LED Noobs, STOP Buying China Junk

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Paperroller24 said:
So you're saying a LED light will provide bigger, denser buds over a HPS? Let me guess, you're someone who takes a jumble of chrismas lights and hangs it above your plants? AND full spectrum is the emulation of natural light and an LED doesn't provide near as much as a HPS as far as a Reddish/orange light (late summer/early fall sun tone)
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Yeah except my Christmas lights would be Cree CXA3590's. 150w's ea. That's a fucking christmas tree light. Get out of here with your 5mm led's, that was so 1980.

By the way, I have seen a credible veg light made with a strand of Christmas lights :)
 
Paperroller24 said:
Right, I understand that you can customize the lights, but the lumens per watt is much greater with a HPS.
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For most of the single 1w, 3w and 5w diodes you are correct, but for the COB's that is no longer true. 140-200lumens per watt is now easily achievable with CXA's. HPS is what 130 lpw?

But it really about PAR and umol/s, which HPS cannot touch some of the best LED's.

http://rollitup.org/t/apache-at600-led-vs-1000w-hps-blue-dream-grow.813412/page-60#post-10648993
http://rollitup.org/t/diy-led-grow.738671/
http://rollitup.org/t/flowering-with-cree-bulbs.656542/
http://rollitup.org/t/onyx-grow-blo...rilla-glue-4-grow.830807/page-4#post-10596724
http://rollitup.org/t/step-into-my-grow-room.801190/
 
Paperroller24 said:
T5 or T8 for VEG.............HPS for FLOWERING. LED just doesn't cut it for the full spectrum lumens needed to grow a decent plant. Buy American. China and wherever else is just going to make you frustrated. Its a market like every other electronic. You get what you pay for. Go cheap and the bud will be the quality you provide for it.
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Why have you come into an LED forum to bash LEDs and the people who use them? You clearly don't know much if anything at all about LEDs considering your above comments. Do us all a favour and go away if you have nothing to add to the discussion.
 
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Did some calculations yesterday to determine if it would benefit me to change my electrical billing to "nights and weekends" or "off peak billing" as is more commonly known. Turns out, no, it won't. Also found that changing to LED will only save me $32.00 a month on electric, assuming my grow uses 50% less electric. Of course, some things were only estimated, such as A/C load and dehumidification
 
Peak electric went away decades ago

Ah, but over one year that's $384.
assuming elec cost remains the same.

Any bets?

In 3 years that $1382 would pay for a SPYDR 600

PLUS about 6 months of electricity

Oh, and zero bulb replacement costs

and no noisy exhaust fans
 
PetFlora said:
Peak electric went away decades ago

Ah, but over one year that's $384.
assuming elec cost remains the same.

Any bets?

In 3 years that $1382 would pay for a SPYDR 600

PLUS about 6 months of electricity

Oh, and zero bulb replacement costs

and no noisy exhaust fans
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Um...................you still need to vacate 300w+ of heat generated by the spydr..........an exhaust is necessary

and in 3yrs Spydr V4 will be out @ triple(?) the efficiency........hopefully without an acrylic splash lens:wink:
 
PSUAGRO. said:
Um...................you still need to vacate 300w+ of heat generated by the spydr..........an exhaust is necessary

and in 3yrs Spydr V4 will be out @ triple(?) the efficiency........hopefully without an acrylic splash lens:wink:
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In a closed tent, yes an exhaust, but in a room a regular household fan worked great for me to push away the heat

The problem with commercial horticulture offerings is meeting wet requirement certification

If I owned it, I would figure out how to remove the diffuser
 
Hello Mr flora

Could you look into the new GN LED lights?
REALY hyped by AFN forums and wondered if the mods are just salesmen for them or if they are any good

I don't know much of led.....
 
SCARHOLE said:
new GN LED lights?
REALY hyped by AFN forums and wondered if the mods are just salesmen for them or if they are any good
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Many non-mods at AFN own the lights. IMO, the original MS modular series falls into the category of cheap Chinese light (Cidly Apollo) imported and marked up, paying for the brand. But, Grow Northern publishes their spectrum/ratio (even exact part numbers for their Rebel upgrade module). That's not indicative of most of the big names who resell cheap Chinese lights for a premium, using "secret sauce" hype to justify the markup.

