Going from HPS to LED. Worth it?

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
Wait I'm confused I was looking at the wrong light I don't see yours, if its running at 2150mA that's really pushed hard, look at this chart

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED Components and Modules/XLamp/Data and Binning/ds CXB3590.pdf

That sucker must be hot as hell.
Not hot at all. It has a fan and a fin heavy duty heat sink, but I can pretty much damn near touch the diode, albeit blinding. Like I said, the emitter is driven at 2150 but is rated for like, 3600, so it should still last alright. And he guarantees workmanship for two years? I think?

The 2100 was replaced with the T1-V196. Vero29Cs in his new fixture.
 

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
Not hot at all. It has a fan and a fin heavy duty heat sink, but I can pretty much damn near touch the diode, albeit blinding. Like I said, the emitter is driven at 2150 but is rated for like, 3600, so it should still last alright. And he guarantees workmanship for two years? I think?

The 2100 was replaced with the T1-V196. Vero29Cs in his new fixture.
Those extra fans are only used when you push your diodes too hard.
 

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
Those extra fans are only used when you push your diodes too hard.
I suppose it's included to ameliorate that, yeah, but I swear, it runs pretty cool. And, again, the chip is rated for 3600. 2150's about the median amperage it can take, so it should last fine.
 

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
I suppose it's included to ameliorate that, yeah, but I swear, it runs pretty cool. And, again, the chip is rated for 3600. 2150's about the median amperage it can take, so it should last fine.
Yeah but when you are making your own you can build for quality, and use the best heat sinks available and push diodes less and use more to get the max out of leds, to me that's how they were always intended to be run, slightly underdriven to achieve maximum performance. Standard operating procedure for prefabs is to overdrive them using low quality heat sinks and cool those with low quality cpu fans. Been like this since the start of LEDs, if you dissect old leds(and most new ones too) you will see how cheap the heat sink and fans are.
 

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
Yeah but when you are making your own you can build for quality, and use the best heat sinks available and push diodes less and use more to get the max out of leds, to me that's how they were always intended to be run, slightly underdriven to achieve maximum performance. Standard operating procedure for prefabs is to overdrive them using low quality heat sinks and cool those with low quality cpu fans. Been like this since the start of LEDs, if you dissect old leds(and most new ones too) you will see how cheap the heat sink and fans are.
I must admit, I'm not electrically inclined, so I went with Tasty. In any case, I do know he uses quality parts, at the very least. I will certainly keep you updated if anything fails, though, but I think despite it being driven hard--and obviously that leads to a drop-off in efficiency for the slightly extra power--I think it'll last a while. I'll keep you posted.
 

maxamus1

Well-Known Member
600watt digi switchable hps, clearly it gives higher yeilds and i have no idea why i would change to leds. Seriously in comparison the top hps growers are pissing all over the top led growers. Now they can tout whatever they want but it just dosent compare when the big hps yeilds rock up. A picture is worth a thousond words, this thread proves it and thanks for the few hps guys who posted them as i now want a bigger hps not some rip off led hype that obviously hasnt changed much.

As to the argumentative types, carry on as i got my answer clear as day :-)
I have been following this thread for a minute and as far as I can tell you yourself have not grown with LEDs correct? Now to be fair nether have I but I don't knock LEDs . I have done quite a lot of research on this and in all comparison they will yield bout the same. I do tend to live by the statement don't knock it till you try it. So why are you so dead set against them? Why come to a thread to just argue? Especially if you yourself have not used them?
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
And I have no clue as to what is better either as I'm running all T5's and HPS/MH but I see a lot of first run guys touting the LED's as superior in every way, perhaps it's true or perhaps it's the "if you look hard enough you'll see it even if it's not there" syndrome. How many grows have you completed Olive? And have those complete runs been the same strain as the HID's you were running? As for better, is this based on any testing? Honestly I am curious but a lot of this seems to be a follow the herd thing, this is not a put down as I will soon be following the heard as well lol. I've asked a few times here about what makes COB "A" @ $80 better than COB "B" worth $20 with the same wattage and lumens but have yet to hear any responses. The things are fucking pricey here for some odd reason, I'm looking at well over $500 for a DIY Cree 3590 setup and just really wanting to justify it. Also my situation may be unique but I actually need heat in the winter :(
 

MynameisSolo

Well-Known Member
i am buying a led light today . i will let you know how it compares to mh for veg and compare it to hps .flower . in 2 weeks ill make a new thread . i am very picky grower there is not 1 piece of junk in my rooms even the plant markers are the better ones costs 3 times as much lol . the led will be cheap one though 220 bucks not dropping 1800 on a light thats stupid have to wait 5 years for a actual savings .
lol actually
No I just go with fresh air from outside. I live in the UK and it's much easier to grow here than hot countries. Where as some people may think it's worth using 6 x 600w lamps, then adding 2000w of air con + 100's of watts in more fans + the extra noise the fans make getting rid of the heat, I think that is ridiculous using that much. I use just enough before my place gets too hot. I run 6 set up's on under 3000w total. 1000w of that only turns on between midnight and 7am when my electric is 1/3 of the day price. I get loads of weed back for the small outlay on electricity.

