Buds quality LEDs VS HPS

MichiganMedGrower said:

Lol. The energy is turned into light. The heat is a byproduct.

You need the physics lesson. And some basics in electronics would help. I am pretty well versed.

Why do you fight this so hard that you lose your wits about it?

You read threads and blogs and ad copy and show it as justification. I prefer textbooks.

What will you do when light bulb production around the world all goes Led?

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see4 said:

Oddly, I ran with LEDs, about 400w of it in one tent, and the other tent had a single 600w hps bulb. I needed a spot cooler and a vortex fan to control the hps tent, and nothing but some heatsinks and osc. fan in the LED tent. Both had 4 plants. And both produced roughly 360grams of head stash bud.

I hear what you are saying, but real life has dictated different results.

Keeping in mind that 1200w of LED produces much more than 1200w of HPS/MH -- I don't know about CMH, I've never used that bulb, so I can't speak to its performance.

If we are speaking of efficiency only, nothing beats the great outdoors.

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You two must be stupid,i'm done trying to explain physics to you two, i'd advise you two to get some education. Watts are a measurement of energy that energy converts to heat eventually doesn't matter how effective the light is at producing photons, 1 watt is equal to 3.41 btu of heat that's a simple fact and law, arguing till your blue in the fact won't change that.

Yodaweed said:

You two must be stupid,i'm done trying to explain physics to you two, i'd advise you two to get some education. Watts are a measurement of energy that energy converts to heat eventually doesn't matter how effective the light is at producing photons, 1 watt is equal to 3.41 btu of heat that's a simple fact and law, arguing till your blue in the fact won't change that.

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Your troll game isn't very good.

Managing heat from LEDs is much easier than managing heat from HPS lights. There is absolutely no arguing around that. So sorry.

Go smoke some pot dude, your lack of anger management is getting the best of you. Umad.

MichiganMedGrower said:

Hid heat sinks are the ballast fins.

But efficiency does make the heat less.

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Ballast outside the tent only helps a little. Those hps bulbs get hot as fuck. And without an enclosed hood and someway to push/pull the hot air out of the tent, your plants are going to be very unhappy.

MichiganMedGrower said:

Lol. The energy is turned into light. The heat is a byproduct.

You need the physics lesson. And some basics in electronics would help. I am pretty well versed.

Why do you fight this so hard that you lose your wits about it?

You read threads and blogs and ad copy and show it as justification. I prefer textbooks.

What will you do when light bulb production around the world all goes Led?

Click to expand...

He will use his physics to grow his plants. He is the physics master. All bow to thee.

Yodaweed said:

You two must be stupid,i'm done trying to explain physics to you two, i'd advise you two to get some education. Watts are a measurement of energy that energy converts to heat eventually doesn't matter how effective the light is at producing photons, 1 watt is equal to 3.41 btu of heat that's a simple fact and law, arguing till your blue in the fact won't change that.

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You can dumb it down to basic physics as much as you want. There are other factors that make the sources different.

How do you explain a 400 watt mh runs hotter than a 400 watt hps?

I know why. But you argue like a 4th grader. So I’m not going to tell you. Ha ha.

Try communicating instead of trolling for a change.

see4 said:

He will use his physics to grow his plants. He is the physics master. All bow to thee.

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Lol.

I am the devils advocate for both sides of this argument.

There is so much truth and exaggeration from both sides.

I feel all “intellectually” high on this new hybrid my breeder is testing out on me. Super old school fun trippy high. My mind is expanding.

After I shoveled my drive and walkways earlier I took my mountain bike out for a snow romp!

Holy crap! I have been high for hours now on the test bowl.

Ok. I’m an intellectual teenager still.

Let’s all just take a toke or however everyone likes it. I’ll shut up now. This is a terrible babbling post.

see4 said:

Ballast outside the tent only helps a little. Those hps bulbs get hot as fuck. And without an enclosed hood and someway to push/pull the hot air out of the tent, your plants are going to be very unhappy.

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Of course. I have been agreeing about heat and efficiency all along.

I just use glass sealed air cooled hoods. And heat my house in part with the filtered exhaust. Or send it right out the chimney in summer.

