Plasma Lighting, New 500 watt systems to be released soon!!!

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member

JimmyRecard

Active Member
About fucking time!!!!!!!!!!...........man they delayed this kit forever.........thanks for the info/start saving:P
*cough* Just typed it in google *cough*

But yeah what are you expecting the price range for this one to be? Only asking as my next grow which will be 8 lights I will probably be looking at using some of these or LEDs.
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
hey guys, don't want to bump a thread unnecessary but I have some answers to your questions.

The STA75 will not be available in a fixture until Q2 2013, simply because because you need to do production trials and the product needs to be ready for market. It is more efficient than the STA 41.xx series it is not by far as efficient as HPS (when you talk photons/watt - ppf). Though it is more efficient than the STA 41.xx series we currently put in our Gavita Pro 300 LEP units it is not necessary always the better solution. It will be hard to evenly distribute the light of this intense point source over a larger area. And though for sunlight simulations this extra light might be a great advantage, for using it in conjunction with HPS it is not necessary an advantage. You will find that based on our current recommendation (1x 300 LEP with up to 1200W HPS) the current fixture is more than enough to balance your light.

About the Philips CMD Elite Agro 315W lamp: In Europe Philips will not sell it. Horticulture is more interested in the daylight spectrum. For climate rooms efficiency is never a concern, and you are not going to use 315W lamps for production in a greenhouse for the simple reason that you would have to buy 4 315W fixtures instead of 1 HPS unit. Even indoor the combination HPS/Plasma is cheaper than the Elite Agro solution: 1x Gavita Pro 1000 DE and 1 Gavita Pro 300 LEP combined cost much less than 4 CDM 315 fixtures. Plus they would be more expensive in maintenance (4 expensive lamp and reflector changes against one or two).

For small climate rooms with low ceilings however the Elite Agro is a great lamp. I already did trials with the lamp and though it is very warm the results are good.

The LEP has a few advantages though:
- First of all we filter UVC from the light but our glass filter passes UVA and UVB. (CDM has UV blocking glass, so no UV)
- Secondly the light is cold (as in hardly any infrared radiation). This is an advantage when you add extra light, but also a disadvantage if you use it stand alone for flowering. You will find you will have to heat the room! It is the same problems you have with LED. But, when adding spectrum to the HPS this is an advantage.
- It is available in additional spectrum. HPS is most efficient in making the red colors, why not use LEP to just generate what is missing, including UVA and UVB? That is precisely what the 01 versions do.

LEP is not sulphur plasma. SP lamps are primarily fast rotating lamps with fans and motors inside them and work on sulphur in the cell. They do not emit UV light and are not suitable for greenhouses as they contain moving parts. LEP is based on metal halides instead of sulphur and a solid state construction without any moving parts. It does emit UV, including high quantities of UVC This UVC needs to be filtered out because it is very damaging for the eyes and ultimately the crop at high intensity. Never use the plasma light without the special glass filter. If you break it, order a new one because replacing it by normal glass will cost you the UVA and UVB.

Hope i brought you all a bit up to speed ;)
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
oh, and about the price:

I can easily calculate for you that the investment of one LEP pays back within 1,5 crop cycle only based on the extra yield you get when adding more light to your crop, not taken into account a better price you might get for a better, healthier crop with less plagues. I would say that is a pretty good investment..

here is a calculation:

here in Europe growers are satisfied if they get one gram of product per watt of light, so 600 grams under a 600W lamp.

A 600W lamp emits (after reflector losses) about 1000 umol s-1, so you yield about 0.6 gr per umol of light.

The plasma light brings (and I have rounded this off!) 250 umol s-1 extra, so it should add average 0.6x250 = 150 gr of product per cycle. You do the rest of the math ;)
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
well I just come back from Prague after doing trade shows in Barcelona, Michigan, San Francisco, Las Vergas, Amsterdam and Zurich and I am preparing to go to France and Spain coming months :D

Sorry guys, but as you know I manage 2 large forums already and people more or less expect that I shine my light on about every lighting topic there so it is really hard for me to keep you guys all up to date on several fora, but I do my best. Only so many hours in a day...

Here is 2 pics of 5 old school positronics skunk afghani unde a CDM Elite Agro in a 1m tent.

IMG_0131-001.jpgP1010707.jpg
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
How bad is the spectral shift when dimming the CDM elite agro??


the girls look like their loving it btw....
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
I see you are using a "Gavita clone" in your growthread based on a different emitter foreverflyhi, the previous 40.02 series. The 40.xx has a lower output than the now standard 41.xx emitter, but allows universal position. Also I don't know what type of glass filter you use in that fixture (Gavita uses special wide spectrum, UV transmitting glass) so the UV part of it doesn't necessary apply. What I am saying applies specifically for Gavita fixtures with the 41.xx emitters, and to a lesser degree to the 40.xx series.

