LED grow lights?

Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
I don't think it will quite take 20 years.. and I am not going to dispute the wonderful work of all the superior growers out there. All I am saying is that everyone said the same thing about Flourescent technology...doesn't produce enough light output, never match up to HID. What High Times proved is that LED is more "efficient" key word being efficient, not necessarily the best option for growing an entire room. But the LED technology serves a good purpose, it targets what the plants use, rather than burning up a bunch of power and producing a bunch of useless heat.

Not saying any light method is better than the other. It all depends on your goals. If you are an environmentally conscious grower or working with a solar setup and concerned about how much power you are using then LED is a pro. If you do not care about these things and just wanna put 5 1000watt HPS in a big room and blast light everywhere then that is your goal. All I am saying is that these things can't be garbage... I think they are much more than that. Growers just might need to adapt their setups to work with the benefits of LED..
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
Floro's still aren't very good so that's a pretty bad analogy. I think that Floro is the skipped technology in this timeline. It's a Laser Disc. It was better than VHS but once DVD's came along it was gone. It was a skipped technology. Well LED's are going to come down and stomp Floro's before they are REALLY adopted everywhere.

LED technology has advanced at a tremendous rate and while I don't believe it will be 20 years before they are adopted, I do believe it will take 20 years to see our last HID's.

I love that they are ever improving this technology and finding ways to do more and more with LED's. I know that they will never stop and they will give us a tremendously efficient solution to lighting in many many ways in the future.

I'm just not ready to advisse someone in the present time that LED's are a truely viable solution and that it is PRUDENT to use them to grow MJ. Can they provide some supplimental lighting? Yes. Can they provide for a good closet grow at least in the veg cycle? Yes. Is that an improvement over 5 years ago? Absolutely. So in 5 years we have already found GOOD places to use the light, I try not to advise people to buy them as their only light and have to advise that the alternatives perform better for nearly the same cost (lights + ventilation = LED panel).
 
Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
Good follow up and I do agree with you about floros being the laserdisc of lights. I think we got some good discussion out of this, and your right, LED's are by no means the way for most people on this site to go. But for someone with unlimited bankroll and the pioneering spirit i think we could see some really neat things happen. Hopefully we all see the day LED's are mainstream everywhere
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
Boulderheads said:
Good follow up and I do agree with you about floros being the laserdisc of lights. I think we got some good discussion out of this, and your right, LED's are by no means the way for most people on this site to go. But for someone with unlimited bankroll and the pioneering spirit i think we could see some really neat things happen. Hopefully we all see the day LED's are mainstream everywhere
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If you consider T5 high out puts to be the next florecent then for vegging they are really good. I use them for everything from swiss chard to basil to weed with amazing resluts. I had to swap a regular florecent in for my t5s on my herbs to use my all my T5s for my weed what a difference. The bottom half of my thai basil plants fell off yellowed leavs weak growth but it's alive. Really crappy lighting, but T5s great advancement in the technology. Very low heat and decent for vegging.
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
laserbrn said:
Floro's still aren't very good so that's a pretty bad analogy. I think that Floro is the skipped technology in this timeline. It's a Laser Disc. It was better than VHS but once DVD's came along it was gone. It was a skipped technology. Well LED's are going to come down and stomp Floro's before they are REALLY adopted everywhere.

LED technology has advanced at a tremendous rate and while I don't believe it will be 20 years before they are adopted, I do believe it will take 20 years to see our last HID's.

I love that they are ever improving this technology and finding ways to do more and more with LED's. I know that they will never stop and they will give us a tremendously efficient solution to lighting in many many ways in the future.

