored for leds,I will stick with my 400w hps for now,til leds are on par.

Check this out on youtube,pretty amazing.

alexonfire said:

I saw the same ufo led system that you have on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2010-model-90w-HO-Cree-Lighthouse-Hydro-6-Band-USA_W0QQitemZ280484962383QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414e34e04f
I was thinking of getting this because they have very high lumens compared to other led units. The only thing I dont understand is it more important to have higher lumens or correct spectrum.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately ALL these led sellers have their own lingo. Sellers claim their chips are all bridgelux & then some sellers say bridgelux only makes led's in certain colors & not others. The same thing even with the cree. One thing is for certain they all want to push their products & will say just about anything to make the sales. prosource, htg, hydroponics hut & the list goes on. Who to believe ?? They all bullshit. I've seen grows with prosource, I've seen grows with cheap chinese led models. I personally can give a rats ass who makes the chips as long as the lifespan is around 50,000hrs and do the job. My 400 watt hps pumps out a qp of head stash every 3 months & my 2 footer outside gives me a couple of z's. For myself purchasing the one I did was not a loss in my pocket, I wont complain. It's working good in veg & should pay for itself.

mookie brown said:

Unfortunately ALL these led sellers have their own lingo. Sellers claim their chips are all bridgelux & then some sellers say bridgelux only makes led's in certain colors & not others. The same thing even with the cree. One thing is for certain they all want to push their products & will say just about anything to make the sales. prosource, htg, hydroponics hut & the list goes on. Who to believe ?? They all bullshit. I've seen grows with prosource, I've seen grows with cheap chinese led models. I personally can give a rats ass who makes the chips as long as the lifespan is around 50,000hrs and do the job. My 400 watt hps pumps out a qp of head stash every 3 months & my 2 footer outside gives me a couple of z's. For myself purchasing the one I did was not a loss in my pocket, I wont complain. It's working good in veg & should pay for itself.

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking into what I was talking about. They all seem to be liars but your attitude about performance is the only thing that matters not name brand of chips is the most positive and correct way to look at it from my point of view too. Hope you didn't take my comment in a negative fashion. Best of luck and please post your results.

I love my GROWL LEDs, if you are looking for IR and UV as well as all the colors needed, they have panels that are specific to growing Canabis. They have the 2010 Canabis Pro models, I love this company, i can't say enough great things about the owners and the fact they are an American company and help you right away. http://ledgrowlight.com/

I have a really tiny grow tent in my closet that is 4 ft. tall but only 16 inches long and 16 inches wide. It has five 6 inch ports and two 4 inch ports. I think the 90w UFO from sunshine sheds is what I am looking at. i currently have 4 100w CFLs and my temps are at 85. Too hot for my one week away from harvesting DNA's LA Woman.I believe that this UFO can be used for veg and flowering. Any thoughts?