Hi, I am on the fence with this one... I have used LEDs (2x90W UFO LED's accompanied by a 150W ENVIROLITE) and am aware that with a larger CFL in play as well, large yields ARE possible, I got over 7 oZ from 2 DWC plants, I've not used LED setups on their own but have noticed a few things A) LEDs do work but they don't last for more than a couple of grows, B) the units ARE kinda expensive, C) They DO run a hell of alot cooler than both CFLs and HID : MH/HPS, D) They only (the better ones) use the correct nm so no wasted light output, BUT E) the intensity is not as powerful as a HID HPS and MH HID lumens ARE stronger than LED nm wavelengths, but HIDs DO waste some of the light (the bands not needed by the plant)
Its wrong to say that LEDs don't work they do!! But they ARE expensive for what you get,.... also side by side MH/HPS, HID lighting WILL give better results BUT you need to spend extra money on cooling etc etc, so you have expensive LED panels vs equally expensive HID+cooling setups, in a manner of speaking both setups will set you back about the same in initial cost, LEDs CAN run cheaper BUT the yield from the HID despite expelling some un-used band spectrum will be larger!
You can see by your YOUTUBE vid's that they (LEDs) DO and HAVE worked! BUT! at 300w + 300w + 90w + 15w (2x 300w panels, 1x 90w LED UFO, and 1x 15 household CFL) at total of "705w" despite using auto's/dwarf's your harvest is pretty SMALL! That said, the nugs off the DWARFs are very nice!
However if you used a single 600w HPS you can potentialy grow a 7ft Christmas tree Cannabis plant that will once harvested give you a serious amount of buds, more than any LED growers could ever dream of and at a much cheaper overall cost!
LEDs are ideal for small time growers, for a bit of persy or a quick £1000!
HID MH/HPS is way more suited to growers who expect/need alot more bud/profit!
I will add a pic of my old setup LED/CFL and respectively a LINK to the grow!
And I will add a pic of my latest HID MH/HPS setup (still building-not started next grow yet!) and a LINK to that too!
Bottom line is I like what you have done (produced bud) but sit unsettled at the amount you harvested and the ammount of WATTs you used to get your harvest.
Something else to look into are the EXTREMELY BRIGHT LED's that ocean cruisers and big ships use for under sea lighting..... They ARE HELLA EXPENSIVE, BUT nothing will beat the brightness and I imagine THEY WILL OUT PRODUCE HID!!!!! BUT at a HUGE COST! Something to look into later on down the line!!!
Also CFLs like the larger ones Ie/ ENVIROLITES (125w, 150w, 250w and 300w CFLs) etc are also very very good at producing high dense yields and personaly would deem them a better comparison to LED opposed to HID.
At the end of the day/grow
, All 3 types of lighting produce nice buds BUT HID (FOR NOW) excels both MERCURY VAPOUR (now redundant), CFL and LED in terms of mass producing Buds!
I hope you continue to experiment with LEDs and wish you the BEST of luck
It is an area in which I'am very interested and hope to see you experiment with them and some 3ft+ plants in the future. I enjoyed the vids you uploaded and will give you REP shortly!
- STELTHY
