I could instead refer you to older discussions instead of tearing apart your post and expose your typical extreme bias, but what would be the fun in that...
1. A gavita DE 1000 costs $450-500, not $800.
How much were Gavita's when they were brand new?
If you haven't noticed, COB LEDs aren't exactly in the mainstream cannabis scene....Yet. This is the very beginning to a new indoor lighting revolution.
Not knocking Gavita's because I know they put in work, but lets be real.. all lighting is looking to be more efficient.
LEDs are more efficient at creating light.
Whether you understand that statement is of no consequence.
2. A phillips DE has a lumen ouput (in the par region) of 140-ish thousand whopping lumens. Yeah, remove those inflated reflection losses and
it will still out do your numbers.
Not true, and I will provide data on my next post.
3. A gavita DE 1000 can be boosted to 1150w.
Wow, it can be even more inefficient!
4. A gavita can raise the temps far enough for the high ppf to actually be efficient.
Climate Control?? Leaf Temps??
5. A phillips DE bulb costs closer to $100 than $50, in all fairness, but clearly does not change anything about your so typically skewed and biased theoretic comparison.
So DE maintenance is more expensive? Yes.
6. A gavita is of a professional, high grade, safe, quality that will last longer than it needs too, just like the leds. Unless you boil them... The leds that is...
It's a light socket screwed to a ballast, with a cheap thin reflector. And we do get RMA's on them every now and again. The only benefit to the Gavita is how ridiculously bright the Philips DE bulb is.
Well designed LED fixtures will last well over a decade with high output.
How many bulb replacements is that?
7. You confuse power usage with efficiency in general.
Same power consumption... More Light..... Light is what grows plants.........
This is actually a pretty simple formula.
Do you understand efficiency? Efficacy?