Switching to LED made all the difference.

[GrowinDad]

I converted from running 14 CFLs under a hood to a A51 160. All in all I would say better performance but not huge. and much easier.

I now took that hood and use it for a veg cab. I converted from CFL to normal cree led bulbs, using only a few cfls to bring temps up. Works great. I keep my girls vegging in there as well as my basil, cilantro, parsley, etc.

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

How big are your plants? One H150 per plant is probably pushing it unless you are growing solo cup plants.

they are about a foot, I do everything possible to keep them short, due to my grow space is very limited....2 foot tall cabinet is what I use, due to having to be stealth about it....

 

[skunkd0c]

CFL's do burn! I switched to large 100 actual watt cfl's so I didnt have to move all those 23 watters around the plant. Problem with the big CFL's is they put out heat. Two or three can really raise temps. I only use cfl to veg now.

yup i found this out lol, i thought they wouldnt burn
you can hold a 125w cfl bulb with your hand its only warm
i have a 20w florescent tube that is hotter to the touch

i let some mother plants grow into the 125w bulb as i thought it would be ok
i was chopping them back all the time anyway it burnt the shit out of all the tops
crispy as fuck they recovered well so no biggy

peace

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

My last grow I did a Nirvana bubblicious.

So now I ditched the cfl's for two Kessil 350 Magentas. .

hey again bro....so I found a deep purple kessil 350, for about 100 bucks. used for under a year. do you happen to know how long these units are supposed to last? I am very eager to pick it up, hell, I need to pick it up, but I don't wanna spen almost half the cost of a new one, if it is just gonna crap out in a month, ya know? I know you take a risk buying used, but the dude seems reliable, I just wonder how long they are good for, and I wonder if one 350 with additional side light leds would be enough for a small 2 plant grow in a small cab. dude, any info would be GREATLY appreciated, cause I am next door to being broke, and cant afford to toss a hundred bucks in the wind! thanks man!@

 

[MightyMike530]

I think Kessil has rated their lights for 50K hours. Check their website, but all in all any high quality LED should have a pretty long lifespan. If you don't want that h350 for 100 I will take it, lol. Only too bad its purple and not magenta.

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

I think Kessil has rated their lights for 50K hours. Check their website, but all in all any high quality LED should have a pretty long lifespan. If you don't want that h350 for 100 I will take it, lol. Only too bad its purple and not magenta.

i thought the purple ones were good for veg, and flower.... thanks for responding to btw...those fuckers have that long of a lifespan! wow, yea, ok. I will double check their site....but about the deep purple lite/....those are still pretty good,aren't they? have you used them?

 

[MightyMike530]

i thought the purple ones were good for veg, and flower.... thanks for responding to btw...those fuckers have that long of a lifespan! wow, yea, ok. I will double check their site....but about the deep purple lite/....those are still pretty good,aren't they? have you used them?

I am finishing with them right now. I have two purple h150s and a Blackstar 135, but I did just add some CFLs back in because they were just sitting around. The magenta is supposed to have more LEDs in the red bands, which are good for flowering. Once the Blackstar dies out I am going to look for a good ~200-300W panel and supplement with the h150s.

edit: Looking around a bit and a LED should last 30~50K hours. So hopefully, with the Kessils, you get what you pay for. As always though, the real proof is in the grow.

 

[Mohican]

For vegging they are definitely working well. I still need to run the reds and run a flower test.

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

well, I lost the bidding war on the KEssil h350 deep purp.... I have like 150 bucks...can anyone please refer me to a led that would be worth my time, or should I just throw in the towel and stick with my cfls? 150 is steep for me! that being said, I may want to look into other options....someone did say that I should just go with cree led's....not sure how I feel about that...

 

[captainmorgan]

well, I lost the bidding war on the KEssil h350 deep purp.... I have like 150 bucks...can anyone please refer me to a led that would be worth my time, or should I just throw in the towel and stick with my cfls? 150 is steep for me! that being said, I may want to look into other options....someone did say that I should just go with cree led's....not sure how I feel about that...

With such a small cabinet your best option may be the home depot Cree bulbs if your in the USA.

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

With such a small cabinet your best option may be the home depot Cree bulbs if your in the USA.

yea...that's what I did, I just got them into the cab. I got 4 daylight, 4 warms, and a expensive phillips spotlight style led... it is definetly bright, I just hope they do the same if not a better job then my cfl's did. I was sooooo sick of battling the heat. its at about 74.7 and climbing...hope not tooo high, or it will defeat the purpose of buying the leds~

 

[MightyMike530]

I wouldn't worry about heat until you get higher than 85 degrees at the top of the plants. But even so, my temps have gone higher and my grow did not suffer a ton, as long as the are getting the water they need.

 

[Smokenpassout]

Yes Greenthumbs CFL will burn you. I agree with Mohican, a H150 is only sufficient for a single small plant. Great for an auto, for instance. 2 plants on a H150? No way. If you want to step it up to one monster tree, I'd get an H350. Either way say goodbye to heat, and sleepless nights

 

[Smokenpassout]

When you get some cash you may want tooptfor a kessil H150 magenta. They go for about $100 new online, and ebay you may get it for a little less. You could suspendit easily over top,and use the other led's you have as sidelighting.

 

[GreenThumbsMcgee]

When you get some cash you may want tooptfor a kessil H150 magenta. They go for about $100 new online, and ebay you may get it for a little less. You could suspendit easily over top,and use the other led's you have as sidelighting.

I was thinking the same thing....thanks man...thos cree bulbs are really great so far! it got to 82F at its hottest last night. I am so so happy. I don't think most of you saw my other posts about my exaust kicking off with out my knowing on my last grow, using cfl's..and they sat in that cab at temps around 104F for oh, 6 hours, when I opend it, they were FUCKED. so heat is not my friend.