L.E.D Growers question! :)

TweedleD

TweedleD

Active Member
Easy all!
I have been growing 4 plants for roughly 5-6 weeks, one of which, Diesel automatic I have kept under CFLs since the begining.

I currently have 1x150w and 4x24w in my semi stealth cupboard.

I plan on growing now some personal smoke and want to use LEDs as they don't give off a lot of heat.

I have seen these on EBay, and was wondering if anyone has used these or knows if they will work or not.

http://wap.ebay.co.uk/Pages/ViewItemDesc.aspx?pix=3&aid=360287522803&emvcc=0

My grow space is 73cm wide, 60cm tall, and 50cm deep.

I was thinking of ordering 3 or 4 of these, having two on top and two on the sides, where I plan on having either autoflowers growing spaced apart by 3 weeks,

Or alternatively,
Separate the cupboard into two sections, one of which can either be used to house a mother and take clippings from or just a veg area bscore moving into the bloom area.

Would either of my options work or am I better off buying the led lights from a grow shop?
The ones in grow shops look like rebranded ones.

Check out my grow in my signature and any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Peace! :peace::weed:
 
S

SimplyM1tch

Member
I'm ueseing the 90w UFO with a handfull of cfl's the growth while vegging was awsome I'm in the first week of flowering so can't say what the end product will be like but so far I'm satisfyed with my purchas
 
S

sappytreetree

New Member
i got a 90 watt ufo too and and yeah veg was nice flower sucked ... ive herd really good things about one called the stealth grower
 
G

gobbly

Well-Known Member
Depends on what you're looking for. In all, more light is better. But having grown with HID, knowing many people using LED's, and comparing their experiences with mine, if you're looking to really beef up your lights, you will spend a large premium on a LED setup. Your link doesn't work, but the smaller UFO type lights are good to just add more light to an existing system. If you want to do a real upgrade, you will want to up your budget a bit and start looking at the units that run $500-$1000. Not saying judge it all by price, but the cheap led's are not going to be HID replacements.
 
JUST GROW IT

JUST GROW IT

Active Member
gobbly said:
Depends on what you're looking for. In all, more light is better. But having grown with HID, knowing many people using LED's, and comparing their experiences with mine, if you're looking to really beef up your lights, you will spend a large premium on a LED setup. Your link doesn't work, but the smaller UFO type lights are good to just add more light to an existing system. If you want to do a real upgrade, you will want to up your budget a bit and start looking at the units that run $500-$1000. Not saying judge it all by price, but the cheap led's are not going to be HID replacements.
Click to expand...
Gobbly is right if you have the cash spend it right on a good panel. I have a 300w tri-panel which seems to work well, but from what i've read those UFO's seem to help out the CFLS well. It's all about research buddy and if you do get leds make sure it's at least a tri panel.
Good luck Peace
 
Serapis

Serapis

Well-Known Member
gobbly said:
Depends on what you're looking for. In all, more light is better. But having grown with HID, knowing many people using LED's, and comparing their experiences with mine, if you're looking to really beef up your lights, you will spend a large premium on a LED setup. Your link doesn't work, but the smaller UFO type lights are good to just add more light to an existing system. If you want to do a real upgrade, you will want to up your budget a bit and start looking at the units that run $500-$1000. Not saying judge it all by price, but the cheap led's are not going to be HID replacements.
Click to expand...
He is correct. I just purchased two 120W tri-band lights that retail for $500 each for my overheads, and that is just to cover 9 sq feet. Check out the LEDs offered by HTGSupply on eBay. He has overhead panels, overhead systems, side panels, floodlights, etc for LED growing. I highly recommend him. LED lighting does work, but you have to have the good LEDs. Some of the ratings out there are BS, as they count the wattage of the fans as well.

China has developed even better LEDs but the cost is way too high for anyone but governments to afford them at this time. Some 3w LED fixtures are available on eBay, but only by one seller with questionable claims in his listings. Hydro Grow has good LED light fixtures, they swear by them and use them for their own medical grows. You can custom build your light and even turn off the reds and oranges for vegging. They even have 60 degree down LEDs which focus the light even further by reducing the light-print.