I'm just not ready to advisse someone in the present time that LED's are a truely viable solution and that it is PRUDENT to use them to grow MJ. Can they provide some supplimental lighting? Yes. Can they provide for a good closet grow at least in the veg cycle? Yes. Is that an improvement over 5 years ago? Absolutely. So in 5 years we have already found GOOD places to use the light, I try not to advise people to buy them as their only light and have to advise that the alternatives perform better for nearly the same cost (lights + ventilation = LED panel).
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I think I gotta disagree with you. I think HIDs will be around longer. If LEDs can get the penetration, not just for gardening, think in comercial buildings like shop enviroments where you need a high celing of a gymnasium in a school. You need the HIDs there LEDs just wouldn't cut it. 20 years we might not see them in gardens but I think you'll still see them. ;-)
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
Defcon9 said:
I think I gotta disagree with you. I think HIDs will be around longer. If LEDs can get the penetration, not just for gardening, think in comercial buildings like shop enviroments where you need a high celing of a gymnasium in a school. You need the HIDs there LEDs just wouldn't cut it. 20 years we might not see them in gardens but I think you'll still see them. ;-)
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I honesetly believe they will be replaced in 20 years. Maybe you'll see them in street lights because gov't sucks, but private instutions will switch.

The warehouse I manage doesn't have one in it anywhere. Building was finished last year and has all T5's.
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
POT SOLDIER 420 said:
Watch jorge cervantes grow videos it tells u about the spectrum.
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Okay, what about it? LEDs have the superior spectrum. There is no wated light with them. That's not their problem...well they can still be tweaked a little, but they don't because of cost. If they use an even better LED that is that little bit better your $500 LED light jumps to $800 and they know it;s not worth it. LEDs have the superior spectrum. The problem is they do not have the penetrating power (light output) that the HPD has. The HPS has such a strong light it more than makes up for the fact the spectrum isn't perfect. Our gardens are far from perfect and LEDs are one step closer to getting more efficent but we have a long way to go with them.

Jorge can talk all day long about spectrum but if the light can't reach the plants then it doesn't matter. Look at your regular household incandecent. The spectrum is way better but it just doesn't have enough output to be effective and is a waste of time to use. Florecents, same thing. they have the better spectrum they are better than incandecents but still they do not have enough power to be effective. Hence why people use the HID bulbs. the spectrum is not as good but they have the power.
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
laserbrn said:
I honesetly believe they will be replaced in 20 years. Maybe you'll see them in street lights because gov't sucks, but private instutions will switch.

The warehouse I manage doesn't have one in it anywhere. Building was finished last year and has all T5's.
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Really? nice. How are T5s in that enviroment? How high are the celings? Very cool and interesting.

We had our offices switched to T8s. I asked why we didn't use T5s the guys that came in to do some wasted energy analasys said T5s are not efficent and T8s are better for energy costs. In our shop though we use all T8s in our prep booth, the selings are low and they are great for showing imperfections in the cars, our paint booth is all T8s I think maybe T12s again they show all the imperfections, but in the really high celings 20+ feet they are all HID lights. Never climbed up so don't know what they are MH/HPS? they are our main shop lighting and we supplement them with the florecents closer to the guys again just to show imperfections in the cars we work on. (I work in a collision shop)
 
Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
Not to keep this argument going, but its not just about power. It's how the light is distributed over the canopy. This was demonstrated in the Parabolic scrog with HPS and flat scrog with floros. We all know HPS is way more powerful and puts out way more lumens, but the amount of lumens actually reaching the plant are very similar if not less than 5000lumen T5 an inch away from the canopy. Floro's are pretty dialed in as far as spectrum is concerned. You can find many different wavelengths in floros.

And the new commerical application like laserbrn said is T5HO. They are replacing HID left and right in private enterprise situations. Less power, less ambient heat, longer liftetime and not as much of a dropoff over the lifetime.

I love this forum
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
Boulderheads said:
Not to keep this argument going, but its not just about power. It's how the light is distributed over the canopy. This was demonstrated in the Parabolic scrog with HPS and flat scrog with floros. We all know HPS is way more powerful and puts out way more lumens, but the amount of lumens actually reaching the plant are very similar if not less than 5000lumen T5 an inch away from the canopy. Floro's are pretty dialed in as far as spectrum is concerned. You can find many different wavelengths in floros.

