Best LED bang for buck for under £100

avillax said:

I think those Mars and GalaxyHydro are pretty descent for a lot of reasons and are under $100. Seriously, LED is simply the best, I haven't grown weed yet, I'm on the planning stages but in the end it is the same principle: Temperature (light spectrum color) and Intensity (PAR), in the Reef aquarium hobby LEDs arrived 7 years ago and everybody was saying they were not good enough, now 70% of reefkeepers use LED and apparently the weed growing hobby is just catching up with the trend.

The only potential problem with these LED Chinese lamps is that there's some 15% chances of LEDs failing in the first few months, in which case 80% would still work and the whole lamps normally have a 2 year warranty. As far as Temperature (color) there has never been problems with LEDs and the intensity has been tested and now 3w LEDs are the norm and very reliable, for instance, one could buy a much more expensive $350 unit and the only difference is that it will have brighter CREE LEDs which are like 30% brighter and better overall quality so the components will never fail BUT it will have a real consumption of 300 watt and for that cost you could simply buy 3 cheap lamps and have more light coverage and intensity.

If you go with the HPS route the only thing brighter in the same range perhaps than the 300 watt LED is a 250w unit with galaxy ballasts, the best reflector and the best light bulb which together will cost $350 and the bulb will need to be replaced every 6 months, plus the heat issues. That's old technology, not worth it.

It's like I'm taking crazy pills!!!

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Mars has a good warranty overall.
For your budget go Mars.
If your all about yield then you need to do research on PAR and what lights give what PAR.
I know the genisis HPS is by far the best HPS ever used even better than the Hortilux and Digilux bulbs.
Double ended is also superior.
But for your budget a nice Mars will do you well.

Trippyness said:

Mars has a good warranty overall.
For your budget go Mars.
If your all about yield then you need to do research on PAR and what lights give what PAR.
I know the genisis HPS is by far the best HPS ever used even better than the Hortilux and Digilux bulbs.
Double ended is also superior.
But for your budget a nice Mars will do you well.

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Not sure if you have read this thread fully (I'm by no means all about yield at this early stage in my growing career). I did go with Mars - ordered a 48x5W panel with veg and bloom settings. It will do for now, but I'm sure I will end up building my own custom array. Blurple (a word I only learned today) seems to be highly disparaged in this forum. Btw, I have heard mention of an LED section somewhere within these forums but as yet, I've been unable to find it. Can someone provide me a link to the the LED section please?

Bardon Yark said:

Not sure if you have read this thread fully (I'm by no means all about yield at this early stage in my growing career). I did go with Mars - ordered a 48x5W panel with veg and bloom settings. It will do for now, but I'm sure I will end up building my own custom array. Blurple (a word I only learned today) seems to be highly disparaged in this forum. Btw, I have heard mention of an LED section somewhere within these forums but as yet, I've been unable to find it. Can someone provide me a link to the the LED section please?

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Here you go: https://www.rollitup.org/f/led-and-other-lighting.124/

Bardon Yark said:

I have heard mention of an LED section somewhere within these forums but as yet, I've been unable to find it. Can someone provide me a link to the the LED section please?

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it subforum in IndoorGrowing
https://www.rollitup.org/f/led-and-other-lighting.124/

Bad Karma said:

Here you go: https://www.rollitup.org/f/led-and-other-lighting.124/

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Thanks guys.

Do it yourself is the only way to go

Voidling said:

Do it yourself is the only way to go

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I'm sure you're right and I'm sure that's what I'll do eventually. I hear what you're saying about bigger, better yields, but at the moment I'm only growing a couple of plants and feel reasonably confident that the Mars 48x5 will give me at least a couple of ounces from my two autos. If it can do that, which I'm lead to believe it can, it will pay for itself on the first harvest.

I am reading up as much as I can on emerging LED technology but feel it will be a good few months before I have any idea of what I might want to build. So for now it's marshydro 240 reflector supplemented with sporadic bursts of 250 and 400 watt dual spectrum HPS.

Can't wait to get some ultra efficient, ultra bright and ultra low temp lights though. It's very exciting to watch a technology emerge, but can be frustrating sometimes trying to figure which way to jump.

