GAVITAs VS LEDs, IR, FAR RED, UV

I recently watched that old vid from growmau5. In this LED VS GAVITA example, CREE only used 560 watts vs 1000 watts. Growmau5 did a great job in that video, but looking at this table, you can see the numbers are very impressive considering LEDs is just over half the power draw. BUT, you can see that the gavita give off 3 watts of UV, 60 watts in Far Red and 150 watts IR !! those are pretty big numbers, and LED side has nothing to show for.

Do you guys think this is the missing link? also a lot of LED user will use Far Red before the light come on and at the end of light cycle, however, the gavita just have the far red blasting constantly.

I am thinking of adding bars with a mix of UV,Far Red and IR. I would still be using a lot less power, but on paper, I would crush the gavitas with my setup.





REFERENCE:

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED-Components-and-Modules/XLamp/XLamp-Reference-Designs/HorticultureReferenceDesign.pdf

I just switch to a 10000k de mh bulb the last 2 weeks and I get all the uv I need

Dr.Nick Riviera said:

I just switch to a 10000k de mh bulb the last 2 weeks and I get all the uv I need

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except, that if you grow full on perpetual that don't work

and you do miss out on Far Red and IR , which might not be necessary, who knows!! me I am just thinking/hoping, if I can match the gavitas on paper, using less power, would be awesome!!

so far I hope IR is not the missing link because I am not sure how to get it with LEDs.

for the far red Im thinking of using a couple of those
http://www.rapidled.com/4-far-red-supplement-led-kit/

GreenSanta said:

except, that if you grow full on perpetual that don't work

and you do miss out on Far Red and IR , which might not be necessary, who knows!! me I am just thinking/hoping, if I can match the gavitas on paper, using less power, would be awesome!!

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if you use 1 mh as a start and finish light, you can make it work

Dr.Nick Riviera said:

if you use 1 mh as a start and finish light, you can make it work

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do you understand what I said? I grow perpetual, meaning plants are all at different stage, harvesting a little bit often vs a lot all at once. so yeah, that dont work! plus I already have all LEDs. The other thing is I never touch my lights, train the plants instead!

GreenSanta said:

do you understand what I said? I grow perpetual, meaning plants are all at different stage, harvesting a little bit often vs a lot all at once. so yeah, that dont work! plus I already have all LEDs. The other thing is I never touch my lights, train the plants instead!

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settle down marcia, you know how you get when you're hungry. I grow perpetual, so yeah, i know what it means and I make it work, sorry you don't understand that.

Dr.Nick Riviera said:

settle down marcia, you know how you get when you're hungry. I grow perpetual, so yeah, i know what it means and I make it work, sorry you don't understand that.

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I did not want to come across as angry, look at the exclamation mark at the end, shows enthusiasm! well I guess if your perpetual involves several 1000w than yeah you could move the plants that are either starting or finishing under the MH but for someone with only 1 1000w, growing perpetually, wouldnt work. lol. anyway, the way I grow I cant imagine swapping and moving lights around. but when I reorganize my lights soon (in a way that I dont have to fuss with them again for a while), I might create a corner of the room with more blues. Thanks for sharing

I'm all for adding more lights.....

You are going to be disappointed if you are trying to replace a 1150w gavita with 550 watts of LEDs.

Yodaweed said:

You are going to be disappointed if you are trying to replace a 1150w gavita with 550 watts of LEDs.

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Did you look at the video at all? The gavita was running at a 1000w, what I want to do is get same results or better than a gavita with around 800 watts leds including IR, Far red, and UV. If you look at the diagrams you will see that otherwise the 550w led is keeping up pretty good

GreenSanta said:

Did you look at the video at all? The gavita was running at a 1000w, what I want to do is get same results or better than a gavita with around 800 watts leds including IR, Far red, and UV. If you look at the diagrams you will see that otherwise the 550w led is keeping up pretty good

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Yes i did, i think the main problem you are facing is coverage, not photon amount, LEDs produce a lot of photons but lack coverage. You'd need at least 900w to cover the same area using top end LEDs pushed at the proper amount, check out this timber kit this is what i am thinking would cover a similar area. http://timbergrowlights.com/900-watt-cree-cxb3590-5x5-framework/
Gavitas generally harvest around 3 pounds per light.

Also i'd like to point out the chart says "PPF measurements taken between 400-700nm" and IR is 730NM so yea idk seems like they aren't including some of the spectrum the gavita has. Seems like a biased test, light is dimmed down, spectrum is rigged to favor the light with the smaller spectrum.

Yodaweed said:

Also i'd like to point out the chart says "PPF measurements taken between 400-700nm" and IR is 730NM so yea idk seems like they aren't including some of the spectrum the gavita has. Seems like a biased test, light is dimmed down, spectrum is rigged to favor the light with the smaller spectrum.

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Par spectrum is always rigged over fuller spectrum bulbs, kind of an industry standard for leds....

Yodaweed said:

Also i'd like to point out the chart says "PPF measurements taken between 400-700nm" and IR is 730NM so yea idk seems like they aren't including some of the spectrum the gavita has. Seems like a biased test, light is dimmed down, spectrum is rigged to favor the light with the smaller spectrum.

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isnt because there is no photosynthesis happening with anything above 700?

at any rate, I wish there was more info out there, lots of the info I find on Far Red is from 2014 ... I still have not decided ,.. I am tempted to shed a bit of money for far red, but its a lot of money for a light that would be only used 1 hour a day...

GreenSanta said:

isnt because there is no photosynthesis happening with anything above 700?

at any rate, I wish there was more info out there, lots of the info I find on Far Red is from 2014 ... I still have not decided ,.. I am tempted to shed a bit of money for far red, but its a lot of money for a light that would be only used 1 hour a day...

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Then you are saying far red does nothing, and neither does UV light because is below 400nm. In my experience far red light makes your plants stretch (which increases yield) and UV light increases tric production but stresses your plant and reduces yield.

The spectral output of leds leave a lot to be desired especially when they have such amazing par numbers.