LED comparable to 1000 watt hps?

Adjorr said:

in that space id say youd need 6 300w units to equal the coverage your getting with the 2 1000w lights. LEDs are great on heat, great for growing but there coverage area is small so you need multiple units to cover an area effectively. I grow with LED myself and I am usually the first one to recommend them to people but for large grow rooms HID lighting is going to be much more cost effective. LEDS are best for small grow rooms. That said if up front cost is not an issue getting 6 200-300w lights would give you essentially the same coverage as you 2 1000w, possibly better yields but at least equal ,and definatly lower cooling energy and bulb replacement costs in the long run. Ive had great results with my direct fro china ebay lights, they work just as well as brand named lights but at a fraction of the price, you just need to know what to look for in a quality light and seller

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tekdc911 said:

watts are watts but led's say 1000w but may only be driven to 900w
i would go with smaller panels like 400-600w it would be a better foot print IMO and then like some 30w led WW floods for side lighting

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ThePerfectGrow said:

Thanks Adjorr, So LED vs HPS is pretty much a watt for watt exchange when were talking necessary coverage, so were not saving necessarily on electrical bill but more so on the overall life of LED lamps and equipment? Am I reading correct?

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ThorGanjason said:

If you want an answer based off of my experience, NO!!!

LEDs just don't quite have the nuts in my opinion. Yes, you can absolutely grow dank bud, but to get the same amount of photosynthesis/sugar production to match a 1000w hps, you would need a hell of a lot of watts worth of LED. Probably like 300-400.

LEDs use much less energy (like a 137 watt LED will equal a 400w hps), and they don't create as much heat so they are much easier to manage an environment with. But like I said, in my personal experience with them I just don't think they will pack as much punch as an hps, and so without one neither will the bud- not until you get it dialed in.

I think the tradeoff for the extra electricity, and extra work dealing with the heat of an hps are worth it.

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Adjorr said:

Its more about the footprint. For example In my setup I have 2 180w units and 1 240w unit in a 2x3 tent, each of my 180w units are equal to a 400w hps but only in a small footprint directly beneath the light, my240w light is equal to a 600w hps but again only in the foot print right beneath it. 3w led units only draw 2w of power per bulb so it roughly works out to 400w of actual power draw putting out enough light to equal in theory 1400w of HID lighting, but each light has only a 2 square foot optimal coverage area where as a 1000w HID would be able to effectively cover twice the space i have. There is no absolute formula to figure out equivalnat wattage between LED and HID most numbers given are just estimates based on how well the light will perform. The real issue to consider is how much space the light needs to cover, with any LED light regardless of wttage or manufacture recommended coverage are you basicly get whats directly uinder the light and about 6 inches in each direction, that's the optimal grow area for the light. Which is why for a larger space such as yours id recommend a minimum of 6 units, essentialy 2 rows of 3 lights spaced roughly a foot apart, that would create the optimal coverage footprint in my opinion as well as providing enough light to equal 2 1000w HPS in yield which u have now. so 6x300w units would be 1800w of LED power at 1200w power draw and would be roughly equal to 3 1000w HPS lights in theory

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