New LEDs: Are they overpowering them just for the sales pitch?

[jaked3800]

Im looking to outfit a 36 light flower room and trying to find my best option for LED lighting. I currently run some of the pre 2021 HLG scorpion diablos as well as 2 of the 2022+ Scorpioin diablos, one regular and one "X" spectrum. And to be honest I feel like 750 wats per 5x5 is the absolute max for the best product with solid yeilds atleast in my set up growing in organic bio bizz in peat moss and thats with CO2 supplimantation at 1200-1400.

Im seeing these new lights that are 900-1500 watts of led. It just seems rediculous or am I missing something? I'm tempted to swithch over to Mammoths new spectrum mostly on the recomendation of a couple growers and they have 680 and 860 watts. They have some far red in them which ive never played around with so will prob test one before I commit to a full build out.

Whats everyones thoughts on how they keep ramping up wattage. Also any feedback on Mammoth lights vs others or far red being incorporated into the main light? My worry is that my 7-14 day veg might be affected negativly the FR.

 

[LewberDewber852]

More light = more everything else. It’s about balance. Premium spectrum I’d imagine is more important but I am no LED expert. There are some great threads on the topic here tho.

 

[waytoofaded]

More power is better, especially since they're also putting more diodes. Underpowering your light is the best way (besides actively cooling them) to get longevity and get the best efficiency out of them. Having more power is nice too incase you want to ramp up co2.

 

[driver77]

I have over powered lights so I can run them at less than 100% to improve longevity. I also supplement ir and uva.....I added it to all my tents after a trial run.

 

[yodasfro]

This helps keep the drivers running cooler which in turn makes them last longer.

 

[ttystikk]

First, let's define terms. Right in this thread we see people saying "overpowered" AND "underpowered" for exactly the same thing, which is running LED chips well under their maximum capacity. For the record, this is UNDER powering the chips, which is a good thing for performance, efficiency and longevity!

Second, nearly every LED chip in the market, be it low power, mid power, high power, single diode or COB LED, have at least two efficiency curves associated with them. One is that the lower percentage of full power the chip is driven at, the more efficient it is. This is a CURVE, meaning that the most gains are seen when dropping from full power with reducing returns the lower this percentage gets. Going from 100% of maximum output to 75% will gain more efficiency than going from 75% to 50%... But if you're running your chips at 50% you do get both gains.

The other curve is a lot flatter and more constant and that's temperature; the cooler you run a chip, the better the efficiency. Spectrum output doesn't change much; it tends to lose mostly infrared and red because it's running cooler. Also, longevity really climbs when chips are under driven, aka run softly.

Finally, running a chip cooler increases its forward voltage, allowing it to accept more Watts when it's kept cool.

The above reasons are why quantum boards with those big flat heat dissipating boards are very efficient lights. It's a great design.

Class dismissed!

 

[thumper60]

Im looking to outfit a 36 light flower room and trying to find my best option for LED lighting. I currently run some of the pre 2021 HLG scorpion diablos as well as 2 of the 2022+ Scorpioin diablos, one regular and one "X" spectrum. And to be honest I feel like 750 wats per 5x5 is the absolute max for the best product with solid yeilds atleast in my set up growing in organic bio bizz in peat moss and thats with CO2 supplimantation at 1200-1400.

Im seeing these new lights that are 900-1500 watts of led. It just seems rediculous or am I missing something? I'm tempted to swithch over to Mammoths new spectrum mostly on the recomendation of a couple growers and they have 680 and 860 watts. They have some far red in them which ive never played around with so will prob test one before I commit to a full build out.

Whats everyones thoughts on how they keep ramping up wattage. Also any feedback on Mammoth lights vs others or far red being incorporated into the main light? My worry is that my 7-14 day veg might be affected negativly the FR.

Iam running 700w 8 bar lights at 90% on a 5x5 an pulling 3plus theres no need for any more light than that IMO not sure whats up with mammoth but Iam seeing used 880s for 400-500 an they just came out?