LED lights in Canada.

AquaTerra said:

Problem wit LED is how do I tell someone who want to just grow 4 legal plant that they need to spend $1300+tax on an LED light or even $700 lol

Click to expand...

Yeah man, over here all the small hydro shops avoid them for that reason. The big guys have a lot of options, some of which are massively overpriced and underperforming.

Thought of another company last night, hortibloom. They are a china company and may drop ship, bit more cost effective but still dear as is all LED worth using. They were an advertiser on here, not sure if they still are though.
They do bar lights now which seems to be the current trend.

I think my next light purchase will have to be an LED, I just recently switched back to my 600 hps from the 315 cmh. I'd love to have something that is a true replacement that's more energy efficient, but for a small grower with 2 lights, saving money on electricity is moot when your quality and yield drop substantially. I was pretty gung ho about the change over at first and had some lofty expectations, but after 3 grows I think I've given them a fair shot.

If anyone has real world evidence of a quality LED that is a true replacement for a 600 hps I'd love to see some input, but a $1500 - $2500 replacement for a $250 hps is just not even realistic for a guy paying out of pocket for equipment. I'd have to save for months, maybe even years to save $40/month on electricity.

Im running 7 4' QG leds strips 48 w ea.They do a nice job.New price is crazy @$160 ea.I got mine used @$500 for 7 of them.3 crops in Im over a gram per watt in a 5x5 room.Not sure how long theyll last but im a hps guy and im impressed.

I run x2 4x8's for flowering and had x2 600's per tent and wasn't happy with the yields and quality compared to the days of my 1k's. Just didn't want to deal with the heat, AC, and power management issues trying to juggle 1k's in tents again... I rent my place so I'm not able to install a mini-split or subpanel, hence going with something around 600w. Anywho.... Dropped $2400 on x4 dual bulb CMH fixtures with the phillips bulbs as I heard how much "cooler" they ran and how they blew 600's out of the water. Bullshit. Not impressed. Now I had lights that I couldn't air cool. Good quality, just again, not worth the price.

Last house had an unfinished basement so it made cooling easier running a passive setup in northern alberta ambients. Now we've moved, basement is finished, and the window banger was struggling to keep shit at 75F. Running passive I was at 85F.

Decided to try going LED to cut down on the temps. Dropped $2k CAD on x2 Meijiu A8-650w 8 bar panels off Alibaba. Cut my temps down to 77F with no AC, and x2 CMH still pounding in the opposite tent. For me its worth it to have x4 less bulbs running hotter than hades. I could easily cut out the other x2 CMH and be running an additional x4 of these panels without turning on my AC (if I dump another $4k). I don't have a PAR meter. Best I can do is a lux app. Ya ya, i know. Regardless these panels are doing the same output at 60% as my CMH are doing. And they're doing it with next to no heat. The catch? Dealing with the fuckshow due to one of the lights showing up damaged and having a chinese sales rep convince you that a 2% discount on your next order is the best they can do to rectify the situation.

Point I'm getting at is that if you have a few dollars to spend, then LED is definitely worth it... But I'm first in line to find a dealer in North America that can provide some customer support and a light that isn't twice the cost of these ones. The lights were only $550, but the shipping was $200 USD each... I'm no lighting expert, but I was seeing mainstream LED panels going for 2k-3k so to pay 1k for a chinese brand was worth the risk to me. The industry needs to hit a point where its financially feasible for people to get their feet wet with something that IS comparable to what they've been using for decades. Sorry for the novel, just my input.

Customer send me a photo testing a Sf 4000 next to Gavitas. I'll get more photos later. Week 3ish. He says they're the same size growth so far. Will have to wait for the crop out.

The SF led's are getting some traction even with bigger growers now. Mostly to do with costat $800 its way more affordable than $1600-1800 per panel for "horticultural" or "craft" lol brands

Most of my sales came from making an add a few months back on FB market place lol and Craigslist,

Have a 25 lighter guy thinking of the SF4000 for next build as his buddy got 1Lb+ out of a 2x4 area with the SF 2000.

Will see how the Gavita Vs SF4000 test goes but so far they are looking identical. The SF 4000 did bleach the top a little so had to be raised up.

If the SF 4000 can be had for $600 tax in with certification like ETL or CUL I could sell those all day long.