GN's new lights aren't available yet. I've read it will use the Rebel spectrum/ratio. Looks like they're changing from Apollo's modular design to a different Chinese source (Evergreen?).

GN has had 3 spectrum/ratios I'm aware of. They've consistently increased the amount of their white light. Rebel has 20% (in terms of ratio of chips. I think the whites are brighter, giving the overall appearance of white even though 60% is deep red 660nm, 13% blue 450nm.

I wanted to sample the Rebel spectrum before investing in an actual GN. (Now they're in a transition period where no lights are available. So, not much choice.). I ordered an Apollo 4 from "Thunder Lighting" on AliExpress for $150 free shipping. I specified this ratio:

Code: 
   7%  1x IR 730
  60% 9x deep red 660
  13% 2x blue 450
  White avg 5116k
       7% 1x white 3350k (3200-3500k)
      13% 2x white 6000k (5500-6500k)

That's basically the Rebel spectrum with 900k whiter light. I could have had the exact avg white color if I did 2 warms and 1 cool. But, Cidly's warm led looks funky to me. I'm not yet ready to try 2:1. 1:2 is working well.

It's not a perfect comparison. GN Rebel uses Phillips and Everlight chips. Can't know for sure how Cidly's white chips compare to Phillips.

I'd say Grow Northern's strong point is that they're transparent about the spectrum/ratio they're asking you to invest in. I think that's a trait worth supporting. It has been a reseller of a cheap light at a premium (assuming the original MS series was a typical Apollo with Epi chips.). But, if the new light uses Phillips and Everlight (like the Rebel module does), that puts them in a different category (in the same way their transparency about spectrum does).
 
Was wondering if you think this is a good quality light for a 2×2 to 3×3 area and if so sholud i go flower spec or full. Thank you. Mars II LED Grow Light 400w
4 Review(s) | Add Your Review
LED Output Power: 80pcs*5watt

Draw Power:170~200W

Dimension:340x340x90mm

Voltage: AC85~265V

View Angle of leds: 90° /120

50,000-100,000hours N.W.: 6.9KG G.W.: 8KG

Coverage :3'x3'

Spectrum: standard spectrum= full spectrum: 430~440nm, 450~475nm 620~630nm, 650~660nm, IR, and white

flower spectrum= red, white and infared.

vege spectrum= blue and white.

Plug Type: AU,USA,Japan,EU,UK,Swiss,etc.

Warehouse : USA,AU,UK.

Sent from my SCH-R970C using Rollitup mobile app
 
MATTYMATT726 said:
Was wondering if you think this is a good quality light for a 2×2 to 3×3 area ... Mars II LED Grow Light 400w
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If money's tight, I think TopLED is a good value. According to what they publish, they run at 46% of capacity. That's significantly lower than the typical ~65%. Which means you get a lot of LED chips for your money. Should last longer compared to running them at higher wattage. TopLED has a public forum which means you'll have some community support if something goes wrong. (There are reports of 420mag deleting posts negative of TopLED. But, that wasn't my experience when I went adversarial in their support forum.).

Downsides:
- They play the "secret sauce" game, keeping their spectrum/ratio secret (which is ironic when they acquired their flower-specific spectrum from an older Area 51 light).
- Their warranty contains a clause which says you won't receive warranty service if you say anything negative about their light. (Which means, we're not getting uncoerced, objective reports about their light.).

If I had the money to buy a veg and flower model, I'd buy an Area51 or a couple Hans. If you're really going to get a Mars, you might consider the Mars I ("old model") which is 3 watt on a white backboard (no reflector). You could get more fixtures and more coverage than a single than a single 5w fixture. You know, angle them to cover the grow area. I do that with some Blackstar 130w UFOs and it works well. (Edit: The Mars I uses the same spectrum/ratio as the Mars II, according to Sara at the support forum.).

I don't think I'd do the veg/flower specific spectrums. Just full spectrum. And thus, that would lead me to 2-3 Mars I 3w fixtures.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I'll keep searching as money is kinda keeping me from investing in the xgs which is what I really want.

Sent from my SCH-R970C using Rollitup mobile app
 
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