And the new commerical application like laserbrn said is T5HO. They are replacing HID left and right in private enterprise situations. Less power, less ambient heat, longer liftetime and not as much of a dropoff over the lifetime.

I love this forum
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Me to, great thread. Hell I use only T5's from start to finish. I was just recomending another guy a few days ago to us the T5s on a ScrOG. I love them, they are great. I'm a HUGE supporter of T5s. I was really surprosed to hear they are replacing the HIDs in comercial building like wearhouses. That is freaking amazing. I didn't know that they were powerful enough to light up such a large area from such a distance. Well I guess they say 8X 54W T5HOs are equivilant to a 600W HID so that's216W for similar output in in Lumens so it makes sense, a lot of sense actually. Just freaking incredible.

Personally for me when I do a ScrOG I just use 8X 4foot T5s accross the top same for a SOG as the plants are nice and short. When I want to grow my plants tall I use 3 accross the top and I take the other four and mounf them horizontally on the wall lower down the wall to get light penetration to the bottoms of the plants. It has worked really good for me so far.
 
Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
Bravo for sticking with the floros Defcon. I am curently on my 2nd grow, used T8's for my first grown 6x32watt. Yield wasn't crazy..but about 2 oz from each plant. Training is very important when using floros. Flat canopy is a must. Keep on rocking Defcon, glad to see other people are out there bending the "rules"
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
Funny thing is that I have a 6 lamp T5HO fixture that I've had around for quite some time. I've never really implemented it fully until recently. I just finished building my veg room and it's got my T5 in it.

I started out with it 2" off the tops of my seedlings and it burned them, but now I think I have things under control. I now have it about 8 inches and everyone seems a bit happier. I figure once they get a bit more established I'll bring it down, but they aren't stretching to get to it.
 
dave480

dave480

Member
Cheers guys you are all fucking champions! glad i registered some other sites are full of pretentious pricks only interested in looking good not helping! bongsmilie
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
Boulderheads said:
Bravo for sticking with the floros Defcon. I am curently on my 2nd grow, used T8's for my first grown 6x32watt. Yield wasn't crazy..but about 2 oz from each plant. Training is very important when using floros. Flat canopy is a must. Keep on rocking Defcon, glad to see other people are out there bending the "rules"
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I haven't always trained them, like I said earlier I sometimes for fun just put 4 of them doen the wall horizontally to get the penetration I need if I want my plants to grow tall. Dpends how many plants I want at what height etc. I've had good results so far. Oz/plant can't really say. If I do a SOG each plant yeilds a lot. On a ScrOG I get a high yeild, but I'm happy with the results. I really like them.
 
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Defcon9

Well-Known Member
laserbrn said:
Funny thing is that I have a 6 lamp T5HO fixture that I've had around for quite some time. I've never really implemented it fully until recently. I just finished building my veg room and it's got my T5 in it.

I started out with it 2" off the tops of my seedlings and it burned them, but now I think I have things under control. I now have it about 8 inches and everyone seems a bit happier. I figure once they get a bit more established I'll bring it down, but they aren't stretching to get to it.
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I keep mine about 2" - 3" from the top. I only get burns if they actually touch the lamps.
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
Defcon9 said:
I keep mine about 2" - 3" from the top. I only get burns if they actually touch the lamps.
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That's what I figured but the sprouts popped under CFL's and stretched out immediately. I threw them under the T5HO when they just barely had their first leaves and they starting getting crispy on the tips. I moved the light up and they all seemed to improve. I'll lower it back down in a couple of days and see how it goes. The temperature even when it was down nice and low were never over 82 degrees. That's the highest that I've seen and that's right under the lamp.

I'm going to start a new grow journal right now to kick this one off.
 
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