LED OR HID'S???

Ive been using hid lights for 20 years. Whats the deal with LED lights? Some say yes some say no. Are they really capable of producing yields like a HPS? Light penetration? And if you have to buy a 600 watt Led to cover a 5'x5' area a 600 watt HPS can cover the same area so your really not saving on electric, plus the things are so expensive up front. I was told once the 3 watt diodes were up that they would be worth the investment, well, now they are using 3 watt diodes.. Please no bull, are they worth the money? Can they produce yields equivilant to a HID ligh? Please if so prove it to me!

I've grown with 400w hps and all my current grows are with an area 51 led because of heat issues.
I really don't see much of a different between the two except led is cheaper power bill.
Check my old and current grows in my sig.

LED's and if you wanna jump the gap get a plasma light. It will be the next big thing.

I went from CFL to LED and am much happier. I use a A51 as well. I grow under a single 160w unit and have all I need. Heat is no issue. Runs silently. No bulbs to replace. No ballasts to deal with.

The upfront is real. If the money is a challenge and ur comfortable with HID, not sure I would. But for me the cash was not an issue, it works great, I feel more green, and for me it seems safer in a number of ways.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/step-into-my-grow-room.801190/

I WANT THESE LED LIGHTS

TheChemist77 said:

Ive been using hid lights for 20 years. Whats the deal with LED lights? Some say yes some say no. Are they really capable of producing yields like a HPS? Light penetration? And if you have to buy a 600 watt Led to cover a 5'x5' area a 600 watt HPS can cover the same area so your really not saving on electric, plus the things are so expensive up front. I was told once the 3 watt diodes were up that they would be worth the investment, well, now they are using 3 watt diodes.. Please no bull, are they worth the money? Can they produce yields equivilant to a HID ligh? Please if so prove it to me!

Click to expand...

https://www.rollitup.org/t/apache-at600-led-vs-1000w-hps-blue-dream-grow.813412/

how large of an area does the 51 cover? heat is no issue for me, but total yields do. how many to cover a 6foot by 6foot area? and how much? ive read about the kind led and the g8 and one other cant remember the name. how many bands is the light does it have blue and red? is it best for grow or flower?

are they the 3 watt diodes? 160watts huh,, so 160 watts covers how many square feet? Oh and do you need to keep plants shorter with leds or can you still get nice lower buds with a 3 or 5 foot plant? my plants are normally about 5 foot at harvest and using scog even the lower buds are large but im using 2 4oo watt hps over a 5x5 area and somtimes i switch if theyr getting to big to 1 600 watt hps and 1 400 watt hps... i only use flourecents for clones even my veging plants get 400 watt mh above. thanks for any advice im still really unsure, hard to believe those little fixtures can cover a large area ..

licker checked ur thread, i have c'99 but havnt planted it yet, hope i get 2 for 1!

If you already have a big HPS setup, it probably isn't worth it to switch YET.

The state of the art in DIY white led arrays is already outproducing HPS, often over 1g/W, which means that it is slightly more efficient at flowering than HPS.

The reasons I think it wouldn't be worth it to switch from HPS to LED yet:

1) The best LED's are falling in price to compete with the chinese brands (epistar in particular)

2) The startup cost of good LEDs is about 2-3x the amount a similar powered HPS setup. Unless you can find a way to sell your HPS lamps, it will be a double whammy.

3) cooler stuff is coming. 660nm cobs from cree maybe? Cree just came out with a 1W 660 package with the highest efficiency in the market.... I want that in cob form please..... 40W 660nm array with high efficiency would be so sweet.. and technically, they are something that can be made. (epistar makes 100W 660nm multichips.. but not nearly the same efficiency as cree's 1W 660nm.)

If you're going to expand now, you should expand using cree CXA3070 Z4 or higher.