Lot's of info out there. Visit Hightimes.com and look for their LED articles.
 
TweedleD

TweedleD

Active Member
Thanks for all the info guys! It has really opened me up to how much there is out there.

Bearing in mind the small size of my grow space for 2 flowering plants, which led panels could one of you guys recommend if you have a spare moment.

Cheers.
 
breakneck

breakneck

Calyx LED
If you're just doing 2 plants I would go with a 90w UFO. $180 shipped from Desert Hydro for the Tri-Band mixed spectrum. Best on the market hands down...
TDooda said:
Thanks for all the info guys! It has really opened me up to how much there is out there.

Bearing in mind the small size of my grow space for 2 flowering plants, which led panels could one of you guys recommend if you have a spare moment.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
 
Dinosaur Bone

Dinosaur Bone

Active Member
73cm x 50cm = 4 sq feet. The Glow Panel 45 { http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/product.sc?productId=10 } says its good for 5 sq ft, and is the equivalent of 250 watt hps.

I have one. I cant compare as I am on my first ever grow.... but it seems that I got better vegetation from a CFL. However.... my node spacing is very tight... that could be genetics, and little to do with the light.. I dunno.

I am flowering with it right now, with a Reptile CFL {5 UV-B}. Partly the reptile lamp throws traditional looking "proper light" that I can see.... the UV-B bulb is supposed to be worth its weight in the sticky-icky'ness and frosting... because the plant heaps on "suncreen" like a red 'hieded Irishman in the California sun. Hopefully its SPF 75..

The cutesy E-bay side panel shiesBen is more novelty than real light. If it ends up being the about the same as you could'a made with a string of LED Christmas lights and a rubbermaid lid.... you will seriously feel like a 'daft wanker.

UFO + Reptile lamp side lighting. That's what I would do.
 
G

gobbly

Well-Known Member
TDooda said:
I think I'm going to buy the UFO 90w and supplement it with two of these panels on the side.
What do you all think?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280544622210

Cheap but seem to offer a lot at that price.

Peace! :weed::peace:
Click to expand...
I would not buy this light. Also what dinosaur bone linked I wouldn't buy. Again, you can't just get cheap LED's and expect them to do well. Notice he thought CFL's were better, and that is because he believed that for 23watts of crappy led's he could match a 250w mh like their site claims (total BS). The reality is that LED's are expensive. Personally for two plants, two of the 90w UFO's would probably work pretty well. Someone linked http://www.growlightsled.com/Products/LEDGrowLights.aspx, and their panels look decent as well. http://www.stealthled.com/ makes awesome lights. http://www.hydrogrowled.com/Default.aspx also make decent lights. You will notice one thing in common when you look at the LED systems that compare to HID, they all start at $500 and easily go up to the $2000 range. I keep telling people, LED's are awesome, but not cheap. All those people saying LED's suck for growing, yadda yadda, tried to spend roughly what an HID would cost and bought yugos :) If you can't afford an investment like that, then go with other lighting technologies like most of us do :)

Edit: T5's carry a lot of the same benefits as led's and are significantly cheaper. If you're looking for an upgrade to CFL's and can't go with HID, or spend the cash that it takes to do LED's right, T5's might be the way for you to go. I'm about to switch my veg room from MH to t5 :) I wish I could afford to go LED.
 
tendran

tendran

Active Member
http://www.hydroponicshut.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=53

Haven't used this one yet, been using 4 cheap china panels so far for vegging. Sprouts are only 8-10 days old (from breaking soil) and seem to be doing okay under 4x 15w panels. But I was concerned about flowering and decided to beef up the flower chamber. There's also other decent deals you can find on ebay. Like Serapis said, check out HTG Supply's ebay store and you can sometime get very good deals way below retail if you're lucky.