The good thing is that it's all been done here before. It can be as simple as copying somebody else's parts list.

Or post your basic plan and people come in to help.

For $150-200 you would have a true 200watt led system. I don't know about mars but there are companies out there that will say they have a 240 watt light but it only pulls like 90w. Not the exact numbers but you get the gist

That's two cree 3070 cobs. Very simple to wire if you can solder four dots.
Can price out smaller leds for spreading the light out more evenly over the canopy which is what I feel makes it better than a single prefab unit

The wattage doesn't really say anything, for instance, CREEs at 100% capacity will have the true wattage consumption and they will be 30% brighter, probably brighter than a 250w HQI but for the price you can get 2x Mars units that will have the same wattage but will have more light coverage.

The cheapest mars I see is $100 for 80-100w which puts it a little over the price of a single cree setup I believe.

I would believe the coverage listed is exaggerated or his the low end of acceptable light per square foot. It also gives that purple color instead of white.

That said, it appears they've come a ways since I bought my first led unit. Lasted a year and half before one driver died and left with half a lamp. Only had a year warranty. I'm sure it'll get the job done depending on the grow size you plan to run

Personal preference is that I can't stand that purple color. I'd recommend turning it off before opening your grow. I had a hard time checking plants for bugs/deficiencies /frosting after my eyes saw that purple

Voidling said:

Personal preference is that I can't stand that purple color. I'd recommend turning it off before opening your grow. I had a hard time checking plants for bugs/deficiencies /frosting after my eyes saw that purple

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I've always loved all shades of purple. Even though it appears purple to us, wouldn't the plant just see the individual beneficial wavelengths the purple is comprised of (assuming that the LEDs are emitting the wavelength/colour temperature that they were designed to accurately)?

I'm completely new to this subject, but from what I've read so far, it appears to me that we are starting to discover that cannabis can benefit in some way from light of all wavelengths (including green), so I'm guessing that LED grow lights will start to move towards different whites optimised for veg and bloom in the same way that HPS and MH are. The impression I'm getting, is that growers and hobbyists are re-purposing white LEDs not specifically designed with growing cannabis in mind. It also seems that a lot of the grow light companies have a lot of money tied up in technology that is rapidly starting to be seen as dated. At the end of the day, I've seen a lot of people who claim to be very happy with their commercial panels whether they be of the cheap or expensive kind..

It's a bit like hi-fi, you have to realise the capabilities of a half decent custom separates system over a Matsui midi system before you can appreciate the gains you will attain by doing a little research and spending a little more. I'm very proud of my £500 ghetto hi-fi. One thing I did learn in hi-fi though and I believe this applies to every commodity it's possible to buy - that is the law of diminishing returns. The trick is to find the sweet spot in terms of bang for buck.

I've never been an early adopter - , but good luck to those who can afford overinflated prices just to stay ahead of the Jones's. That ultra expensive, ultra high tech bit of kit which will knock the spots of anything else around at the moment and costs at least 3 times as much, will more than likely be sneered at by the same people who are paying over the odds for it now, a couple of years down the road when the rest of us are enjoying it for a knock down price. I guess if I were richer, I'd want the latest and greatest too, but if you were to take a lowly MarsHydro 240W back to Victorian times, they'd have burnt you as a witch!.

Ha - I'm stoned for which I make no apology. I apologise if my post has bored or offended anyone or if I have mislead anyone by inadvertently giving the impression that I know what the hell I'm talking about.

Plants can definitely grow in the purple. The mars version, and maybe all new ones include other colors it looks like. Mine was blue and red only I believe and definitely not over all optimal. I forget.

I like the color purple but not when it messes up your vision. I wear a purple shirt in memory of a friend that committed suicide, he was wearing purple every time I saw him and taught me it is the color of royalty. I've been openly made fun of for wearing it once and who knows how many times behind my back for being unmasculin or gay color.

All leds were repurposed and not intentional made to grow plants. The leds were taken and grouped together and packaged as a grow light. KNNA was basically the beginning of diy led experimentation. Don't know what happened to him and weezard but miss them being around. Supraspl learned much from knna and has carried on the work and help.

As for the latest and greatest the 3070 is at least one generation old now.