The big LED question...

[Hotshot123]

I pay 17pence (roughly 20 cents) a kilowatt hour, cheaper than this at night. If i run a 600watt for a 12 hour cycle i pay about £1.22 a night (somewhere around a buck fifty US). Ten weeks of that and i pay £85.40 for 500grams or so, over 600 if your good.

Even if i factor in the fans im lucky if a flowered crop cost me £100 in cold hard electricity. Low street price here is £160 (and thats being generous) an Oz and 500grams is close enough to 18 Oz so i sell up and hey presto i have £2880 sitting in my hand of which that £100 pounds represents a few percent of my grow profits.

What you save in electricity and loose to hps in yeild arent worth it, saving electricity is marketing hype at todays weed prices.

Sounds ok, but I don't sell, just grow for my self. So I can do the same thing twice, for about 75Cents a day, or less, and have more weed, than I and the neighborhood can smoke. lol Ok, I went over to my elect page, and figure up what I pay for 12 Hours of elect. It comes to a little less than .40 Cents a day, so I don't see how you are saving more than I am. I am a big fan of HPS, don't get me wrong, but it is much less and much more grow from LED over time than using HPS. I can't tell any different in THC, only thick and heavy er buds with HPS, but not more than the LED's grow over the same amount of time, and time is what we are talking about at lower cost. Bottom Line, you could be growing more bud in the same amount of time you are doing now, fore less are about the same.

 

[Gquebed]

Funny thing...

More and more of the best growers on this site are moving to either LECs or COB leds. That should tell you something right there.

And then count how many HPS users on this have tried COB Leds and have not gone back to HPS. I'm one of those. Hung some COBs 2 weeks ago. I can tell by the little buds I have already that I will not hang my HPS lights up again.

 

[Kingrow1]

Funny thing...

More and more of the best growers on this site are moving to either LECs or COB leds. That should tell you something right there.

And then count how many HPS users on this have tried COB Leds and have not gone back to HPS. I'm one of those. Hung some COBs 2 weeks ago. I can tell by the little buds I have already that I will not hang my HPS lights up again.

It tells me that they are getting closer to the output and yeild of an hps, maybe with the next gen leds you might even see me swapping to them. My reply was against those who think they can out grow an hps with present tech because most top growers still dont believe this yet.

 

[Kingrow1]

Funny thing...

More and more of the best growers on this site are moving to either LECs or COB leds. That should tell you something right there.

And then count how many HPS users on this have tried COB Leds and have not gone back to HPS. I'm one of those. Hung some COBs 2 weeks ago. I can tell by the little buds I have already that I will not hang my HPS lights up again.

It also tells me after listening to the same old shite claims for five fucking years now they might actually be close to substantiating it and ending their bullshit!!!

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

a lot of its situational. if you're growing in a small space, or if cooling is a problem, leds can be a much better alternative than hid. that being said, hid is cheaper to buy, by a good bit, and watt for watt produce more...at the moment....

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

and the bullshit will never end, once the light argument is settled, theres still medium, nutes, water, co2 to argue about, we got years of material to work with yet...

and in my opinion, the only thing keeping leds from being a better choice overall right now is price, if they dropped by 25% or more, you'd hear a load of people changing their tunes right quick

 

[Gquebed]

It also tells me after listening to the same old shite claims for five fucking years now they might actually be close to substantiating it and ending their bullshit!!!

Close enough for me to make the switch.

 

[Gquebed]

and the bullshit will never end, once the light argument is settled, theres still medium, nutes, water, co2 to argue about, we got years of material to work with yet...

and in my opinion, the only thing keeping leds from being a better choice overall right now is price, if they dropped by 25% or more, you'd hear a load of people changing their tunes right quick

Lol... and some of that material will never come to an end.

Totally agree on price point. Lucky for me it isnt an issue.

 

[Kingrow1]

a lot of its situational. if you're growing in a small space, or if cooling is a problem, leds can be a much better alternative than hid. that being said, hid is cheaper to buy, by a good bit, and watt for watt produce more...at the moment....

If watt for watt hps yeilds more then leds cannot be more efficient nor save money on a grow.

 

[Kingrow1]

Close enough for me to make the switch.

Also close enough for me to start paying intrest, my argument isnt that they are crap its that when i replace my hps i want the same yeilds for the same costs.

 

[Kingrow1]

A top grower recently posted that there was no point to buying an exspensive 1000watt led today if in a years time there is a much better efficient model on the market. He said he dosent want to pioneer this crap more get involved when the tech is right.

This is a big reason why i dont own an led unit at present....

