Hydro Grow Leds posts $5000 Challenge to HID Growers!!!

• To provide a fair and equal evaluation, free of any opportunity for Customer to skew the results in favor of either lighting system, of LED vs High Intensity Discharge (HID) grow lights.

• To prove that LEDs from HYDRO GROW are superior to HID grow lights for indoor horticulture.

• To provide anyone who can prove that HID grow lights produce a higher yield compared to an equal wattage LED grow light system from HYDRO GROW, a $5,000 award.

• Customer must supply a HID grow light system including ballast, bulb and reflector within 10% the drawn wattage of the LED grow light system. The HID may be either Metal Halide (MH) or High Pressure Sodium (HPS) and the drawn wattage must be measured and documented (via a photo) with a kill-a-watt power meter. Each light system will grow one group of plants (a “Group”).

• The total power consumed by the LED system must be greater than 200 watts, may not exceed 1500 watts and must be documented with the same kill-a-watt power meter in the previous section.

• Customer must have separate rooms, tents, or a room divided in such a way that light from one lighting system does not mix with the other.

• Customer must document the results from each light with a Brinno time lapse camera, available from HYDRO GROW.

• Customer is may choose between self-pollinating tomatoes, beans or peas, or medicinal cannabis for the test. Self-pollinating plants must have a fan blowing across the entire Group (side to side) for the entire duration of the test.

• Customer must start an equal number of clones taken from the same mother plant on the same day, to be placed under each light system. Customer must start 50% more plants than will be used for the flowering stage. At the time the flowering stage begins, Customer must remove the smallest/weakest half of the plants from each Group so that an equal number of strong plants from each group remain under each light system.

• Customer must use the same growing method and style of light for both Groups (IE: vertical farming vs vertical farming, sea of green vs sea of green).

• Customer ensures all conditions (unless directed by HYDRO GROW) will remain even between the plant Groups, including but not limited to growing media, number of plants, age of plants, temperature, humidity, co2, nutrient parts per million (ppm), total dissolved solids (tds), electrical conductivity (ec), nutrient feeding rates, duration of lighting, etc…

• Customer must keep a daily log of feeding times, amounts, nutrient mix, ambient temperature (with lights on), humidity, CO2 (if enrichment is used) and light duration in hours. Customer must take at least six high resolution photos, ten megapixels or higher, of each Group no less than once every 10 days. Customer is required to post their log and photos to an online forum at a frequency of no less than once every ten days. Customer must supply a link to the forum posting to HYDRO GROW.

• The online forum must be in the same genre as the species of plants used for the test (ie: tomato grows are posted to a tomato or vegetable forum). Customer is advised to obtain pre-approval of their forum choice from HYDRO GROW.

• All plants from each Group must be harvested on the same day. Final weight of harvest will be measured at time of harvest and must be documented via video (the entire cut & weighing of each plant from each Group individually) posted to the online forum within 3 days of harvest. If the plants grown are of a flowering variety, they must be weighed a second time one week after harvest to ensure proper drying has taken place. Both weights must be posted to the online forum within 1 day from being weighed.

• Each time the Brinno is stopped to have the batteries changed, Customer will post the elapsed video to the online forum and send a copy to HYDRO GROW. At the end of the test Customer has the option to combine all videos into one, or make the request of HYDRO GROW to perform this task. Should Customer ask HYDRO GROW, the video will be combined and returned to Customer within 3 business days. Customer must post the final combined video must to the online forum within 10 days of the harvest date.

fortheloveofgreen209 said:

I am curious how much your electric bill is bigbud. In my area, electricity tops out at $.35 per kwh. That would be monstrous electic bill to power 2 1000w HPS plus fans and A/C.

Even one 600w HPS boosted my bill to over $600 a month. I am hoping my switch to a LED gets my utilities back in the $450 to $475 range.

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az2000 said:

FYI, one of the most knowledgeable members just posted an efficiency chart (<<link) which shows HydroGrowLED Sol near the bottom of the list. I don't know what LEDs HGL uses. I don't think you do either. But, it's my belief that all these guys (HGL, Blackdog, GrowBlu, Lush) are just rebranded Chinese imports sold at a premium with a lot of glitzy web-page "come on." I'm sure they grow well. But, I believe a side-by-side with TopLED/LG/MarsHydro (I wish they'd settle on a name) would reveal they're not much improved.

And then there's the drama HGL and its owner are renowned for. If the lights laid golden eggs I could understand using them. But, they don't seem like anything special.

I'm not going to heckle you with back/forth posts. I urge others not to either. Just wanted to contribute another data point.