How bad is the spectral shift when dimming the CDM elite agro??
I did not dim those lights yet, why would I want to dim a 315W light? ;)
 

MaineWeed

Active Member
Though all of this is interesting and might end up being the way to go till prices drop and plasma proves itself through all phases of grow I'll stick with my Digilux 1000's. I'm not knocking any one type of light but now that the states are all jumping on the bandwagon and allowing medical grows we're going to continue to see a whole crap-load of different gimmicks & products out there to separate us from our $$ and I am going to stick with a time tested HPS.
 

foreverflyhi

Well-Known Member
I see you are using a "Gavita clone" in your growthread based on a different emitter foreverflyhi, the previous 40.02 series. The 40.xx has a lower output than the now standard 41.xx emitter, but allows universal position. Also I don't know what type of glass filter you use in that fixture (Gavita uses special wide spectrum, UV transmitting glass) so the UV part of it doesn't necessary apply. What I am saying applies specifically for Gavita fixtures with the 41.xx emitters, and to a lesser degree to the 40.xx series.


I did not dim those lights yet, why would I want to dim a 315W light? ;)
Yup it's a gavita clone.
I had list of important questions before I purchased this light and the glass filter was in my top of the list. He said its the same glass protection gravita uses and blocks harmful but keeps the good uv transmitting.
The maker of this light was telling me the diffrence between gavita design and chameleon and said chameleon design is a cool idea(can take water spalshes or high RH)but its really a horrible design that if eventually breaks down, will be next to impossible to fix.
But overall he was a good independent person that was into what he does. I got it at deal that will make anyones jaw drop :o

Though all of this is interesting and might end up being the way to go till prices drop and plasma proves itself through all phases of grow I'll stick with my Digilux 1000's. I'm not knocking any one type of light but now that the states are all jumping on the bandwagon and allowing medical grows we're going to continue to see a whole crap-load of different gimmicks & products out there to separate us from our $$ and I am going to stick with a time tested HPS.
Also for maineweed. No one is jumping the bandwagon homie. If anything you need to jump off the hps bandwagon before its obsolete! (I know I am ;) )

I get a kick at these closed minded hps growers. Pulling pounds but can't seem to invest in the future? Geuss all the money goes into paying light bills and synthetics? Ha

Energy consumption going down and Quality and quanity going way up. What more can anyone ask for?
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
hmm.. plasma is not good for your electricity bill yet, as it isn't as efficient in making photons as HPS is. You choose plasma for quality, HPS for quantity, and you use them both. When it is your concern to make a good product then this is not a gimmick, but common sense with a very fast return on investment. You are growing a crop worth five times its weight in silver, not a dollar per kilo crop. Silver in the long term might be still a better investment than pot though ;)
 

foreverflyhi

Well-Known Member
hmm.. plasma is not good for your electricity bill yet, as it isn't as efficient in making photons as HPS is. You choose plasma for quality, HPS for quantity, and you use them both. When it is your concern to make a good product then this is not a gimmick, but common sense with a very fast return on investment. You are growing a crop worth five times its weight in silver, not a dollar per kilo crop. Silver in the long term might be still a better investment than pot though ;)
Hey whazzup I gots a question for you.
Ive been looking at other forums(don't want to mention names) with threads on lep and hps grows. And In a particular one, I believe it might of been you(sorry if it wasn't) but I read something along the line of, led grows with lep wernt succesful or failed?
Can you elaborate on this? I'm currently doing this so that statement worries me. But thus far my plants are loving the mix, not sure how she will respond in flower tho. Any suggestions? Thoughts? Thanks homie
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
I personally prefer to use it with HPS. You need efficient wide spectrum reds and you do need heat too, don't forget that. Using two new technologies is not only very expensive, but we have not been able to do a really good combination with LED yet and we haven't seen anyone else do it either as successful as the combination of LEP and HPS, which is affordable and very easy to use. We used different combinations of Philips reds and far red LED, but without a good result. Even chameleon (who started with just LED) skipped its combined LED/LEP fixture and went for all LEP a while ago. And that was their pride and joy flagship product. Chameleon are actually selling Kessil now. So if the biggest advocate for LED in combination with plasma withdraws a complete product line that says something.

I don't believe in single color LEDs. Plants do not like a spiky spectrum. But hey, I'm always open to be proven wrong ;).

What I do believe in is products that have been tested in a real-life situation with success before they are marketed.

Building a good fixture is not that easy. Specifically the electronics need to be kept cool and that requires very good heat management throughout the fixture. The Gavita horticultural fixture may be a bit heavy, but that is for a really good reason of course. Gavita has been in the business of building horticultural fixtures for more than 30 years.

(btw you are using a 41.xx emitter, not a 40.xx series).
 

tenthirty

Well-Known Member
I don't believe in single color LEDs. Plants do not like a spiky spectrum. But hey, I'm always open to be proven wrong .
No silver bullet yet, but broad band white led is as close as you're going to get as of this date.
 

whazzup

Well-Known Member
yes I agree there are some good white LEDs but that is still a phosphor emitter like a cfl, and basically a blue LED. Unfortunately they are not as efficient as the monochrome LEDs and still don't have a full continuous spectrum. Their spectrum is much like the CFLs, which come in multi band phosphor as well of course. Other than that they don't have any UV's and also very little far red and infra red.

Ask photographers and cameramen how they think about LED lighting as in quality of the light.

I don't think that, in a single fixture, you can get any closer than plasma.
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
Hey whazzup........... your around the Dutch AG industry, is Philips that heavily involved in promoting leds for horticulture as the say????? their green power led line seems to get no press/news/tests at all here in the US...
 
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