 

[Gquebed]

A top grower recently posted that there was no point to buying an exspensive 1000watt led today if in a years time there is a much better efficient model on the market. He said he dosent want to pioneer this crap more get involved when the tech is right.

This is a big reason why i dont own an led unit at present....

My logic... i replaced 2000w of hid with 1300 of COB, for my 4x8 space. If i can achieve the 1 gpw average for soil/cob grows then i will hit about what i was doing with hid in terms of over all yield (about 3lbs per run). But i think i can do better... i think i can get close to 1.5 gpw with COB in my set up.

The best part, to me, is that i got rid of a monster 8" 720 cfm fan from my set up. I needed that to cool my lights... and even still my a/c was working hard. Too hard.

During the cold months of winter here, that fan was making furnace work a lot harder to heat my home.

Anyway... the a/c for the cobs barely comes on.

So i paid a whack of money to yield what i was yielding before. But i will save in a number of ways - less for lights, less for a/c, less for house heat, less for bulbs, etc. Not a huge savings. But enough to be very significant. Also, significant savings on bulbs. My window a/c wont have to be replaced as soon.

Plus, in return i get harder/frostier nugs and the same yield for the space.

The thing is, though... i made the move now because i dont know if the tech will get much cheaper. Because there is such long life to these things people wont be replacing them as often and a seller has to consider that.... so indont see the price coming down much...

 

[HydoDan]

This is a big reason why i dont own an led unit at present....

If you haven't used them, you have no business spouting a bunch of crap about them.. it is all opinion.. no fact.. all hearsay and of no use...

If watt for watt hps yeilds more then leds cannot be more efficient nor save money on a grow.

Once again hearsay.. you have no real world experience to go by.. just because you say it, doesn't make it true!
You need to educate yourself on cob led.. yea I mean read instead of write

 

[Dankistino]

To the op - Leds will grow some great bud...
To the members who think led will out grow Hps - BULLSHIT!!!!!

Clown you're making claims about LED as you talk out your ass?

 

[Kingrow1]

If you haven't used them, you have no business spouting a bunch of crap about them.. it is all opinion.. no fact.. all hearsay and of no use...

Once again hearsay.. you have no real world experience to go by.. just because you say it, doesn't make it true!
You need to educate yourself on cob led.. yea I mean read instead of write

Ah so what your saying is (apart from the personal attacks and my lack of intelligence, im dyslexic you know, there is a difference) that an led unit now out grows an hps on the same electricity cost....

 

[Dankistino]

Ah so what your saying is (apart from the personal attacks and my lack of intelligence, im dyslexic you know, there is a difference) that an led unit now out grows an hps on the same electricity cost....

It's a matter of Science that LED throws more photons per watt. How much weed someone can grow depends on their set up, skill level, genetics etc. But there is ZERO question that leds make more PAR than any hid, cmh, cfl, t5.

 

[Kingrow1]

It's a matter of Science that LED throws more photons per watt. How much weed someone can grow depends on their set up, skill level, genetics etc. But there is ZERO question that leds make more PAR than any hid, cmh, cfl, t5.

Par isnt a massive issue with me, but whats the damage between lots of bulbs and a single point light source.

 

[Dankistino]

Par isnt a massive issue with me, but whats the damage between lots of bulbs and a single point light source.

PAR is what its all about. By damage you mean cost?

 

[bryan oconner]

My logic... i replaced 2000w of hid with 1300 of COB, for my 4x8 space. If i can achieve the 1 gpw average for soil/cob grows then i will hit about what i was doing with hid in terms of over all yield (about 3lbs per run). But i think i can do better... i think i can get close to 1.5 gpw with COB in my set up.

The best part, to me, is that i got rid of a monster 8" 720 cfm fan from my set up. I needed that to cool my lights... and even still my a/c was working hard. Too hard.

During the cold months of winter here, that fan was making furnace work a lot harder to heat my home.

Anyway... the a/c for the cobs barely comes on.

So i paid a whack of money to yield what i was yielding before. But i will save in a number of ways - less for lights, less for a/c, less for house heat, less for bulbs, etc. Not a huge savings. But enough to be very significant. Also, significant savings on bulbs. My window a/c wont have to be replaced as soon.

Plus, in return i get harder/frostier nugs and the same yield for the space.

The thing is, though... i made the move now because i dont know if the tech will get much cheaper. Because there is such long life to these things people wont be replacing them as often and a seller has to consider that.... so indont see the price coming down much...

so what light are you running ?

 

[Kingrow1]

PAR is what its all about. By damage you mean cost?

I meant more penetration into the canopy, hps grows big tall plants, leds look weak here.