I have used led and hps and haven't come close to the quality of led bud from any hps grow. Cmh is also much better than hps for quality. Cmh is quite similar to cob in thee way the plants grow.
Don't think LED does not produce heat they all do KIMG0098.JPG KIMG0110.JPG
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
I have been following this thread for a minute and as far as I can tell you yourself have not grown with LEDs correct? Now to be fair nether have I but I don't knock LEDs . I have done quite a lot of research on this and in all comparison they will yield bout the same. I do tend to live by the statement don't knock it till you try it. So why are you so dead set against them? Why come to a thread to just argue? Especially if you yourself have not used them?
Im not knocking leds, thats the point, but i am knocking their claims. Theres a difference and purely based on the equation that yeild is king for a lot of us i think we have a pretty good answer here.

The rest is down to each grower, you wont go wrong with a decent led unit and even less so if you do the research and get help from the growers that use them in building your own from scratch.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I know they produce heat, but hardly anything compared to hid lighting. Like I said, I can run 6 set ups in a small apartment if I use led. I could not run 6 hid set up's.

What leds you using in there, they're hardly leaf praying in there! They look slightly droopy, you overwatering?
I may be wrong and would be really curious to see an actual btu versus btu output, but I would think watt for watt they would be comparable re heat produced.
 

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
Im not knocking leds, thats the point, but i am knocking their claims. Theres a difference and purely based on the equation that yeild is king for a lot of us i think we have a pretty good answer here.

The rest is down to each grower, you wont go wrong with a decent led unit and even less so if you do the research and get help from the growers that use them in building your own from scratch.
Perhaps, cobs are a bit more work to setup properly on a commercial scale, I understand having so much stuff hanging could be a pain on a large scale but at this point I'd be curious to see what would yield the best, 1000w DE or 20 x 50w COBs evenly spread over a 5 x 5. We need someone to do a 5 x 5. When I did my first round with COBS, I was a little disappointed because I thought they were not that bright.
Because of that I squeezed 10 x 90w over a 3 x 4 . Since then I've learned that they are brighter to the plants than they are to us, more usable light. I think my initial reaction to how weak they were had more to do with the 3000k light spectrum.

BTW, that first round had yielded almost 20 ounces of high grade medicine, 3 out of 6 plants were from seeds and the clones were rushed in. It was still a good grow for me at the time.

Since then, I've learned to spread the COBS a little more and also use some as side lighting, they don't need to be as close to the plants than most people think. I shoot for 40-65watts per sq ft and the quality and yields are great.
 

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
You can find pictures of my setup in chuckers paradise thread in the seeds and strains section. Page 112 posted October 3rd
 
I may be wrong and would be really curious to see an actual btu versus btu output, but I would think watt for watt they would be comparable re heat produced.
For every watt pushed to a bulb there are 2 results, light and heat. This is why LED users constantly talk about efficiency. They are trying to get the most lumens/watt. How much of the wattage is turned to heat vs light varies from HID to HID, LED to LED. Average HID's convert roughly 1/3 of their wattage to useable light. Quality LEDs driven softer can reach 2/3 of the wattage being converted to useable light.I came across a pretty good thread here by SupraSPL that discusses this. There is also the obvious conversation to be had about light degradation. An HID will continually lose efficiency as it is used (creating less light and more heat), while LEDs will continue to run at nearly 100% of their initial efficacy. I've used HID in the past, am getting back into growing (why I joined this forum), and am currently in the market for a COB setup just to see what they can do before I scale. I'd love for LED to work out for me for numerous reasons, but will it? Yet to be seen.
 

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
I may be wrong and would be really curious to see an actual btu versus btu output, but I would think watt for watt they would be comparable re heat produced.
The fallacy in your thinking is clear. Heat is not the byproduct of wattage usage, it is a product of wattage usage. The energy used in HID is wasted on excess heat simply due to the nature of incandescent lighting, whereas with a solid state COB emitter, most/much more of the energy is successfully converted to photons because it isn't super-heating gasses or metal to create that light. It's simply the result of electricity arcing through the phosphor emitter, not deliberately heating it up as incandescent bulbs do. Anything incandescent like HID is bound to get hot because it uses heat to create light. SSD lighting is more efficient, converting more energy into photons because it isn't a traditional incandescent and doesn't use heat to create light; it uses electroluminescence.

Simple: HID is Incandescent, COB is Electroluminescent.



in·can·des·cent
ˌinkənˈdes(ə)nt/
adjective
  1. 1.
    emitting light as a result of being heated.
    "plumes of incandescent liquid rock"
    synonyms: white-hot, red-hot, burning, fiery, blazing, ablaze, aflame;


    ----------

    e·lec·tro·lu·mi·nes·cence
    əˌlektrōˌlo͞oməˈnesəns/
    noun
    CHEMISTRY
    1. luminescence produced electrically, especially in a phosphor by the application of a voltage.
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Here's this, as well.
https://www.exetik.com/led-technology/pros-and-cons-led-vs-incandescent-vs-fluorescent/
 
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