TheChemist77 said:

Ive been using hid lights for 20 years. Whats the deal with LED lights? Some say yes some say no. Are they really capable of producing yields like a HPS? Light penetration? And if you have to buy a 600 watt Led to cover a 5'x5' area a 600 watt HPS can cover the same area so your really not saving on electric, plus the things are so expensive up front. I was told once the 3 watt diodes were up that they would be worth the investment, well, now they are using 3 watt diodes.. Please no bull, are they worth the money? Can they produce yields equivilant to a HID ligh? Please if so prove it to me!

Click to expand...

LEDs may cost a lot right now.. but they keep you safer if your not in a legal state. Heat is more easily controlled. Power bill is A LOT cheaper. My friend gets about three ounces per plant now(all organic) with cheap chinese LEDs in 5 gal smart pots and his bud is the best bud I've ever smoked... but thats just me.

www.a51led.com

You can get all your specs here. I am not an expert on all the tech, it bores me and my bad there. But I will say they perform as advertised, at least my SGS160 does.

My tent is about 4x4. I admittedly stretch the space for the light, though don't use it all by any means. I run 3 plants in 3 gal and one or two in a one gal on the outer light limits. I pull a gram per watt of dried trimmed bud.

My plants and yields wouldn't impress but keeps me full. Next run I am seeing what happens with two plants.

My plants, harvest in a week or so, are about 4 ft tall. I lollipop the lower growth. I would like to have another light in there and think it would be perfect. but I am yielding all I need, don't and won't sell a single gram, so I can't justify it at the moment.

Still, almost two years into growing, having a stable system, makes me want to be prouder of my grows. So i am hoping the next plant into the flower tent, mainlined to four tops, with all the space it needs, and no fight for light, will give me one to be proud of.

On my current grow, I had an extra clone. Rather than kill her, I threw her in the tent where she gets almost no direct light, in a one gal pot. there are are two others that get some light, one of which is actually under a cheapo 40w blue and red panel in a corner of my tent (not included in yield ratios). In any case, the one with no direct light has a little little less bud, but not as much as I expected. Will still prob pull about .75 oz off of her.

Not to say that all red and blue lights are the same. And my little one is crap. But there is no doubt that mine fucks up the leaves. The one under it always looks like shit at harvest.

churchhaze said:

If you already have a big HPS setup, it probably isn't worth it to switch YET.

The state of the art in DIY white led arrays is already outproducing HPS, often over 1g/W, which means that it is slightly more efficient at flowering than HPS.

The reasons I think it wouldn't be worth it to switch from HPS to LED yet:

1) The best LED's are falling in price to compete with the chinese brands (epistar in particular)

2) The startup cost of good LEDs is about 2-3x the amount a similar powered HPS setup. Unless you can find a way to sell your HPS lamps, it will be a double whammy.

3) cooler stuff is coming. 660nm cobs from cree maybe? Cree just came out with a 1W 660 package with the highest efficiency in the market.... I want that in cob form please..... 40W 660nm array with high efficiency would be so sweet.. and technically, they are something that can be made. (epistar makes 100W 660nm multichips.. but not nearly the same efficiency as cree's 1W 660nm.)

If you're going to expand now, you should expand using cree CXA3070 Z4 or higher.

Click to expand...

This is how I see it...

LED is still very much a work in progress. The lights people were paying 800 bucks for just 2-3 years ago are basically worthless now with their low outputs, 1w leds, and screwed spectrums.
If you wait another 2-3 years, current day LED will be just as shitty in comparison to the newer, more technological advanced LEDs. I fully expect to be using nothing but LED in the near future, but not yet.

Thorhax said:

LEDs may cost a lot right now.. but they keep you safer if your not in a legal state. Heat is more easily controlled. Power bill is A LOT cheaper. My friend gets about three ounces per plant now(all organic) with cheap chinese LEDs in 5 gal smart pots and his bud is the best bud I've ever smoked... but thats just me.

Click to expand...