In all the research I've done though, at retail prices Hydroponics Hut seems to be the least sketchy looking, comes with a 3 year manufacturer defect warranty, uses high quality led's, etc.. I couldn't find any positive or negative reviews on the company though so I decided to give it a shot. Hydroponics hut has an ebay store as well but it's usually priced higher than their web store and the seller seems to hate Ebay and barely puts up items.
 
breakneck

breakneck

Calyx LED
I stand corrected DH has the 90w UFO's at 170 with free shipping...and they have the mixed spectrum diodes that nobody else uses. I wouldn't buy any other ufo....
 
breakneck

breakneck

Calyx LED
Those LEDs have a 90 degree lens. That is the #1 NO-NO in LED. You want the 120 degree viewing angle.
tendran said:
http://www.hydroponicshut.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=53

Haven't used this one yet, been using 4 cheap china panels so far for vegging. Sprouts are only 8-10 days old (from breaking soil) and seem to be doing okay under 4x 15w panels. But I was concerned about flowering and decided to beef up the flower chamber. There's also other decent deals you can find on ebay. Like Serapis said, check out HTG Supply's ebay store and you can sometime get very good deals way below retail if you're lucky.

In all the research I've done though, at retail prices Hydroponics Hut seems to be the least sketchy looking, comes with a 3 year manufacturer defect warranty, uses high quality led's, etc.. I couldn't find any positive or negative reviews on the company though so I decided to give it a shot. Hydroponics hut has an ebay store as well but it's usually priced higher than their web store and the seller seems to hate Ebay and barely puts up items.
Click to expand...
 
tendran

tendran

Active Member
breakneck said:
Those LEDs have a 90 degree lens. That is the #1 NO-NO in LED. You want the 120 degree viewing angle.
Click to expand...
That's one I've not heard before.. Most people look for 90 degree lens products and 90% of the cheap panels I've seen are 120 degree lenses. I understand that you want the spectrums to "merge" before they hit the plant to some degree, but 90 degrees isn't exactly a narrow beam of light.
 
2

27Bronco

Member
I attempted a grow from start to finish with a 120w tri-band LED + 4 42w cfl in a 4x2x5 tent over a small footprint of about 4-5 sq ft. The LED works well in veg, but i was 5 weeks into 12/12 and noticed hardly any flower growth. Switched to a badboy t5 4' 6 tube light at 354w with 4 2900k and 2 6500k bulbs. In one week i noticed a huge amount of flowering growth. I am now using the LED as side lighting and probably selling it on craigslist.

In my experience LED will be great in veg but wont cut flower unless you have a large number of panels and that makes the cost ratio not very promising, at least for now.

here is my unit (120w version)
http://www.easy-motorcycle.com/led-light-c-69_50.html
 
breakneck

breakneck

Calyx LED
The "They're good for veg but not for flowering" comment is a classic sign that you bought a low quality LED system. Light spectrum and viewing angle are EVERYTHING! These are technologies that companies selling 90w UFO's that can retail at $130 are not even looking at. Any UFO under $150 is going to be junk.
27Bronco said:
I attempted a grow from start to finish with a 120w tri-band LED + 4 42w cfl in a 4x2x5 tent over a small footprint of about 4-5 sq ft. The LED works well in veg, but i was 5 weeks into 12/12 and noticed hardly any flower growth. Switched to a badboy t5 4' 6 tube light at 354w with 4 2900k and 2 6500k bulbs. In one week i noticed a huge amount of flowering growth. I am now using the LED as side lighting and probably selling it on craigslist.

In my experience LED will be great in veg but wont cut flower unless you have a large number of panels and that makes the cost ratio not very promising, at least for now.

here is my unit (120w version)
http://www.easy-motorcycle.com/led-light-c-69_50.html
Click to expand...
 
breakneck

breakneck

Calyx LED
tendran said:
That's one I've not heard before.. Most people look for 90 degree lens products and 90% of the cheap panels I've seen are 120 degree lenses. I understand that you want the spectrums to "merge" before they hit the plant to some degree, but 90 degrees isn't exactly a narrow beam of light.
Click to expand...
I have used both. I have much better results with the mixed spectrum diodes and 120 degree VA. Desert hydro is the only one I know of offering these at an affordable price.
 
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