I could see the savings with a lot of lights replaced. It goes up proportionately.

But it wouldn’t save me $25 per month in electricity and it could cost me half a tank of propane and additional electric heat unless I run more wattage. I am saving over $600 a year in propane now.

I want a custom 4x4 flowering led lamp with far red and uv a and b and a natural light setting all programmable and I want it for under $600.

Guess I am waiting a while huh.

Why can’t we discuss the right tool for the situation instead?

T-5, mh, hps, cmh, de versions of all. They all work. And they all have pros and cons and even ideal situations.

MichiganMedGrower said:

Of course. I have been agreeing about heat and efficiency all along.

I just use glass sealed air cooled hoods. And heat my house in part with the filtered exhaust. Or send it right out the chimney in summer.

I could see the savings with a lot of lights replaced. It goes up proportionately.

But it wouldn’t save me $25 per month in electricity and it could cost me half a tank of propane and additional electric heat unless I run more wattage. I am saving over $600 a year in propane now.

I want a custom 4x4 flowering led lamp with far red and uv a and b and a natural light setting all programmable and I want it for under $600.

Guess I am waiting a while huh.

Why can’t we discuss the right tool for the situation instead?

T-5, mh, hps, cmh, de versions of all. They all work. And they all have pros and cons and even ideal situations.

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Agree.

Here in AZ, I need to keep things cool as much as possible. Forget growing in June, July, August and most of Sept. HPS is out of the question for me here.

As for a 4x4 flowering led with uv and have it be programmable for under $600 is doable. For sure.

Im about to pull the trigger on buying 10x QB 304 boards, 8x 3000k + 2x 5000k. All for under $300. The meanwell drivers (4 of them) will be about $200. And heatsinks and parts will be about $150. Thats enough to light (3) 4x4 tents.

see4 said:

Agree.

Here in AZ, I need to keep things cool as much as possible. Forget growing in June, July, August and most of Sept. HPS is out of the question for me here.

As for a 4x4 flowering led with uv and have it be programmable for under $600 is doable. For sure.

Im about to pull the trigger on buying 10x QB 304 boards, 8x 3000k + 2x 5000k. All for under $300. The meanwell drivers (4 of them) will be about $200. And heatsinks and parts will be about $150. Thats enough to light (3) 4x4 tents.

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That is cheaper than I expected for all that.


Makes me want to build a small one for a 3x3 veg tent and check it out if it’s only a couple hundred dollars.

The lamp I have that will need replacement soon is my 8 bulb 2’ t-5.

Going to try my 315 in there but it’s a good place for playing with new toys.

This thread needs pics. So here is my veg tent now. What would you suggest for this 3x3 with seedlings to 6 week veg plants?

Preferably something that can grow and flower a full cycle if desired.

It actually has an 8/2 and a 2/2. So 10 aprox. 25 watt bulbs covering all but the left and right 4” or so.



Every 10 day’s or so a new seed is planted and one goes to the flower room.

MichiganMedGrower said:

I have been following your argument and agree with many points but I replace my Hortilux super hps bulbs by 10 months as they have degraded more than I like according to my cheap light meter and how the plants grow.

I have found for best results this is necessary.

Metal halide degrades much faster.

Cmh is supposed to last 2 years but we will see.

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Do you crank them up for the last grow?
When I think a bulb is almost ready to be repalced I run it on "600 plus". Not sure what the actual wattage is, but it's more than 600w. Otherwise I run them at 600 on the dot.
Does it even matter? Is it OK to just run them on the "plus" setting every time?
I really have no idea...

Chunky Stool said:

Do you crank them up for the last grow?
When I think a bulb is almost ready to be repalced I run it on "600 plus". Not sure what the actual wattage is, but it's more than 600w. Otherwise I run them at 600 on the dot.
Does it even matter? Is it OK to just run them on the "plus" setting every time?
I really have no idea...

Click to expand...

I don’t. I just save them for emergencies and fill ins.

I have read that you can get the light back out of them with the boost but Hortilux shows what dimming does to the spectrum and I am assuming boosting changes it too.

