LED's.Are They Worth the Money?

recently i have started to give LED's a thought again because they have gotten less expensive in the last couple years. upon looking at the cost to reward ratio of LED lighting i believe that on paper these things have it all. More lumens, much less heat, annual savings on power costs, bulb life. It would appear thru the claims the maufacturers make that these UFO's out perform regular HID lighting in all categories. Is there anyone out there that has bitten the bullet and spent the dough and can shed some light on this topic? i really would like to know if LED lighting lives up to the hype? Peace!

I have. I bought a 140 watt veg light and a 280 watt flowering light from a guy on ebay who custom makes them, he says he uses the finest quality everything in these lights. They cost me £1200 but im hoping the results will speak for themselves.

I will be doing a journal in about 2-3 weeks when i plant my first seed

leds dont put out more lumens, they put out the specific wavelengths plants absorb....or so they say, most of them are made from a inferior bulb that technically is in the right wavelength, since the ones that are actually at the right wavelength for growing are more expensive, the factories in china(and most likely most of the factories in the world) where they mass produce most of the "led grow lights" youll see use the cheap ones so they can make even more money.So You have to be very careful of who you buy it from.

darkdestruction420 said:

leds dont put out more lumens, they put out the specific wavelengths plants absorb....or so they say, most of them are made from a inferior bulb that technically is in the right wavelength, since the ones that are actually at the right wavelength for growing and are more expensive, so the factories in china(and most likely most of the factories in the world) where they mass produce most of the "led grow lights" youll see use the cheap ones so they can make even more money.So You have to be very careful of who you buy it from.

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Agree with this and thats why i have put my trust in these custom made ones, yes they are very expensive but im hoping to reap the rewards.

i havent used em as every1 av asked has basically said there sh*t thy dont give enough heat or lumens thyl flower but what a waste when ya yield could be much better with a 600 watt hps

First, I have only grown with LED's and CFL's. At this point I feel LED's are promising and have achieved reasonable results with them, BUT they have always been supplemented with CFL's during the grow. I have never grown a plant with LED only. I now have a magenta Kessil and plan to try an LED only grow to see what happens. I'll post the results, (will try to grow something about 4 ft tall as a test).

Yeah, I'll weigh in here...I use LEDs independently as well as mixed with HID. The results and difference is real. You will get killer bud from LED, yields dip a bit, but so does your electrical usage. I have a situation in which I use 500W of LED with my 1000W of HPS. (nothing gives better side lighting and UV output combined) I also use a 240W LED for the beginning of the Veg stage. My master plan is to have 2 grow rooms with 500W of LED and 500W of HID in each room. I have trouble keeping my grow room temps up about 68 without the HID, so I have to keep them in (instead of blowing wattage on an electric heater - might as well get some light from it).

I can provide a bunch of kick ass grows that I am subbed to, all involving LED only grows that will solidify your concerns involving yield, quality, ect...
They all involve different brand names of LED's as well.

I use blackstar LEDs, they are good quality, and not expensive at all.
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=blackstar+led&_sacat=See-All-Categories

other good brand names are kessil, haight, 357 magnum, ISIS...

Short answer is no. But they can grow pretty okay weed. I saw someone do a 800w grow. I wasn't impressed by the yields. For 800w he should have had larger plants with more buds then he got. I'll say in 5-10 yrs time I could see LEDs becoming the norm. Right now they're just kind of in an experimental stage. People buying right now are early adopters. As such future improvements will happen in time as their market grows. However right now HID is king. CLF's are cheaper and work just as good as LEDs (maybe even a bit better since you can get more bulbs for less). Any manufacture saying XYZ led panel is better than an HID of similar wattage is puffing their product up so you'll buy it. Don't trust a manufacture's claims on anything. Look at real world results. All they want to do is sell you something they make...

Ronjohn7779 said:

Short answer is no. But they can grow pretty okay weed. I saw someone do a 800w grow. I wasn't impressed by the yields. For 800w he should have had larger plants with more buds then he got. I'll say in 5-10 yrs time I could see LEDs becoming the norm. Right now they're just kind of in an experimental stage. People buying right now are early adopters. As such future improvements will happen in time as their market grows. However right now HID is king. CLF's are cheaper and work just as good as LEDs (maybe even a bit better since you can get more bulbs for less). Any manufacture saying XYZ led panel is better than an HID of similar wattage is puffing their product up so you'll buy it. Don't trust a manufacture's claims on anything. Look at real world results. All they want to do is sell you something they make...

