Hi. This is my first post
I've read what everyone has said. I admire that the all parties involved in insults or the perception of insults, all made 'peas' with each other. I'm not used to seeing that on forums, so good job
I have been a major player in secret with LED's in the diy grow scene. I made water cooled LED arrays and am lucky enough to have many many EldoLed Drivers (100w, 108w really). I bought many of the 100w Warm, Cool and neutral white Chinese led's. I run each 100w chip at 36w and keep them cooler than any air cooled unit ever can hope to get close to. I'm using aluminum 1/16th inch wall 1"x2" rectangular tube with plates welded to the ends and machined for 3/8" pipe thread for fittings to connect hoses. I've tried many different hoses. Literally garden hoses. Let me tell you, they work terribly! Then I got into PEX which is really the way to go! PEX over barbed fittings is nasty to work with. I bought 100 sharkbite rip-offs for $2 each... yes... they leak
Anyway, I never felt like I had a true test going even though I flowered 2 rooms 3 times each running just these LED's. A time or 2 I added 1 central HPS 400, 600 or 1000... don't recall. Bottom line, I never had amazing results as far as yield. I've always been such an experimenter doing massive changes to where the scientific method couldn't be applied to understand cause and effect with so many variables.
Without question, the white LED's veg very well! All plants appeared to do well in flower, but the flowers never got huge. So bottom line, I want to keep making and using more LED, but I have concerns for the outcome. I ordered 1 100W chip of the new full spectrum Phosphor, and 200 3W (2.36W really!) to play with. At the very least, they will be the same as the whites, but look way more exciting! That's the only guarantee I expect.
I can't say how many thousands of dollars I've spent on LED. Over 10 probably. Each driver I use sells for over $200. The white LED's put out a full spectrum as far as I can tell! They are far cheaper. These LED's are all blue under the phosphor, some UV supposedly. So adding essentially a filter is the difference we're talking about. So white led's vs. these new full spectrum chips just take a blue led and add a filter for the light to go through essentially. I'm not a light science engineer, just a mechanical. But I don't expect to be amazed. I'm still hopeful though, and I would love if people could share more useful results!
I would also like to challenge Nachoo on the point about far red. I agree that it is best on it's own timer, and can decrease dark time and increase light time in a 24 hour period for more flower-photosynthesis time. However more far-red during lights-on is the Emerson-Effect! Why on earth would you not want this? This is a selling point of the Ushio-Pro_plus and the Gavita-Plasma! 730+ combined with 660nm wavelengths have been shown to increase photosynthesis multiple times over. Far red LED's are some of the most expensive LED's there are, so separate chips just for far red isn't something very possible for entire rooms- that I have seen.
So a little more about my previous set up.
1. They are all on the shelf not in use. I am using DE HPS at the moment.
2. I built about 10 kW of LED lighting on 6' long water cooled rails each totaling 500W. I ran them on 220 mostly.
3. I rent. I hate it more than anything, and can only imagine how amazing these could be if you owned the home you use them in! All that transferable heat! Heat up a pool or a hot tub, or radiant floor heat! Geothermal cooling as an option too!
4. I wish as far as the whites go that I had only ever purchased the warm whites! Obviously better for flower, and no problem for veg!
5. I did actually buy 100 3W far red LED's and glue them to the tubes. About 20 per tube. I had them on a separate circuit. I never used them on their own timer though. I still have some tubes with these glued to them, but not yet wired. It's a lot of annoying soldering.
6. The most LED power I've ever ran was 8 of these rails of 500W each. So 4kW in a 12x12 room with a canopy about 8'x8'.
7. My best account of lm/W manufacturer claim was 90. To truly test these would be difficult. There are some true principles however that make me believe I was having some of the most efficient light. Cooling LED's increases their lm/W as does under-driving them i.e. 100w chips run at 36w. I believe I was getting about 130 lm/w. I claim totally based on my opinion and believe to be clear. I ran my water circuit through a heat exchanger box connected to inline ducting that kept my led's cool to the touch in steady state conditions! If I decided to change the 5 gal res bucket for the cooling, my led's got to 60°F immediately and would draw moisture from the air on the rails!
8. When I own a home, these will see use again in a much more impressive way. It is a heck of a lot to set up at a rental with inspections at any point! A sad reality still. (Just graduated with ME degree, so hopefully a home sooner than later
).
9. LED's are only going to get more efficient. It's where the indoor grow lighting is headed in the future in my opinion. Early adopters are the ones on the line here still. And since we are, please share the results and best practices!
imo: cooling is the way to go. Also do not believe any hype about led's! Claims of running cooler, or needing less power are all crap! HPS and well done LED are both about 120 lm/W! So why would anyone ever think they can get away with using so much less LED and getting the same results? Because of the profit motive and greed.. It leads to a lot of deception in all areas, which is why education is key. All subject of lighting for indoor growing falls into 2 categories: "Heat Transfer" and "Botany". Read text books on those subjects to never be fooled. I have yet to read a botany text book, and I really want to. ...only so much time.
