I am lost about LED lighting, please help.

I want to start a small plantation. I read a lot and it is getting worse and worse as I keep reading about LEDs vs HPS.

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Gen3-UFO-LED-Grow-Light.asp
http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/product.sc?productId=8
http://www.hydrogrowled.com//126W-Penetrator-LED-Grow-Light-P45.aspx
http://daystarhid.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=54_61&products_id=110
http://shop.haightsolidstate.com/Haight-Solid-State-PPF-800-LED-Grow-light-PPF-800.htm

Is ANY of them worth my attention? I know that the power varies from 120 to 180 W, but the price varies even more...

Plasma lights are out of my budget as chameleon costs over $1k. I know that probably nobody used two of products above, so how to compare those?! I want to use a rainforest 66 (good opinions so far I read and within price range) put in there 5 sativa plants (6th pot for measurements). growbox will be high (5' probably, but maybe less as LST+FIM+SCROG won't need so much hight) and no more than 1sq feet (1m^2).

So I have some thoughts about growbox+hydroponic system, but I am LOST when speaking about lights. Please help me choose, don't send me to other threads/topics/google.
Thank you

Liin,
I just recently set up my led, I wentwith the 240 watt light that gotham hydrow sells. I got it for about two fifty to the front door. Make sure you have sun glasses on when working around this thing it will hurt your eyes quick. The thing to keep in mind is the claims of large coverage area are BS. My intended space was a refrigerator. purchased of craigs list for $35. the light is in the freezer cut a hole through the floor to the refrigerator the light rests on the shiping foam. efectively seperating the compartments. turned the feezer way down and added a 26 watt cfl to the frig it was to cold grow chamber runs at a constant 72 deg. As for as perfomance the the plants have all doubled in size in a week. nine tomatoes three cucumbers and six pepers oh yeah three bag seed. Unknown type other than the bud was great four years ago and it will still knock me on my butt. Happy to share any info I have. If you go with gotham call they will deal, I got ten off and free shiping.

Liin said:

I want to start a small plantation. I read a lot and it is getting worse and worse as I keep reading about LEDs vs HPS.

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Gen3-UFO-LED-Grow-Light.asp
http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/product.sc?productId=8
http://www.hydrogrowled.com//126W-Penetrator-LED-Grow-Light-P45.aspx
http://daystarhid.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=54_61&products_id=110
http://shop.haightsolidstate.com/Haight-Solid-State-PPF-800-LED-Grow-light-PPF-800.htm

Is ANY of them worth my attention? I know that the power varies from 120 to 180 W, but the price varies even more...

Click to expand...

I'm looking into LED also and have the same sorts of questions that you do. One of the problems is that while there is plenty of marketing info available for LED there isn't a lot of community info available. There seems to always be a few random posters that rave about the results of a particular LED but there's not a lot of documented, day by day, info out there. Of the few community based comparisons that I've seen that pit traditional MH/HPS versus LED, they suggest that LEDs work okay for vegetation, but not as effective as traditional methods for flowering, and hence lower yields.

Here is a link to one recent and still ongoing 90 page grow journal which is a side by side comparison grow between a 300w GrowLEDHydro and a 400w MH/HPS combo (MH used in veg, HPS used in flower). The dry weights have yet to be released.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/journals-progress/124858-setting-suns-growledhydro-300w-led-vs-400w-hid-demonstration-91.html

I am particularly interested in the Kessil and Stealth Grow LED lights but I can't find much useful information about how they actually perform in grows other than marketing promises.

if you're serious about getting bud, don't get LED's. theyr just not good for flowring not cost effective and their marketing is hype and honestly it's frustrating how much advertising hypes sell, and how many people were ripped off with LED's not to mention all the lost effoorts of people trying to flower with them

count on needing 1/2 the led wattage as HID. Also plan on spending a lot more to get LED.

Personally I would stay away from LED until there is more info about them. I think the concept is good, but there are still so many little niks to be worked out I feel. And I just cannot see how LED has any where near the penetration capability of HPS, MH and maybe even CFL? If you do grow with LEDs keep us informed! as I would love to see how they turn out! =]

There's a preponderance of evidence that cheap LED grow lights are not worth bring home. And expensive LED light do work ok for veg but produce poor yields for flowering. If heat and electricity use are major issues that may be an acceptable trade off from some people. But most growers will want to avoid LED lights until the technology improves. Warning: You will find some pro-LED propaganda on the Internet. So, buyer beware.