This is nonsense... Keep you safer if you're not in a legal state? Yeah man that 1000w lightbulb is setting off all kinds of alarms huh? So if I use 1000w HID or 1000w LED do I somehow use different watts so the electric company doesn't notice? Of course not, 1000w is 1000w however you turn it, flip it, twist it, etc. And no utility company is going to notice an extra several thousand watts. I mean seriously, you can add 3 75w incandescent lights to your 5 light ceiling fan and a few bulbs here and there around the house and add 1000w... During the winter I use oil heaters. They pull 1500 watts each and I will have 4-5 around the house. I have not yet had the utility company come by and ask why I just jumped up 6000 watts.

**Disclaimer** I'm not a pro grower, or a quantity grower, so my mileage might vary in what others want from lights.
I just needed to grow meds for myself, and help out a couple friends while they got gear of their own to grow.

I have used both kinds of lights now. I normally used a 600w HPS but due to where I live right now, no air and less air flow.. I wasn't able to use my HPS and
I really needed to grow, not a fan of spending my $ at a dispensary which I had to resort to.
So This grow was a success in my book, I bought a tent and 2 cheap VIPAR Led's 500 5w. LED's seem to help your plants finish faster, at least by a few days
that's how it seems to me anyway.
I can't speak for anyone but myself obviously, but I do not regret my decision in the least, and once I have room and temp controls, I plan
to use my HPS in one tent and keep the LED's in another, plus I am upgrading my veg to LED instead of T5. I tried to keep my plants low
because I had heard the penetration is not as deep with LED's.
As the benefits increase and the lights get better, I could one day see just using LED's.. no one throw cabbage at me for saying that!..
I hate cabbage. anyway just kidding.. morning bake kicking in, I find myself funnier than I really am
Here is a pic from my current grow, I won't flood the page with my girls, if you want to see any of the others or how the grow has progressed
the link is in my sig.
white widow, with about 2-3 weeks left.

thank you for the input guys, and nice buds! think maybe ill wait till prices drop as im totally legal caregiver. i do have a high electric bill but the bud covers the cost and then some. I was wondering is it true that LED lights stress the plants more than hid lights?? I was told led lights increase resin production by stress in any case stressing the plants could cause hermaphroditic tendancy cant it? Again guys thanks for any input.

I don't see any indication of stress and have never had a herm from my LED grows. I did have to do a few things to adapt to LED and the lack of heat. I make my soil a little more airy and drill some holes in the sides. Before I did that, in my tent, there was not enough evaporation and soil was staying too wet.

I don't think they are any frostier but most of my LED grows were one strain, barnies pineapple chunk, and it didn't seem to be very frosty compared to others.

TheChemist77 said:

how large of an area does the 51 cover? heat is no issue for me, but total yields do. how many to cover a 6foot by 6foot area? and how much? ive read about the kind led and the g8 and one other cant remember the name. how many bands is the light does it have blue and red? is it best for grow or flower?

Click to expand...

Pretty sure its like 3.5ftx3.5ft check up on their site, it tells you.
Just don't buy anything cheap as in flower it will be shit.

thanks for that growindad, im a growin dad too,,i have built a hidden room in my house 10foot by 11 foot with a hidden door in the closet, my son is only 5 but when he gets older he is gonna wonder were the space is, as its in the basement and walking around the outside of the house you can see the foundation size and its missing on the inside. LOL. I am a caregivver and patient but ive been smokin since i was young. dont really know what to tell him when he is older but id rather him smoke than drink..thanks for the input on the led lights im really against the fence trying to decide which way to go. im old and been using hid's for so long, even the computer is new to me, my son is teaching me how to use this thing isnt that sad a 5 year old teaching me, typing with two fingers takes forever to write this stuff. Oh does anybody know the perfect temperture to store seeds? fridge or freezer? exact temp in ferenheit would be best. Also all info on led best brands and best prices would be apreciated. But only ones that will cover a 5x6 area no less.. thanks again for any help

led FTW