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keebo3000 said:

i want to 420 as it was suggested and found an interesting grow journal with a test grow that put HGL against Haight..... the results aren't even close........

View attachment 3256363

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fortheloveofgreen209 said:

I am curious how much your electric bill is bigbud. In my area, electricity tops out at $.35 per kwh. That would be monstrous electic bill to power 2 1000w HPS plus fans and A/C.

Even one 600w HPS boosted my bill to over $600 a month. I am hoping my switch to a LED gets my utilities back in the $450 to $475 range.

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keebo3000 said:

I see now that they posted rules and regulations on IC mag figured I'd post here.



Here are the basics of the Challenge. For full rules and regulations, email [email protected]

TO BE ELIGIBLE - All growers must purchase (with the option for return) a 2014 X2 or SOL LED grow light.

PURPOSE

• To provide a fair and equal evaluation, free of any opportunity for Customer to skew the results in favor of either lighting system, of LED vs High Intensity Discharge (HID) grow lights.

• To prove that LEDs from HYDRO GROW are superior to HID grow lights for indoor horticulture.

• To provide anyone who can prove that HID grow lights produce a higher yield compared to an equal wattage LED grow light system from HYDRO GROW, a $5,000 award.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

• Customer must supply a HID grow light system including ballast, bulb and reflector within 10% the drawn wattage of the LED grow light system. The HID may be either Metal Halide (MH) or High Pressure Sodium (HPS) and the drawn wattage must be measured and documented (via a photo) with a kill-a-watt power meter. Each light system will grow one group of plants (a “Group”).

• The total power consumed by the LED system must be greater than 200 watts, may not exceed 1500 watts and must be documented with the same kill-a-watt power meter in the previous section.

• Customer must have separate rooms, tents, or a room divided in such a way that light from one lighting system does not mix with the other.

• Customer must document the results from each light with a Brinno time lapse camera, available from HYDRO GROW.

• Customer is may choose between self-pollinating tomatoes, beans or peas, or medicinal cannabis for the test. Self-pollinating plants must have a fan blowing across the entire Group (side to side) for the entire duration of the test.

• Customer must start an equal number of clones taken from the same mother plant on the same day, to be placed under each light system. Customer must start 50% more plants than will be used for the flowering stage. At the time the flowering stage begins, Customer must remove the smallest/weakest half of the plants from each Group so that an equal number of strong plants from each group remain under each light system.

• Customer must use the same growing method and style of light for both Groups (IE: vertical farming vs vertical farming, sea of green vs sea of green).

• Customer ensures all conditions (unless directed by HYDRO GROW) will remain even between the plant Groups, including but not limited to growing media, number of plants, age of plants, temperature, humidity, co2, nutrient parts per million (ppm), total dissolved solids (tds), electrical conductivity (ec), nutrient feeding rates, duration of lighting, etc…

• Customer must keep a daily log of feeding times, amounts, nutrient mix, ambient temperature (with lights on), humidity, CO2 (if enrichment is used) and light duration in hours. Customer must take at least six high resolution photos, ten megapixels or higher, of each Group no less than once every 10 days. Customer is required to post their log and photos to an online forum at a frequency of no less than once every ten days. Customer must supply a link to the forum posting to HYDRO GROW.

• The online forum must be in the same genre as the species of plants used for the test (ie: tomato grows are posted to a tomato or vegetable forum). Customer is advised to obtain pre-approval of their forum choice from HYDRO GROW.

• All plants from each Group must be harvested on the same day. Final weight of harvest will be measured at time of harvest and must be documented via video (the entire cut & weighing of each plant from each Group individually) posted to the online forum within 3 days of harvest. If the plants grown are of a flowering variety, they must be weighed a second time one week after harvest to ensure proper drying has taken place. Both weights must be posted to the online forum within 1 day from being weighed.

• Each time the Brinno is stopped to have the batteries changed, Customer will post the elapsed video to the online forum and send a copy to HYDRO GROW. At the end of the test Customer has the option to combine all videos into one, or make the request of HYDRO GROW to perform this task. Should Customer ask HYDRO GROW, the video will be combined and returned to Customer within 3 business days. Customer must post the final combined video must to the online forum within 10 days of the harvest date.