These guys make great LEDs that actually work as well if not better than HPS of = wattage
http://www.growledhydro.com/index.html
There are a lot of great threads on other websites of people doing side by side comparison grows with their LEDs and HPS, there is a 300 LED of theirs vs a 400w HPS and you can't really tell the difference between the plants!

Oh no... you just add another light to comprehension. I was thinking a I almost decided that is not worth it go with LEDs. If growledhydro.com products have the only advantage of the heat and no balast use, so why I should pay more to get the same result with 180W LED that are NOT outperforming 400W HPS.

If just someone made a comprehension with five-six claiming to be the best on the market LEDs with HID.
And how much more I can get in a six pot plantation? Not worth at all. Thanks for comments

the heat is really the only reason to get into LED units right now as they are at best as good as HID watt for watt

A lot of people can't run ventilation for HID because of how loud it may be and because they can't just drill holes in their walls and such, so they can use LEDs

they have the best LED units that I've seen in any grow journals
NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE
has created an LED that outperforms a traditional HID of much greater wattage
Any company telling you a 180w LED will outperform a 400w HPS is FLAT OUT TELLING A LIE

the great thing about the people at growledhydro is they won't bullshit you with those kinds of lies and tell you a light can cover a greater than it can or is better than an HPS with lots more power, and they did all the grow tests on their products themselves to see what actually worked instead of throwing out new editions of LED grow lights and waiting for the suckers that buy them to see if it works or not

I would link to the journals with proof of their awesomeness but I don't think its allowed by this website is it?

zem said:

if you're serious about getting bud, don't get LED's. theyr just not good for flowring not cost effective and their marketing is hype and honestly it's frustrating how much advertising hypes sell, and how many people were ripped off with LED's not to mention all the lost effoorts of people trying to flower with them

Click to expand...

these have been flowering with the 240 wat led from gotham hydro they was vegged under a 400 watt mh but went the chopper flew over my house and turned around and flew back over twice i ordered the led i couldn't keep temps down nothing i tried worked.

Interesting views, I wanted to make the move to LED's so did my home work and much like you I just got more confused, so I did some deep research and over 9 months decided if I could find the right light I was willing to spend 2,000$ on them. I narrowed my search to a guy in Canada and started emailing him questions and we started talking and emailing for a few months, I learned a lot. If you expect the same or better yield as a comparable bulb it won't happen. If you don't mind the cost and lower yield go for it. By the way I can have free LED's if I want them but I'll pass for now and check back in a year. ( they can tell me how many plants to grow but they don't say anything about how big they can be so 1000W for me.)

Don't even think of buying cheep led's just burn your money and save yourself the grief.

can't really help you out but i just thought i would put my $0.02 in lol.

i purchased a 45watt LED panel with 45 1watt LEDs, dual spectrum blue/red. it cost me $140 (which to me seems a little expensive) which at the time i didnt really mind either way, had some money to toss around so i grabbed it becuz of all the new talk about LEDs taking over the scene, i figured what the hell, why not.. its only 45watts, if i move into an appartment i can throw it under a kitchen cupboard or something.. and so my electric bill will show NO jump also. Now this LED panel is small.. its only 1'x1'x2" so i would use a 2'x2'x? space for it.. so just for personal little grows, i have only used it for veg. so far becuz i have a 400watt system and a 1000watt system on a light mover so the LED panel was just to mess around with.. but i will soon be doing a little computer desk grow with it to c how well it does, apparently its compared to a 250watt HID system so we will c how the bud smokes out of it.

either way, i agree with all previous posts, dont waste your money.. HIDs penetrate so much better.. i remember i was growing a big plant under some CFLs in a recycle bin.. did that for awhile.. it got about a foot or so (dono how long it vegged for under the CFL, was my first grow, so doesnt really matter, probly did a lot of things wrong then) but n e ways i put it under my 400watt MH i got from a friend with a 7200k bulb and BOOM my plant was vegging rediculously just under a 400watt it was growing a good inch or more a day i couldnt believe it. stick with HIDs for now man!

......my LED panel vegged better then CFLs tho.. but mayb becuz it was a higher wattage, plus some other things, i dont know.. hope this helps haha..

Thanks to all of you guys, the number of replies and the info you gave me, (especially woodsmane) consolidate me I'd go with other than LED system.
Now I am thinking if I should go with a 150W HPS/HID lamp for a rainforest 66 system or something else
THANKS one more time!