Should I care about Watts, PAR, PPFD, ???
- Thread starter kdt15
- Start date
Underground Scientist
Well-Known Member
PAR is what your looking for, usually tested with light spread diagrams. Shows you PAR readings at the suggested mount height, at center, in a 1' radius around it, 2' radius around it, etc. LED is often emitting light that is in specific frequencies that produce PAR, so they are more efficient when comparing watts, but there is debate out there over just targeting frequencies vs a broader yet still efficient spectrum. Be careful investing in equipment, or you're likely to have piles of shit in corners you ended up being unhappy with.
chiqifella
Well-Known Member
I'd go with 600/1000 watt metal halides or high pressure sodiums and never want or worry for anything else.
my led lights now look good on Halloween in the foyer once a year.
my led lights now look good on Halloween in the foyer once a year.
Underground Scientist
Well-Known Member
Ceramic Metal Halides!
chiqifella
Well-Known Member
so I hear.....
thing is for me....EVERY other suggestion I ever tried in the past only emptied my wallet and wasted my time.
I always returned to my proven hid lamps/ballasts. Once bitten twice shy, I'm done experimenting with my girls.
GBAUTO
Well-Known Member
Here's my take.
CMH/HID/HPS lights are viable choices-low entry cost, reasonably efficient. Primary downside is the amount of heat introduced into the grow environment. If you have the ability to get rid of that heat then they are hard to beat.
Now if you're like me, heat is a major hurdle for me to regulate. That is where led's can be a benefit. Using state of the art components like cob's or discrete diodes produce more PAR for each watt of electricity used. This means that less energy is wasted as heat. PPF(the amount of usable photons emit) gives you an accurate output of the light source and PPFD gives you an idea of how ell the lamp distributes that light over an area. Seems that the basic conversion from HID to LED is about 2/3-an efficient led lamp can produce the same amount of light of an HID. 650W of led should generate the same amount of light as a 1kW HID
CMH/HID/HPS lights are viable choices-low entry cost, reasonably efficient. Primary downside is the amount of heat introduced into the grow environment. If you have the ability to get rid of that heat then they are hard to beat.
Now if you're like me, heat is a major hurdle for me to regulate. That is where led's can be a benefit. Using state of the art components like cob's or discrete diodes produce more PAR for each watt of electricity used. This means that less energy is wasted as heat. PPF(the amount of usable photons emit) gives you an accurate output of the light source and PPFD gives you an idea of how ell the lamp distributes that light over an area. Seems that the basic conversion from HID to LED is about 2/3-an efficient led lamp can produce the same amount of light of an HID. 650W of led should generate the same amount of light as a 1kW HID
bigbudzzz420
Member
YES, watts, par, PPFD are important, but I think the PPFD should get more focus