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you need to do some more research, and view a grow where the dude growing knows what he's doing.

Good LED panels are worth the money right now. Just because an LED panel or light comes from China doesn't mean its crap (but most of the crap LED bulbs and panels do come from China)

The only reason not to go LED over HID is if you can't save enough money for the upfront cost, or you actually need the heat produced by HID because its winter time.

um just a thought but have u ever scene a led bulb that wasn't made in china

I've personally just finished my grow with two plants under a 400w h.p.s. and two plants under a 120w tri band L.E.D. light and the plants grown under the high pressure sodium had significantly more bud growth with heavier yields. The LED plants were darker, had significantly more resin, but only towards the top of the plant. The bottom of the plants did not receive as much light penetration to have a healthy yield.

Fig said:

I've personally just finished my grow with two plants under a 400w h.p.s. and two plants under a 120w tri band L.E.D. light and the plants grown under the high pressure sodium had significantly more bud growth with heavier yields. The LED plants were darker, had significantly more resin, but only towards the top of the plant. The bottom of the plants did not receive as much light penetration to have a healthy yield.

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The highest quality 120w LED light should only be as capable as a 150-200w HPS at best, vs that 400 you compared it to. Those smaller sub 200w lights are for micro grows where its important the light is small. If you want to grow more than 1 good plant with an LED light you gotta get a proper good panel (they don't make em round). But the ones you do have should be good for small plants like auto or small scrog

In my opinion leds should be for veg only there the best for veg hands down everyone should have a ufo or 2 stricly for veg i bought the original from hid hud when High times first lied about the comparasin vs Hid 600 bucks damn expensive i was let down but in the long run you save money and now there so damn cheap i bought another one 5th generation wich i gotta start over seedling at 2 ft exsactly and let them reach the 5th generation i gotta start off at 3 ft 2 inch or they will burn the plants old ufo doesnt pack even light for kush but the new ufos pack enough light for kush for veg all the way man go go go

i also found out the youll get way less hermie parts on your plants when started off with leds im a believer 18/6 veg with a ufo done right with feminized seeds you wont get any hermies one time i vegged a couple feminized seeds 24/0 with a hid and then when i swtched to 12/12 who whole bottome section of the plant was male and where the 12/12 started if was female with some male to it so i think the light hrs and stress defenitly keep hermies down to zero and with led i think you can grow fully female plants no hermies when perfected right

if youre gonna use LEDs, you should only use the UFO if it was given to you. spend the money on the quality LEDs, and you will get quality results.

jdizzle22 said:

Good LED panels are worth the money right now. Just because an LED panel or light comes from China doesn't mean its crap (but most of the crap LED bulbs and panels do come from China)

The only reason not to go LED over HID is if you can't save enough money for the upfront cost, or you actually need the heat produced by HID because its winter time.

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Ya right..... how about the fact that my 1000w will blow your LED out the water.....thats seems like a good reason not to get them......Not because of cost and heat ...I can afford to buy any light i want i work at a Hydroponics store i get that shit at cost and i still wouldnt buy an LED and Ronjohn is right they arent King right now mabye in 10 years but just like he said if the manufacture says they are comparable to a HID light then they are just trying to sale there product.........

Come on now if LEDS where really as great as you guys think then people would be comin in to order them and vendors at dispensarys would be using them......but people arent coming in to order them and vendors arent using them...... I dont even knw why we have these LED discusions anymore .....Intel LEDS improve there tech. theres no need to rediscous the subjust....

FootClan said:

Ya right..... how about the fact that my 1000w will blow your LED out the water.....thats seems like a good reason not to get them......Not because of cost and heat ...I can afford to buy any light i want i work at a Hydroponics store i get that shit at cost and i still wouldnt buy an LED and Ronjohn is right they arent King right now mabye in 10 years but just like he said if the manufacture says they are comparable to a HID light then they are just trying to sale there product.........

Come on now if LEDS where really as great as you guys think then people would be comin in to order them and vendors at dispensarys would be using them......but people arent coming in to order them and vendors arent using them...... I dont even knw why we have these LED discusions anymore .....Intel LEDS improve there tech. theres no need to rediscous the subjust....