I don’t really know if it hurts the ballast any. Good question. And I wonder if it can explode a weak bulb?

MichiganMedGrower said:

I don’t. I just save them for emergencies and fill ins.

I have read that you can get the light back out of them with the boost but Hortilux shows what dimming does to the spectrum and I am assuming boosting changes it too.

I don’t really know if it hurts the ballast any. Good question. And I wonder if it can explode a weak bulb?

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I've only had one HPS bulb die completely -- and it wasn't pretty. Looked like the guts melted near the base.

My lumatek ballast has a setting for 430w, which I assume is boost mode for a 400w bulb?

MichiganMedGrower said:

That is cheaper than I expected for all that.


Makes me want to build a small one for a 3x3 veg tent and check it out if it’s only a couple hundred dollars.

The lamp I have that will need replacement soon is my 8 bulb 2’ t-5.

Going to try my 315 in there but it’s a good place for playing with new toys.

This thread needs pics. So here is my veg tent now. What would you suggest for this 3x3 with seedlings to 6 week veg plants?

Preferably something that can grow and flower a full cycle if desired.

It actually has an 8/2 and a 2/2. So 10 aprox. 25 watt bulbs covering all but the left and right 4” or so.

View attachment 4055624

Every 10 day’s or so a new seed is planted and one goes to the flower room.

Click to expand...

Pics, you ask? This is what I use in a 2.5'x2.5' tent. Four QB120 Quantum Boards ($125 with free shipping at Amazon) powered by a Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100A ($60 with free shipping at Arrow). Dimmable from 254 to 83 watts. A tad light for a 3x3, but perhaps something similar would do the trick.

The whole fixture, including QBs, driver, aluminum, wire, screws, and bolts cost me less than $250.

Chunky Stool said:

My lumatek ballast has a setting for 430w, which I assume is boost mode for a 400w bulb?

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Actually you can run the old famous 430 hps bulbs. I think Hortilux makes one too. Was it Phillips green power or something? Popular in Europe.

Humple said:

Pics, you ask? This is what I use in a 2.5'x2.5' tent.View attachment 4055707 Four QB120 Quantum Boards ($125 with free shipping at Amazon) powered by a Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100A ($60 with free shipping at Arrow). Dimmable from 254 to 83 watts. A tad light for a 3x3, but perhaps something similar would do the trick.

The whole fixture, including QBs, driver, aluminum, wire, screws, and bolts cost me less than $250.

Click to expand...

You should 315 that bitch!!!!!! 315's the new BBB!!!

Humple said:

Pics, you ask? This is what I use in a 2.5'x2.5' tent.View attachment 4055707 Four QB120 Quantum Boards ($125 with free shipping at Amazon) powered by a Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100A ($60 with free shipping at Arrow). Dimmable from 254 to 83 watts. A tad light for a 3x3, but perhaps something similar would do the trick.

The whole fixture, including QBs, driver, aluminum, wire, screws, and bolts cost me less than $250.

Click to expand...

Nice! Thank you for all that. Only $100 more than what I have now (that is a bit light for the tent) and no more replacement tubes.

I would size up especially with the dimmer. I am definitely more open to a full spectrum light for veg.

a mongo frog said:

You should 315 that bitch!!!!!! 315's the new BBB!!!

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That’s what I’m doing with my 315 and 3x3 next. Already have that lamp.

MichiganMedGrower said:

That’s what I’m doing with my 315 and 3x3 next. Already have that lamp.

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I got one about 3 months ago for some vegging I'm doing. Couldn't be more happier. 4200 bulb is insane growth!!! All the hype is real!!!

MichiganMedGrower said:

Nice! Thank you for all that. Only $100 more than what I have now (that is a bit light for the tent) and no more replacement tubes.

I would size up especially with the dimmer. I am definitely more open to a full spectrum light for veg.

Click to expand...

It's amazing what a difference half a foot can make. At 40w per square foot, I'm actually on the high end of what's recommended for these boards. Though I've seen QB growers have flowered as low as 25w per square foot, that just sounds so low to me. Then again, wattage isn't the best metric for growing. Maybe one of these days I'll get one of those HydroFarm meters so I can really dial it in.