Wow. That actually blew my mind. They are seeking money to develop a new light. Totally a man to say I'm wrong. I am. Strange.
Anyway, efficiency is why I switched to LEDs. I'm saving almost 40 dollars per month, and have been way more than impressed with these lights. I'm not prone to having issues with nutes or shit like that, but every now and then one plant is like "I'm not happy." Haven't had that problem with these lights. Usually one of those ladies gets bitchy on me, because I run five or six strains at the same time (variety is the spice of life), but they just get tight and fat and grow some incredibly quality flowers. My one complaint is that unless I wear my rayban sunglasses (I'm an old man) into the grow room with lights on, I am blinded for the next few hours.
Area 51 isn't more advanced than advanced (is it?), and I have heard this fellow Hans makes custom panels. I've heard bad things about Apache, including massive failure rates in their panels. What's more advanced than every spectrum required, the non crees are 3w, the crees are 10w. Has four fans (that almost never need to turn on because of the great heatsink) that are whisper quiet.
I think we all just become loyalists when we find a good product (which says a lot about the quality out there today compared to the shit first gen leds). I'm guessing you don't own an XML, and I know I don't own an Area 51. I think it's awesome that we both respect our retailers and are happy with our purchases. Let me just say this... my XMLs have outperformed (and with much more efficiency) my 1000w, and I used to supplement that unit with side lighting to cover the whole space. Penetration is fucking gangbusters with this XML. It grows tight noded plants, so I worried that the light wouldn't get through. You know how people talk about popcorn buds on the lowers? All of the little buds that used to be basically hash material or throwaway for me are now like little balls of chewing gum... dense and sticky. This is the one thing that shocked me most about the transition to these lights. WTF? I was dialed in for decades, and these lights turn bottom throwaway into hard little marble buds. I mean, those little buds at the very bottom are like tiny versions of the top colas. Usually they were just whispy with a few hairs. Interesting. I must say that because of limitations in my own height (I have a hunchback that would scare Hansel and Gretel) my plants seldom get over five feet tall, so I can't say the light would penetrate into a really deep canopy, like six plus, but it's been impressive. I tried training that stupid sativa of mine, but it just wants to sprawl out like a spider and since it's so tall and spindly I just let it. Not hurting the other plants none.
I'll tell you one thing I miss this time of year... the excess energy from HPS turned into heat. My room is getting cold without all that heat. Been a menace for years and now I'm sitting here going, damn, that excess heat would have had me fine in this abnormal cool spell.
Got any secret recipes for warming up my grow buckets, the roots, the soil? I feel like the plants have been stalled for a few days, the soil in the buckets is chilly. Never had to deal with this before. Under the lights, it's definitely warm enough, but it's cold in the buckets which is stunting these ladies, I think. How to warm the buckets? Space heater is out of the question (I had one malfunction in my garage and burn down my house in the 80s). At least it was a clean burn (no evidence left behind).
