Yeah people are forgetting that you are going to buy replacement bulbs, possibly replacement ballasts, you are going to need heavy duty cooling fans or extractor fans to take care of all the heat from the HID and possibly their ballasts, then there might be air conditioning on top of all that. I'd say even an all 3w diode panel makes 75% less heat than HPS watt for watt (maybe even less if 1000w bulbs produce more heat watt for watt than 400 or 600). And yeah its true that some people might not be able to go with LED in the winter because they need the heat of HID and that is fine, that is one of the possible cons that one must consider. To me it is fine because my computer can easily heat my room in the winter on its own
Really I should have only gotten a 290w for $700 instead of a $395 for $1100, but I just wasn't sure at the time if it would be enough light (and it was certainly way more than enough at 62w per square foot I should have settled for ~35).
Again big grows in Cali aren't going LED much yet because they don't know who makes the best LEDs, which have only been available for perhaps a year and a half. And with the danger of the DEA coming at you anytime people are not going to be as willing to make the high initial investment into LED (even if it will save them tons in the long run or grow a better product) on a large official/legal level if they might have their operation shut down in the first couple years. That is why all the LED potential is being proven in forums like these and over the next couple years more and more people will adopt. There are a couple warehouse LED grows in Cali I've seen on youtube, but they were using 1w diode stuff I think kinda old tech and they were doing pretty good. LED tech is advancing very rapidly each year, it can grow way better now than a year ago.
Yeah I don't know much about the potential of exotic lighting so I won't say how LED compares to them. But if they are better than HPS then there is a fair chance they are better than LED. I believe I've seen LED that grows higher quality bud than MH/HPS, but I have no idea how it compares to that exotic lighting plasma crazy new stuff coming out.