The LED Plunge- What's ideal!?!

HiloReign

HiloReign

Well-Known Member
Aloha from the rainy town of Hilo, as you've read I am looking to convert from CFLs to LED. I have been all over the internet for the past 3 months and I thought asking the community I gather much information from would be the best place to ask: I have a 5'2"x20"x36" area but am not looking to fit that requirement. Rather, 140 and under wattage and ~$250 price limit, due to high electricity costs and insufficient funding.

I have been looking at the 180w Blackstar and it seems to be the frontrunner. I am unsure of how I feel about LED products from China, dealing with warranties/shipping/etc. I wanted to stick to a US seller as much as possible. Thank you kindly for reading and much more for replying!

EDIT: I realize the 140w limit may be misleading but from what I read a 180w Blackstar actually draws ~135w. I was hoping someone could also shed a bit of light on this also.
 
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wadz

Member
If you want USA led up your budget. californialightworks.com google solarstorm/solarflare. im not 100 but 98% sure every single other led is made from china. think black dogs are usa also.
Blackstar=Apollo google cidly led or do more research cause under this forum there is alot of useful info on blackstar+led companies in general.
 
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wadz

Member
about your wattage. look at it this way. apollo/blackstar chrome 4spot.. theres 4 circle modules that hold 15 led's in each. the led are 3w diodes.. 15x3=45watts per module. 45x4=180watts.
NOW sense you understand that. read closely to this...

a 3watt diode isnt using 3watts. they can. but for longevity/efficiency my spelling sucks probably sorry :) so thats when actual wattage draw comes in. if your led are driven at 1.5watts. so back to our example. the chrome 4spot blackstar has 60 LED's total. if each LED is 1.5watt. the LEDS are using 90watts power from wall. but you also need to think about fans.powersupply they take wattage also.. i hope i helped, and i hope im right on my info i told you. lol im new to led also but we learn as we go right?
 
HiloReign

HiloReign

Well-Known Member
Thank you for replying. I understand the power distribution but it seems every two weeks or so I stumble upon some unknown LED resource and I made this post in order not to get caught up in old information. I'm looking for something within my set limits, which is again why I made this post.

As far as those solarflare/storm units go, from what I understand 5w diodes are overkill and aren't yet developed enough to compare to the efficiency of 3w diodes. With a low budget and an electric bill 4x the price of the national average, power consumption and efficiency are key for me.
 
XuOut

XuOut

Well-Known Member
HiloReign said:
Thank you for replying. I understand the power distribution but it seems every two weeks or so I stumble upon some unknown LED resource and I made this post in order not to get caught up in old information. I'm looking for something within my set limits, which is again why I made this post.

As far as those solarflare/storm units go, from what I understand 5w diodes are overkill and aren't yet developed enough to compare to the efficiency of 3w diodes. With a low budget and an electric bill 4x the price of the national average, power consumption and efficiency are key for me.
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Hi,
I switched from a 400 watt MH/HPS system to 1 90 watt ufo for vegging and 2 180 watt blackstar led's for vegging. I made the switch because I live in Las Vegas and had to run a sepurate AC to keep the plant room cool and my power bill was too high. That being said, I am yielding less than half with the LED's than I was with the MH/HPS system. If you can afford to run real lights, I would suggest doing that. I'm going to be running LED's in the summer and HPS in the winter from now on.
 
yesum

yesum

Well-Known Member
It looks as though Blackstar is all you can afford. They have a good rep though, just get the flower model and veg with it too. If I was in Hawaii I would sure like to grow with the intense outdoor sun, but guess you can not.

I have HGL LED's and they are made in China, but work good. Had to replace a power unit on one but the seller sent it to me free.
 
$waGgEr

$waGgEr

Active Member
LeD will giv u results like your ClF's...for about 10 times the money...

there are a few LeD trolls arround here but by in larg most growers dont and wont use em.
 
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wadz

Member
HiloReign said:
As far as those solarflare/storm units go, from what I understand 5w diodes are overkill and aren't yet developed enough to compare to the efficiency of 3w diodes. With a low budget and an electric bill 4x the price of the national average, power consumption and efficiency are key for me.
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you should do some more research. we all would love to have 5watt diodes. but atm. its 2 diodes put together to come to 5watt. and there driven very efficient. in led market. you need penetration. this comes from lens+diodes. you run 1watt diodes your buds are airy 14"down plant. you use 3watt wich arent pushed at 3.. you dont get airy until 18"+. TRUE SINGLE 5watt diodes would put us Very Very much closer to exact HID results.. read some more threads or check some videos on youtube.. This is the outcome with this HID Vs LED..
Every video you watch HPS produces MORE overall FLOWER. but for example the video on HGL site shows a 200w 3watt diode LED going against a 400HID.. at wall HID draws 438watts all the time.. the LED is using 208... thats 238 less watts per second..now end result is like a 8gram difference with HPS on top of course. but look at the quality of bud.. the LED is x3 frosted up. so for a 8gram difference and 238 less watts and BETTER bud id say LED is pretty legit. 5watt diodes will pump us VERY CLOSE to hid numbers.. and also theres 100's of hps vs led videos but the 20 non shit ones you find. all have hps winning in final GRAM WEIGHT. but that isnt everything to some of us. bills+quality mean alot also
 
