Beachwalker
Well-Known Member
In a five-by-five tent a dimmable thousand watt hid works well for me, it adds much-needed heat in the cold Winters and allows me to dim it down in the hot summers
-good luck
-good luck
in a 5x5ft tent - best lighting question
- Thread starter skorpio777
- Start date
Johnny Lawrence
Well-Known Member
You would have been better off getting a DE 750 or a 630 CMH. Those Mars panels are garbage. The only reason they are running cooler is because they are half the wattage of your former HID. If you had replaced it with 1000 actual watts of mars, it would be just as hot.
And no, those panels are not equivalent to 600 watts. They are equivalent to the 260 watts that they actually draw. The efficiency of cheap, blurple panels is roughly equivalent to SE HID.
Johnny Lawrence
Well-Known Member
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
Watts is a measure of energy... LEDs cannot produce light energy without being provided electrical energy... LEDs must follow these same laws of physics... The comparative light output is an estimate that I don't believe is grounded in science... LEDs have an efficiency advantage over HPS but the advantage is finite and, from what I can tell, way overplayed by the LED industry. In addition, the disadvantage LEDs have in reproducing the full complement of spectrums in sunlight is a huge, ignored disadvantage for LEDs... As LED systems add more light spectrums, they are getting closer to approximating sunlight but, IMO, they do have some way to go... The OP is just trying to light her tent as efficiently as possible and has reached out for help... As I've seen too often, an LED fan promises the same growth as HPS with half the cost... That is not possible with current technology... Everyone wants to save money on energy but if the actual equivalent LED system cost 10 times as much, the energy savings don't pay off the initial expense years down the road... Best of luck!
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
I think the CMH light salesman just pops in to promote his product on every light thread...
Steelerdrew79
Active Member
I never promoted LEDs or said they were better notice how i said in my opinion and it works for me. And yes i know watts are measurement of power my friend the luminous put out by a led is compaired to the out put of a light That uses 600watt of power 1 600watt i use puts out a little over 12631 lumens . And in my opinion a 1000watt full spectrum HPS light is a bit much for a 5x5 i speak from experience. When they grow taller you will run out of room and wont be able to get your light high enough and will get light burns or stress. LeD is a alternative if u cant run HPS read my posts and you will see what I am saying people
Steelerdrew79
Active Member
My first choice was a 1000watt full spectrum HPS and digital dimmable ballast but couldnt run it.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
you are forgetting savings on AC or fans to cool HPS, and cost of bulb replacements.
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
I responded to your statement, "LED is not measured by watts", which I took to mean LEDs don't follow the laws of physics, an incorrect statement. I agree that a 1000 watt HID in a 5 x 5 will pose heat challenges that are exacerbated by the tent height... the plants will need to be kept 18-24 inches from the light... I think a 600 watt HPS is a little under-powered for a 1.5m sq tent. A thousand watt HPS with a digital ballast may allow better targeting of the sweet spot between lighting the tent fully and saving energy...
Steelerdrew79
Active Member
I fully agree with u on that. My only concern is that 1 bulb last 4 flowerings at best more like 3 and the dig. Ballast i have can run 750watts but have u seen a 750 full spectrum HPS bulb.? So i could run a 1000watt bulb and not get the full potential of the spectrum. As it never gets to the required temp to get that full spectrum. But seems we are going down the rabbit hole here. The question was whats the best lighting for her 5x5 tent. In my OPINION its 2 600watt marshydro full spectrums LED. Every one may disagree but with the advancement of LED lights more and more top growers are switching to LED. Im just giving the facts. Reason why i feel led is better for a tent is this
1. Safety. Have u ever had a HPS bulb explode on u it sends toxic gas and molten shards of glass and metal flying what would that do to a plastic tent and some plants in a oxygen rich sealed tent???
2. It pulls a lot of power and using alot of power sends red flags to the power company they send reports to the law enforcement I don't know how legal it is where you're going but I know that growing is legal in my state but you still don't want law enforcement checking in on you to see if you're code compliant by the way you have to be code compliant I don't know any fire marshal in the United States that would approve a thousand watt HPS light in an enclosed area just saying I know this because of my employment we won't get into that
3. You don't have to keep buying HPS bulbs every Fugue Rose a LED light is over 100000 hours of usability.
4. You can use the same light for seating vegging and flowering all you have to do is raise or lower the lights
At the end of the day it really only matters to personal preference do a little research and make an educated decision
Steelerdrew79
Active Member
They dont run cooler they run hotter than most led and garbage? They are one of the top rated led makers 4.5 out of 5 kinde being 1st
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
How often do the LED drivers/power supplies go? My second LED light crapped out during the first crop... $300 poof! That will buy quite a few years of bulbs... I do not use A/C and I have no extra fans for HPS so that's why I "forgot" that... I'm curious where the savings are... Sure, if you "say" LED is twice as efficient, then you would expect a 500 watt LED to perform the same as a 1000 watt LED... Only problem, saying it doesn't make it true. You can feel the heat from an HPS so you know there are losses due to heat... The heat sinks in LED systems can get over 100 degrees (40c) proving even LED systems have efficiency issues... (in this system, heat is wasted energy.) They may be slightly more efficient energy-wise than HPS but, they are not double the efficiency. As far as quality of light... Although they are getting better, they are not currently on par with HPS resulting in more leafy flowers... That different quality of light is currently a disadvantage for LED... A disadvantage that is completely ignored in most discussions.