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people aren't coming into buy them because they don't know that there are now great flowering LED panels but you just have to be smart about which one you buy.

FootClan said:

Ya right..... how about the fact that my 1000w will blow your LED out the water.....thats seems like a good reason not to get them......Not because of cost and heat ...I can afford to buy any light i want i work at a Hydroponics store i get that shit at cost and i still wouldnt buy an LED and Ronjohn is right they arent King right now mabye in 10 years but just like he said if the manufacture says they are comparable to a HID light then they are just trying to sale there product.........

Come on now if LEDS where really as great as you guys think then people would be comin in to order them and vendors at dispensarys would be using them......but people arent coming in to order them and vendors arent using them...... I dont even knw why we have these LED discusions anymore .....Intel LEDS improve there tech. theres no need to rediscous the subjust....

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youre behind the curve buddy..follow an LED grow where the grower is using good equipment.

BudBaby said:

I have. I bought a 140 watt veg light and a 280 watt flowering light from a guy on ebay who custom makes them, he says he uses the finest quality everything in these lights. They cost me £1200 but im hoping the results will speak for themselves.

I will be doing a journal in about 2-3 weeks when i plant my first seed

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1200 quid for light emitting diodes that cost 3 pence each in china, my god i am in the wrong trade tell your mate i will give him 1200 quid to show me how to make the lights. i wouldnt use them though. the benefit is heat loss and electric power usage (NOT) it took scientists great measures and lots of time to invent a lamp that copies sunlight almost exactly with minimal electric wattage power usage to grow indoor plants and the power needed to replicate the sun has the same system as the sun, to copy and create great natural sunlight we must Lest generate great power and heat. and if your arm was long enough to touch the sun from the earth BudBaby it would take 16 years for the pain message to go from your brain to your hand and back to your brain to tell you to pull it away with reflex (by that time there wouldnt be any arm), about the same speed as your thinking when you bought these lights, tell the god damn ebay conster to GTF. and i think it will be a long time in the future before you can copy a 600w-1000w dual spectrum bulb with a couple of hundred cheap plastic LEDs. and the message is in the lights themselves a couple of hundred watts. do you know how much amp usage and electric candle power that can burn and produce??? LOL led lights are brilliant for cheap powerfull synthetic light that produces a very very powerful spotlight effect that is great for reading 1 word on the page of a book in the dark from about 2 feet away LOL but no ooomph to light up the whole page and room with a brilliance of colour just like an hps lamp a light that can be so powerfull a small leak through your window can be seen by neighbours from the distance of a large football field away, not even 1000 LEDs could do this..

an afterthought :
and i thought we were in the dark ages using 600-1000w bulbs, but we are not, where we are in the dark ages is not using wind, wave, and hydrogen (which is easy and very cheap to produce) to generate our electricity to bring the price right down for the consumer that is you and me, that would get rid of the environment and cost hungry coal fired and nuclear power stations that demolish our eco system and the only pollutant by product from burning hydrogen is the cleanest water on the planet which is good for the environment as our planet has water in abundance anyway, sometimes you look at life from a politicians view and say to yourself, WHAT THE FUCK AM I THINKING ABOUT. politicians are fucking glorified private school boys whos forefathers put them in a position that they couldnt even comprehend to think about where to begin, so when you ask them a question there is always a look at someone else in the room,a pause, a stutter, a hand up to the mouth to cough or yawn, etc just so their overclassed brains can work out a very fast answer. and they always wink at each other and think the same thing, bullshit baffles brains, the same thought as your ebay salesman BudBaby and as long as their pockets are Full of cash££££££££££££.

not forgeting the vehicle power that can be produced from hydrogen wink LOL. a clean exhaust is a good exhaust. fuck i am off to bed. exhausted.

for those of you who WANT to learn,
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/hydrogen

shit i woke after a nightmare, let us know what is happening from your journal in 2-3 weeks BudBaby from when you start your seeds, and i bet my plants are half the height of yours, twice the stem thickness, and four times the buds in half the time the time it takes to grow them at your finish line, and my lights are old fashioned 600watters, and i would bet an arm and a leg. (where the fuck is my crutch and my hook BB asked in a few weeks ) LOL. PMSL. signed the nutty professor.