brahbrahbinks

brahbrahbinks

Member
[FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]If I had the money I'd go for an Apache Tech for three reasons:
1) They're made in the USA
2)They're backed by NASA (seriously no joke)
3) They're light output to wattage ratio is phenomenal. There's a vid circulating around YouTube where they test the par rating side by side with a Stealth Grow600 and according to the meter their 120 watt matches it and I think might even surpass the light output.
That being said the cheapest price I can find it for it 800 way out of your price range.

Id also recommend a kessil 350. I got 2 plants under veg on 1 right now so you can follow along and decide for yourself.[/FONT]
 
HiloReign

HiloReign

Well-Known Member
I appreciate all the responses and opinions. You've all helped steer me right to China! Apollo 4 (maybe 6) will most likely be my choice of LED from Cidly. This model fits my specifications quite perfectly... Minus the whole Made in China thing. Thank you again for all the responses, any more are still welcome!
 
HiloReign

HiloReign

Well-Known Member
wadz said:
you should do some more research. we all would love to have 5watt diodes. but atm. its 2 diodes put together to come to 5watt. and there driven very efficient. in led market. you need penetration. this comes from lens+diodes. you run 1watt diodes your buds are airy 14"down plant. you use 3watt wich arent pushed at 3.. you dont get airy until 18"+. TRUE SINGLE 5watt diodes would put us Very Very much closer to exact HID results.. read some more threads or check some videos on youtube.. This is the outcome with this HID Vs LED..
Every video you watch HPS produces MORE overall FLOWER. but for example the video on HGL site shows a 200w 3watt diode LED going against a 400HID.. at wall HID draws 438watts all the time.. the LED is using 208... thats 238 less watts per second..now end result is like a 8gram difference with HPS on top of course. but look at the quality of bud.. the LED is x3 frosted up. so for a 8gram difference and 238 less watts and BETTER bud id say LED is pretty legit. 5watt diodes will pump us VERY CLOSE to hid numbers.. and also theres 100's of hps vs led videos but the 20 non shit ones you find. all have hps winning in final GRAM WEIGHT. but that isnt everything to some of us. bills+quality mean alot also
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I believe stacking diodes was something I was told to stay away from and I also do believe that true 5w diodes are indeed being made but only by Cree and Phillips (Luxeon Line). Being the only two companies out there with true 5w diodes (who are also the only ones who dissipate their heat correctly) I can say this- there will be duplicates. Not to mention how a lot of LED is advertised as Xwatts and it really is Ywatts i.e: 3w diodes running at 1.5.

http://californialightworks.com/Products_SolarFlare.htm

Here is the 200w SolarFlare. It runs as 165w (as they clearly state in the product specifications) and for lack of better knowledge, I'd love to know where the other 35w go. I can run 5 120mm CPU fans at less than 15w. Unless there is an inline fan or other equipment that needs power, I see a little bit of a disconnect. Is this where running the diodes at less than full capacity comes in?
 
hölynpöly

hölynpöly

Member
Gnomercy said:
Dont forget http://www.htgsupply.com/Category-LED-Grow-Lights.asp as well. They manufacture their own from the 135w to 854w 7-band.. and the nice thing is those are true watts, and not the max power that has to be stated like Blackstar etc., because they don't sell to distributors. 60degree diodes and a good price Id say
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There is so many things wrong in this statement that I don´t know where to start.

They seem to have many kind of lights for sale. Some are VERY old. Some are new like their so called agromax pro series Which you can order from Cidly with a reduced price and custom made leds. True Watts?? Not in those rectangular panels at least. I didn´t find anything about 60 degree lenses in the ones I checked...
 
Gnomercy

Gnomercy

Active Member
hölynpöly;7300479 said:
There is so many things wrong in this statement that I don´t know where to start.

They seem to have many kind of lights for sale. Some are VERY old. Some are new like their so called agromax pro series Which you can order from Cidly with a reduced price and custom made leds. True Watts?? Not in those rectangular panels at least. I didn´t find anything about 60 degree lenses in the ones I checked...
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You are correct, they do sell some versions from Cidleys, but they also manufacture the above stated 7 bands. If you call them on the phone (and I have) they will explain which ones they manufacture (the black ones) and will also explain about true watts and what has to go on the label of most LED's. anywho, take it for what you will, I dig HTG, some super nice folks.
 
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