Dynamo626
Well-Known Member
only crummy led companies do that because most consumers know leds are power efficient but not many know how much more efficient and they prey on that. mars hydro 600 is a 280w blurple led and its ppfd measurments put it on par with about 350w worth of hps. viper isnt much better than mars. As for the 630 cmh above.... love my 630 de cmh but that one seems a bit high priced.
My Grow-Pro-US 630 retails for 449.99 vs yours at 699.99. my 315 was only 239.99, yours is 499.99. this is store price not amazon.
As for heat no problems with 630 at all in my 4.5x4.5 Looking into the new nanolux 990 cmh that drops in 2 weeks.
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
LED components are far more expensive than HPS... While LEDs are solid-state, the number of components in the system is significantly higher. This higher component count leads to to a lower mean time between failure (MTBF)... In theory, a lower MTBF means the system will fail more frequently... I have experienced more failures with LED than HPS and I use LED very little. (Sometimes theory and reality match...) I've never broken an HPS bulb over the last six years... I must not be as clumsy as I thought! You seem to be under the impression that LEDs magically give you light energy without electrical energy... sorry to burst your bubble! Many LEDs caution you not to run them more than 12 hours on-time making these useless for veg... Considering how well they make my flowering plants grow leaves I would definitely use them in veg... (I want a light that makes my plant grow flowers... Best of luck!
Steelerdrew79
Active Member
I apologize for bringing up the technical aspects of my opinions seems we went way off topic yet again... seems the forum trolls have struck yet again. In one of my above comments i answered your question from my experiences and from what works best in my set up. Hope you are not more confused them u started. Good luck on your grows i dont have time to respond to the troll brigade got some plants to trim and hang from my LED 5X5 GROW TENT. 
take it slow u will be fine. Its a plant for crying out loud .
take it slow u will be fine. Its a plant for crying out loud .
skorpio777
Member
hi thankyou for your input. can i ask what do you recommend me put in my 5x5x7ft high tent. i too want to save on electric . what is best LED to go with 2 x 600 MARS ?
what way would you go
cheers
sparkygeek
Well-Known Member
I have a friend just starting out growing... Since he was growing SCROG he wanted to try out an LED system but didn't want to spend a lot of money. He settled on a cheap 400w COB system for under $100. But the rated 400 watt COB system only used 200 watts of electricity? How could that be? (The rating was bullshit. Comparable output promoted by LED vendors is a scam.)
My friend's first grow went like most, minor problems and a great deal of unnecessary stress but, overall, a very decent crop. He mentioned to me that his buds, although good, were not like mine. He found his plants, same strains I was growing, had way more leaves and the core of the flower was smaller and not nearly as dense as mine. (We did a crude test of potency and his potency was about 25% lower than mine. We concluded that light was a factor but may not have been the primary factor.)
My friend was convinced he needed another LED... The pictures his friend showed him of LED-grown buds looked like my buds. Between my friend's first and second grow he sampled his friend's bud... The bud that looked like mine in the pictures... He was surprised and disappointed... His friend's bud was not dense and potent like mine. At my urging, my friend augmented his 200 watt cob system with a 150 watt HPS. (My friend's tent is only 2 x 4... less than a sq. meter.)
His second grow went better than his first... but the results still surprised him... Both plants provided denser buds than his first grow. (We used the same strains.) He pointed out to me that the plant under the COB had way more leaves and slightly less bud while the plant under the HPS had less foliage and denser, heavier bud...
No matter whether you use LED or HPS, the bud you grow will be infinitely better than what you buy. (Assuming a proper cure) Best of luck!
My friend's first grow went like most, minor problems and a great deal of unnecessary stress but, overall, a very decent crop. He mentioned to me that his buds, although good, were not like mine. He found his plants, same strains I was growing, had way more leaves and the core of the flower was smaller and not nearly as dense as mine. (We did a crude test of potency and his potency was about 25% lower than mine. We concluded that light was a factor but may not have been the primary factor.)
My friend was convinced he needed another LED... The pictures his friend showed him of LED-grown buds looked like my buds. Between my friend's first and second grow he sampled his friend's bud... The bud that looked like mine in the pictures... He was surprised and disappointed... His friend's bud was not dense and potent like mine. At my urging, my friend augmented his 200 watt cob system with a 150 watt HPS. (My friend's tent is only 2 x 4... less than a sq. meter.)
His second grow went better than his first... but the results still surprised him... Both plants provided denser buds than his first grow. (We used the same strains.) He pointed out to me that the plant under the COB had way more leaves and slightly less bud while the plant under the HPS had less foliage and denser, heavier bud...
No matter whether you use LED or HPS, the bud you grow will be infinitely better than what you buy. (Assuming a proper cure) Best of luck!
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
so much wrong with that sentence.
skorpio777
Member
hi
what lights can you recommend i use , what would you go for in a 5x5 x7 high tent ?
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
what is your budget? has anybody asked?