BEST OF LUCK

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bigbudheadshrimp said:

Nice ODanksta. Look I am totally for LED if they lower my cost per gram. I have business ventures in Washington involving a fairly large op (40kw). Currently have multiple partners with various 10kw grows designed by me. Each one is exactly the same as the last and all are super easy and cheap to scale into 100+kw grows. Current model is costing us after all expenses (All, even payroll) a little over $0.50 per gram on average. None has run up costs over $0.60 per gram. This was done on purpose in SoCal which doesn't exactly have the cheapest utilities or realty. Sort of like a trial by fire. All grows are fully run by noobs only (again to test how viable unskilled labor is) who I literally thought to grow using my methods within 3-5 days. And by teach I mean from how to root a clone to how to operate the T2 and T4 trimmers we use and proper dry cure methods using standardized methods and calibrated equipment ( all is monkey see monkey do, a la fast food staff style). All to a noob in 3-5 days. Did I mention I was a complete noob, didn't even smoke, less than a year ago. I started my first grow in December of last year. A 6kw grow my first time out and guess what hit 1.7lb/light out the gate of product that got me $2,400/lb here in San Diego.

The secret? I have family who own a huge fabrication plant, we built several 10kw fully modular, portable, and completely self contained grow rooms all built exactly the same, all built for $15,000 a piece, all with the goal of total operating costs of less than $20,000 a year. This is for 5 totally complete cycles a year. Rooted clones to buds curing in jars.

So far we have achieved all of our goals and some So... I welcome LED but only if it lowers operating costs enough to warrant replacement of current lighting systems.

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ODanksta said:

Well its sound good on paper "interwebs" but its just another marketing scheme, unfortunately this industry is plagued by junk as products. I have a buddy that dropped thousands on some solar storms. His plants and yields sucked balls. Your plants actually look really good from all the LED plants I have seen. The only thing is yes the your plants look very healty (btw great job) but I still highly doubt that could ever pull quarter pound buds from a LED, I noticed they said either SOG or vert. But what about tree farming? Thats cool they said you can return them, but I seriously doubt that. Maybe I am just hating for no reason, but I have yet to be blown away from LEDS.. But now with HID's I have! One guy that still stands out is Doubled's 42 lbs from 10k RDWC grow. He was on this site briefly just to reply a couple of times. But seriously that would be physically impossible from LEDS

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ODanksta said:

Doubleds 42 lb grow....View attachment 3257024View attachment 3257025

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bigbudheadshrimp said:

Nice ODanksta. Look I am totally for LED if they lower my cost per gram. I have business ventures in Washington involving a fairly large op (40kw). Currently have multiple partners with various 10kw grows designed by me. Each one is exactly the same as the last and all are super easy and cheap to scale into 100+kw grows. Current model is costing us after all expenses (All, even payroll) a little over $0.50 per gram on average. None has run up costs over $0.60 per gram. This was done on purpose in SoCal which doesn't exactly have the cheapest utilities or realty. Sort of like a trial by fire. All grows are fully run by noobs only (again to test how viable unskilled labor is) who I literally thought to grow using my methods within 3-5 days. And by teach I mean from how to root a clone to how to operate the T2 and T4 trimmers we use and proper dry cure methods using standardized methods and calibrated equipment ( all is monkey see monkey do, a la fast food staff style). All to a noob in 3-5 days. Did I mention I was a complete noob, didn't even smoke, less than a year ago. I started my first grow in December of last year. A 6kw grow my first time out and guess what hit 1.7lb/light out the gate of product that got me $2,400/lb here in San Diego.

The secret? I have family who own a huge fabrication plant, we built several 10kw fully modular, portable, and completely self contained grow rooms all built exactly the same, all built for $15,000 a piece, all with the goal of total operating costs of less than $20,000 a year. This is for 5 totally complete cycles a year. Rooted clones to buds curing in jars.

So far we have achieved all of our goals and some So... I welcome LED but only if it lowers operating costs enough to warrant replacement of current lighting systems.

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cassinfo said:

I'm running led vs HID at the moment myself for my own curiousty. All pineapple Autoflowers. Half of the room 400 watt hps the other half a 357 magnum led. The hps is doing better in my opinion, but all are healthy.

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tokingtiger said:

um, the test is very unequal.. LED lights are rated like CFL.. if you have a 400w LED, you actually have a 220W LED so you should have 2 of them to be same electric as a 400w HPS... this Is why people do not understand LED's.. they refuse to Understand them in the least. In an experiment.. you cannot honestly compare 200watts of LED to 400watts of HPS or.. 400 like watts of cfl.. actual watt draw is what you need to be equal to be scientifically right.

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Red1966 said:

Hydrogrowled produces a vertical LED. Here's a link to it..........http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-420X-PRO-Vertical-Grow-Light/dp/B007TYCGI4

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