Has LED lost it's Cool?

[OneHitDone]

As the trend seams to be moving away from small die led's of specific colors, to me it seems that led has lost some of it's "cool" or "NASA" factor.
Anyone else feeling the same way?

 

[Abiqua]

Action Meow

 

[PurpleBuz]

As the trend seams to be moving away from small die led's of specific colors, to me it seems that led has lost some of it's "cool" or "NASA" factor.
Anyone else feeling the same way?

monos are still more efficient, but agree the cool nasa factor is fading

 

[JimmyIndica]

As the trend seams to be moving away from small die led's of specific colors, to me it seems that led has lost some of it's "cool" or "NASA" factor.
Anyone else feeling the same way?

Hell no! Just getting warmed up.

 

[alesh]

monos are still more efficient, but agree the cool nasa factor is fading

Are they?

There's no way white LEDs will be more efficient. They're just blue ones covered with phosphor.
And yet the most efficient LED available is white.
Why is that?

 

[OneHitDone]

Hum, I like what I saw another member post somewhere - something along the lines of "I measure efficiency in weight"

We are still not seeing much documentation of cobs knocking the socks off of Apache single diodes with lenses.

Anyone have any DIY's with single diodes of up to date availability?

 

[guod]

Are they?

There's no way white LEDs will be more efficient. They're just blue ones covered with phosphor.
And yet the most efficient LED available is white.
Why is that?

A single white led has a lower eff. then a blue one. stokes loss is more then 10%
A cob is a matrix of 11x11 leds. at 700mA a single led in a cob now runs at <70mA.
Underdriven by factor 5 for a 1watt led.

 

[thisusernameisnottaken]

As the trend seams to be moving away from small die led's of specific colors, to me it seems that led has lost some of it's "cool" or "NASA" factor.
Anyone else feeling the same way?

The price of some of these lights are just stupid thats why some stick to hps.

 

[KarmaPaymentPlan]

A single white led has a lower eff. then a blue one. stokes loss is more then 10%
A cob is a matrix of 11x11 leds. at 700mA a single led in a cob now runs at <70mA.
Underdriven by factor 5 for a 1watt led.

would all those individual blue bulbs be as useful to us?

 

[cdgmoney250]

Hum, I like what I saw another member post somewhere - something along the lines of "I measure efficiency in weight"

I completely agree with that quote. I'm also tired of all this efficiency talk when its mostly theorized calculations based on individual diode performance.. from a data sheet. To me, gardening efficiency should be based on a Grams Yielded/ Luminaire Watts Drawn. Electrical efficiency is pretty negligible when you are talking a 4x4 space or smaller (Not referring to 1000W Hps).
If a high efficiency set-up costs 2-4 times what an economy set up costs (referring to COB's), but yields the same, what have we actually gained? (still talking small spaces). How long would saving 100-200 watts per month take to recoup the initial investment for a "high" efficiency light?

 

[churchhaze]

Blue leds are more efficient than white, but red leds are not more efficient than white. Also, blue + red is a terrible spectrum for flowering weed. You'd need amber, which means you need efficient amber leds.

There's a good reason everyone's using white leds now... It's because people like to copy success.

 

[salmonetin]

...or the economic way of having red + blue and others colors....

...thanks Mc130p...

 

[PurpleBuz]

Blue leds are more efficient than white, but red leds are not more efficient than white. Also, blue + red is a terrible spectrum for flowering weed. You'd need amber, which means you need efficient amber leds.

There's a good reason everyone's using white leds now... It's because people like to copy success.

try producing the same amount of 660 red with a white cob, then you can compare

 

[salmonetin]

...or try to reproduce a cob spectrum with monocolors leds... then you can comparing too...

 

[gonnagro]

First, full disclosure. I am currently flowering with a Solarstorm 400.

I don't think the 'cool' factor is gone yet, I just think the LED winners (i.e. Area 51, Apache, CLW, etc.), have pretty much shown themselves. Then there is Mars, which is completely sufficient, and cheap.

COB has the spiders. There really isn't anything much left to talk about.

Kinda like nutrients, they all work, some are too expensive, powders are cheaper, GH should not have sold out to Miracle Grow, yada yada yada . . .

 

[JimmyIndica]

I don't think one outperforms the other. Service ability gives COB the edge IMO. But the Osram 660s are making me a believer.
Over the last 6wks? I am finding out Red/Blue is all ya need.
I like 3000Kwhite better though.
My opinion of the effiency talk is ,unless your growing in a warehouse? I like high power. I thought we are in the business growing the highest yield/highest quality cannabis we can?, not saving few extra bucks month on electric bill.

 

[OneHitDone]

When are we going to see AT600 vs 700w of cob?

 

[Abiqua]

I completely agree with that quote. I'm also tired of all this efficiency talk when its mostly theorized calculations based on individual diode performance.. from a data sheet. To me, gardening efficiency should be based on a Grams Yielded/ Luminaire Watts Drawn. Electrical efficiency is pretty negligible when you are talking a 4x4 space or smaller (Not referring to 1000W Hps).
If a high efficiency set-up costs 2-4 times what an economy set up costs (referring to COB's), but yields the same, what have we actually gained? (still talking small spaces). How long would saving 100-200 watts per month take to recoup the initial investment for a "high" efficiency light?

Well the 1st part of that is really already spelled out under the term of "efficacy".....which is why we all are here [well most of us] in the 1st place, trying to grow better and more..... pun

ROI how much do we save?

Each grower has to itemize their cost if switching light sources....

The led, needs to be built and driver technology is mature, so diodes can be swapped out later for upgrades...as such, everything is loaded in the front end...

However, if we compare the worst case scenario, it starts to pencil out, if: You start to use less wattage, but still emitting same or greater photon amount, then heat is reduced at a loss to wattage...Then a bulb change and finally do you run your AC always or run AC....all of these things will need to be factored to pencil it out....

So no more complaining....Pencil it out....

 

[OneHitDone]

To me the realization is coming to be grams or ounces per sq ft.
Who gives a shit if you save a few hundred or even 600W if you aren't getting the weight?
One extra ounce makes up for a lot of wattage increase

 

[captainmorgan]

Every upgrade I've done has paid for itself in the first grow with the extra yield.