LED Lighting
- Thread starter kujoe
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Since I first saw LED lighting mentioned on sites like this I have seen claims made by what now would be a fairly large number, so yes LEDs have been tried.
I would say that of the number of claims I have read, most have been negative, most were dissatisfied with LED lighting.
Some people loved their LEDs, but most seemed not to.
Because that seems to be the norm on most sites like this most people hold the opinion that LEDs are not very good when compared to other forms of grow lighting.
A handful years back on a similar type board that is now just history I followed a thread from the creation of an all LED grow room until the testing of the cured product. It was the most impressive grow thread I have ever followed. Unless the person faked it and had additional lighting that was never seen in any picture and never mentioned it sold me on LEDs.
I do not remember the setup he was replacing, but I think it was a single 1000-watt setup.
Anyway he had come into a sizable amount of money and decided he wanted to go all LED. He researched the types/manufacturers of the LEDs used by NASA and other research sites that have had fantastic success with them and he purchased the highest quality LEDs available.
He also purchased them in large amounts. I could not begin to remember the total wattage, still way low compared to HID lighting, but it did total up a ways.
His basic design was two large square or possibly rectangle LED lights above his plants. Two were needed to cover the area/footprint and he hung them on separate light hangers in case he had differing height plants so he could better group them together under the two different lights and be able to keep his top lighting as low as possible.
He used a different design that was more like a narrow panel or a bar and he attached them to what I have always called portable posts. A piece of 4 X 4 cut to some height with a square plywood bottom or side legs of some type for balance. He built a ring of them to circle his plants with and had two light panels/light bars on each, one above the other, to begin with. He made more with lights on all four sides and he placed them between the plants. He had to make them different, he made them shorter and able to be added to, like stacking one on top of the other making it taller. When the plants were short he could not use them because the top lights were so low but once high enough he added them, and when high enough again he added the top part with the second group of lights on it.
His plants were the most perfect most impressive plants I have ever seen. From top to bottom they were covered with large dense buds. Their shape and form and color was as perfect as could be found, though some of that of course is skill related, but the plants grew fantastic.
Again I cannot remember numbers and figures but his electricity bill dropped considerably. He figured that was in part in that he was in a warmer climate and his A/C did not seem to run as often because there was not as much buildup of heat in his house. With cooler grow room temps he way downsized his exhaust setup and had it on a timed/digital thermostat and it did not come on often, and not at all at times which would be set for when CO2 was released so it would not be vented out, and he did not need the separate light fixture only venting he needed before at all.
He felt he was safer in that with lower temperatures his heat signature dropped a good bit so if there would be an IR scan it would be far less likely to look odd.
He figured out some operating cost predictions like how much he spent a year on average for bulbs and the now and then replacement ballast against the predicted life expectancy of the LEDs and that turned into a handsome sum of money saved, if the predictions held true. When added to the savings in electricity it made for a big savings over a handful of years time.
But he spent THOUSANDS of dollars for his setup, and I mean THOUSANDS. I do not remember and I would hate to try to guess-remember so I will just say THOUSANDS.
Most people would not be capable of doing that.
But what it proved is if you use the highest quality LEDs available and if you use them in sufficient numbers and if you know how to use them your results will be fantastic.
Most people where I have read their complaints about their failed LED experiment did one or more, or all, of the following. Purchased low quality LEDs because they even cost a fair bit and very high quality LEDs are expensive. They did not purchase enough lighting, they expected far too much from what they purchased. Or they just did not have a clue how best to use them, which might play hand in hand with purchasing to few or even with expecting too much from them.
If you can afford high quality LED lighting in what is actually sufficient amounts, maybe not as much as the example above because you might not need as many, and if you know how or will learn how to use them right I would say purchase them as soon as you can, you will love them.
If you might or will fail to meet any of the three requirements, you would be much better off going HID.
I would say that of the number of claims I have read, most have been negative, most were dissatisfied with LED lighting.
Some people loved their LEDs, but most seemed not to.
Because that seems to be the norm on most sites like this most people hold the opinion that LEDs are not very good when compared to other forms of grow lighting.
A handful years back on a similar type board that is now just history I followed a thread from the creation of an all LED grow room until the testing of the cured product. It was the most impressive grow thread I have ever followed. Unless the person faked it and had additional lighting that was never seen in any picture and never mentioned it sold me on LEDs.
I do not remember the setup he was replacing, but I think it was a single 1000-watt setup.
Anyway he had come into a sizable amount of money and decided he wanted to go all LED. He researched the types/manufacturers of the LEDs used by NASA and other research sites that have had fantastic success with them and he purchased the highest quality LEDs available.
He also purchased them in large amounts. I could not begin to remember the total wattage, still way low compared to HID lighting, but it did total up a ways.
His basic design was two large square or possibly rectangle LED lights above his plants. Two were needed to cover the area/footprint and he hung them on separate light hangers in case he had differing height plants so he could better group them together under the two different lights and be able to keep his top lighting as low as possible.
He used a different design that was more like a narrow panel or a bar and he attached them to what I have always called portable posts. A piece of 4 X 4 cut to some height with a square plywood bottom or side legs of some type for balance. He built a ring of them to circle his plants with and had two light panels/light bars on each, one above the other, to begin with. He made more with lights on all four sides and he placed them between the plants. He had to make them different, he made them shorter and able to be added to, like stacking one on top of the other making it taller. When the plants were short he could not use them because the top lights were so low but once high enough he added them, and when high enough again he added the top part with the second group of lights on it.
His plants were the most perfect most impressive plants I have ever seen. From top to bottom they were covered with large dense buds. Their shape and form and color was as perfect as could be found, though some of that of course is skill related, but the plants grew fantastic.
Again I cannot remember numbers and figures but his electricity bill dropped considerably. He figured that was in part in that he was in a warmer climate and his A/C did not seem to run as often because there was not as much buildup of heat in his house. With cooler grow room temps he way downsized his exhaust setup and had it on a timed/digital thermostat and it did not come on often, and not at all at times which would be set for when CO2 was released so it would not be vented out, and he did not need the separate light fixture only venting he needed before at all.
He felt he was safer in that with lower temperatures his heat signature dropped a good bit so if there would be an IR scan it would be far less likely to look odd.
He figured out some operating cost predictions like how much he spent a year on average for bulbs and the now and then replacement ballast against the predicted life expectancy of the LEDs and that turned into a handsome sum of money saved, if the predictions held true. When added to the savings in electricity it made for a big savings over a handful of years time.
But he spent THOUSANDS of dollars for his setup, and I mean THOUSANDS. I do not remember and I would hate to try to guess-remember so I will just say THOUSANDS.
Most people would not be capable of doing that.
But what it proved is if you use the highest quality LEDs available and if you use them in sufficient numbers and if you know how to use them your results will be fantastic.
Most people where I have read their complaints about their failed LED experiment did one or more, or all, of the following. Purchased low quality LEDs because they even cost a fair bit and very high quality LEDs are expensive. They did not purchase enough lighting, they expected far too much from what they purchased. Or they just did not have a clue how best to use them, which might play hand in hand with purchasing to few or even with expecting too much from them.
If you can afford high quality LED lighting in what is actually sufficient amounts, maybe not as much as the example above because you might not need as many, and if you know how or will learn how to use them right I would say purchase them as soon as you can, you will love them.
If you might or will fail to meet any of the three requirements, you would be much better off going HID.