Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Two Mars Hydro and a SpiderFarmer but no HLG's? I could be wrong but I would not have total faith in that list being complete. It does give some good info though.
So many grow lights to choose from now!
- Thread starter MustangStudFarm
- Start date
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
I can't agree with the fist part of your statement, budget is not the only metric that matters by a long shot. That said I totally agree that MH/HPS lights can grow killer bud and have been the go to for decades.
xtsho
Well-Known Member
Show me an LED that will replace a 600 or 1000 watt HID for under $200? You can't so an HID is a better bang for buck to me and many other growers. We don't want to wait 4+ years to recoup the extra cost of paying for LED's that can actually match an HID. And the cheap LED's are not worth the cost of shipping. I don't care about the heat as I run in an unheated garage and I don't care about the cost of power because I only pay a little over 0.4¢ kWh during off-peak hours.
Both quality LED's or HID's will grow good weed. Saying HID's are thing of the past is not an accurate statement. They'll be around for a long time to come. Buying the latest technology is always going to cost more and it isn't always necessarily better for the purpose you get it for. If the cost of buying the future is 4 times the cost of something that will give the same results I'll buy the less expensive. If you wait the price always comes down just like HID prices have gotten ridiculously inexpensive the last few years. They're a bargain. You're not going to be giving your plants 2000 true watts of light for under $400 which you can do with HID. And for that reason alone they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
It's like buying a new phone. I never buy the latest and usually run a few years behind the latest model with just about everything except for my laptops. My Samsung S7 works just fine and I see no reason to spend $700 replace it with the latest model. I feel the same about LED's. I have no reason to spend money just because it's newer technology. They're not going to work magic and double my yield or quality.
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Don't forget replacement MH and HPS bulbs every couple grows. This is also an added expense.
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Hey, congrats on being able to expand, always great when a gardener can open a new patch of ground so to speak. I think you got some good suggestions here and can see the debate with some users. I am fully for LED but am also fully for MH/HPS. I just shut down my 1000w dimmable MH/HPS system and replaced it with an HLG 600 Rspec. It was definitely a much more expensive light. I am pretty confident in my setup it will give me comparable results with much less heat. Heat was a big factor for me but as some have stated it is not for all. I now have less heat and use less power but those two factors cost a pretty penny for me. In the end it depends on your situation. Just don't go buying garbage LED's, there is no point. Either good led's or a good MH/HPS system can produce amazing results so you just have to figure out what is best for you. I would personally recommend whichever of those setups works for your circumstances, either way you should not be dissapointed. Good luck with your new space, hope it works out great for you. Happy growing.
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ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ
Well-Known Member
Lol how short sighted and ignorant. Pay the extra $450 the first time around and you will make that money back in the first two grows between increased yield, and lower power usage.
hybridway2
Amare Shill
Since "dialing in" Led i see no comparison. I get 1.5#+ a plant off 400-450w of good led. Used to get up to a #-18oz off a 600w hps SE.
I Like CMH but have yet to finish flowering under it. Gotten over the # off a plant off 300w. Not underpowered. Highly efficient.
Gained G/sq' at the same time. Not to mention if you're using the right spectrum the bag appeal will be through the roof as well as density & still big.
I Like CMH but have yet to finish flowering under it. Gotten over the # off a plant off 300w. Not underpowered. Highly efficient.
Gained G/sq' at the same time. Not to mention if you're using the right spectrum the bag appeal will be through the roof as well as density & still big.
xtsho
Well-Known Member
Many growers don't grow to sell and make money. So there's no way to make that money back. I give more away for free than I keep. So there is no way I'd make that $450 back. It would take me years to recoup the extra cost. Normally I'd say the biggest benefit growers would see is by adding more light. But paying $450 more to replace an HID isn't adding more light. It's just using a more energy efficient and expensive light. If you have cheap power why tie your money up in a light for years.
It's not a One Size Fits All but some of you guys just want to keep preaching about your fancy new state of the art lights while insinuating that others are idiots for using perfectly good lights instead of buying new LED's. People are growing just as good of quality and getting just as big of yields using that old outdated HID technology. I grow my own to save money. It makes no sense to dump $600+ on a light just because it's newer technology.
If you like your LED then keep using it and keep buying the newest ones as soon as they come out. In the end I'll save more money by keeping my HID and replacing a bulb every couple of grows. I'll just keep growing weed to share with my friends, making crosses, and providing seeds and clones for free. All while using HID lighting. I also have a 4 bulb 4ft HO T5 that I use for the veg tent and I have no plans on replacing that fixture either. Your argument about making it back in a couple grows doesn't apply to a good portion of the growers out there. We don't do it to make money. We do it so we know what we're smoking and because it's a hobby we enjoy and willingly share the rewards with our friends.
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Well said sir.
I switched over and went with “name brand” and Chinese lights. Compared them and for my use either will work. Lowest price wins..I’m happy to be done with that heat and having to keep the hps so high. The coverage alone with Led is great..But during really cold winters I sometimes do use my trusty hps on a 3x3 to bring up temps a little higher in my grow space
farmingfisherman
Well-Known Member
Threads like this always make me smile. Personally I have LED's, CMH and some old fluorescents fixtures with both standard fluorescents and replacement leds tubes. They all grow stuff, some might be better suited for one stage of growing than another but in the end they all work. Being a newbie that is still learning (so much to learn) I enjoy just seeing what and how the light and plants interact. As @xtsho pointed out the environment is a big decision in what a person grows with. Case in point. I just finished a outdoor plant inside under leds in a uninsulated garage, to get temps that were favorable I had to use a space heater so I likely spent more on energy than if I had used a HPS. Yeah if the plant was inside a tent I likely wouldn't have needed the heater as much but my space didn't allow for it. Lesson learned. Currently I have a young house plant in the living room under a small fluorescent on a seedling mat. The plant and light both are nice and calming, I don't think they would provide the same effect if it was under a led quantem board no matter the spectrum. Thanks for letting me rant! Live long and continue to grow!
KlompenOG
Active Member
It definitely is hard to get conduction through the body at 54V, but if you can manage it, that current is 34 times what the generally accepted lethal threshold(0.1amps).
I did see a guy almost kill himself on a 480V industrial panel. He had smoke coming out of his ears! That's quite a story itself....
farmingfisherman
Well-Known Member
If that guy doesn't have a speech impediment or something else I'd be really surprised.
KlompenOG
Active Member
I have no idea what his fate in the long run was, but that guy definitely got cooked that day. Its a funny story actually..... My friend owns a business and they were hiring an electrician to modernize some of their 3-phase gear. For some reason, the electrician they hired sent a guy with no credentials to do the work(we didn't know about that until later). The guy was there all of 10 minutes or so and we hear a loud noise from the factory and a moment later this crazy-looking dude comes into the office, smoke rolling out of EVERYWHERE(even eyes and ears), and his hair is standing way out all crazy everywhere. It took us a moment to realize who the hell he was, but once we figured it out we asked him if he needed an ambulance; to which he responded by running out the front door and sprinting away down the street at a speed that would make most track coaches proud. I'm guessing he didn't want to get in trouble for unlicensed work, so he ran away instead lol..... On the plus side, no one ever even tried to bill us for that job(of which they didn't do a lot).