yes, and because of the direction of LED light most of it is absorbed by the leaves. if the photon is absorbed by a chloroplast it'll trigger a chemical bonding, and only a small fraction - the rest of the energystate of what's left over, is subsequently converted to heat. Ofc there are other materials there which can absorb photons that range in the visible spectrum which then can cause higher excitation states of baryonic matter.
However, the energy (heat) is not gone just chemically conserved - it will be released again upon decomposing. That's the reason why stuff thats decomposing heats up and can be used to drive a power plant.
And because LED puts out more PAR than HPS the emitted photons will create relatively more biomatter than initial heat.
Also, one reason to go for LED is to draw less power from the wall, so it makes not much sense to even compare the same tent-power-intake....
This is the best explanation I have seen in this thread.
Photosynthesis is an endothermic reaction and will absorb photon energy which is combined with carbon and water to form carbohydrates (sugars and starches) that are stored and used as energy inside the plant. So photosynthesis converts light energy into stored energy before the light energy has a chance to convert to heat energy.
One thing that perhaps hasn't been explained is the difference between infra-red and visible light. Both are forms of electromagnetic radiation. But visible light and infrared transfer their energy to mass differently depending on how the mass absorbs that energy.
This is especially true of water, which is what most living things including ourselves and plants are made up of.
Water absorbs infrared light at a faster rate than PAR (photosynthetically active radiation, which is mostly visible light from 400-700nm). That means the water heats up quicker. A similar principle applies to microwaves.
Here is the water absorption rate spectra. See how low it is in the visible light (and PAR) spectra compared to others?
This explains why infrared is "hotter" than visible spectra – even though visible light actually carries more energy. It has to do with the way that energy is imparted on different molecules.
And so HIDs convert more of their electrical energy into infrared than LED, which is why – watt for watt – they increase leaf temperatures at a higher rate. Leaves are mostly made of water.
However, one joule of energy per second – whatever that energy is (visible light or infrared) – is still a Watt. And so watt for watt, that energy is eventually converted to the same amount of heat. It's just a matter of time.
LED converts more of its energy to PAR – which the plant can absorb and store – and HPS converts more of its energy (compared to LED) to infrared – which is absorbed by the water in the leaf and converted to heat, which increases its temperature.
And that is why watts are not always watts.
I’m getting ready to convert from a 1000 watt HID to a 930 watt LED (at the wall). So this means that the LED will put off similar heat if run at full capacity?
No-one answered this, so yes – 930W of LED will put out a similar amount of heat as 1000W of HID. However, the heat will be absorbed at different rates.
More of the LED watts will be in the form of PAR, which the plant can use, and less will be in the form of infrared, which will increase leaf temperatures.
An even simpler way to put it is, if 700W of LED produces the same number of PAR photons as 1000W of HID, then you only need to put 700W of energy into the system for the same results (yields) – which means 300W less heat.