Light change :-)

Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
I have grown to hate T5's, cfls, low watt leds and a few other of their kind. Basically anything that dosent put a shit ton of light heat and spectrum onto my plants.

To emulate outside cannot be done otherwise imo.

Quite suprised im saying this but never running anything less again whether veg or flower as the health growth and everything is much better this way.

Death to T5's i see why years back oeeps said they dont grow pot :-)
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Kingrow1 said:
I have grown to hate T5's, cfls, low watt leds and a few other of their kind. Basically anything that dosent put a shit ton of light heat and spectrum onto my plants.

To emulate outside cannot be done otherwise imo.

Quite suprised im saying this but never running anything less again whether veg or flower as the health growth and everything is much better this way.

Death to T5's i see why years back oeeps said they dont grow pot :-)
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I really have grown to hate T5s also for veg... plants get sooooo leggy ans stretchy and not tight node spacing at all imo. I will still use them for seedlings only I think or maybe clones.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Love T5 for the first week from the sprout emerging until the first set of leaves. But after that I start everything under 400 watt HPS. I don’t even own a T5 anymore so they’re not missed obviously. 400 —>600 —>1000 watt. All HPS. Stopped using MH as well. Very versatile. Can veg and flower under any of them and get bud from my 4X4 tent if I had to.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
The key to using light sources that emit less heat- that is, infrared light- is to run your grow room at warmer temperatures. The LED guys get their best results with ambient air temps around 30C/86F.

This is no longer news or in any way controversial.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
The key to using light sources that emit less heat- that is, infrared light- is to run your grow room at warmer temperatures. The LED guys get their best results with ambient air temps around 30C/86F.

This is no longer news or in any way controversial.
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hot damn (literally) I should probably just stick with HPS then in my cold ass northern basement lol
 
Flowki

Flowki

Well-Known Member
Kingrow1 said:
I have grown to hate T5's, cfls, low watt leds and a few other of their kind. Basically anything that dosent put a shit ton of light heat and spectrum onto my plants.

To emulate outside cannot be done otherwise imo.

Quite suprised im saying this but never running anything less again whether veg or flower as the health growth and everything is much better this way.

Death to T5's i see why years back oeeps said they dont grow pot :-)
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It was a good 4 or 5 year ago I read on t5, they were saying they are not worth the initial cost and are also bad in efficiency. How much of that is true I never cared to delve deeper since I wasn't forced into such tech due to heat issues. It seemed quite obvious back then that anybody with the head height were not using cfls, aside from hipsters.

Didn't know too much about led back then but seen enough negative feed back to steer clear, the purple colours were also horrible to look at so thankfully they didn't work out.

I remember we had a conversation not so long ago about spectrum playing less of a role than was thought. Have you changed your opinion on that or are you just covering all bases?.
 
Hydro4life

Hydro4life

Well-Known Member
Kingrow1 said:
I have grown to hate T5's, cfls, low watt leds and a few other of their kind. Basically anything that dosent put a shit ton of light heat and spectrum onto my plants.

To emulate outside cannot be done otherwise imo.

Quite suprised im saying this but never running anything less again whether veg or flower as the health growth and everything is much better this way.

Death to T5's i see why years back oeeps said they dont grow pot :-)
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Never used T5s, never will!!
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
hot damn (literally) I should probably just stick with HPS then in my cold ass northern basement lol
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My main grow room is in a cold underground northern Alberta basement so not swapping out my HID lights for anything that runs cooler either.

I say screw T-5s as well. My old bank of 8 - T-12s work fine for sprouts and small plants up to about a foot but I like to get them under a 400W MH once they are getting bushy. Using a 400W Philips CMH off an HPS ballast and they are loving that light. I registers twice the intensity as my Hortilux conversion bulb that gives MH light off an HPS ballast.

:peace:
 
M

McFrosticles

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
The key to using light sources that emit less heat- that is, infrared light- is to run your grow room at warmer temperatures. The LED guys get their best results with ambient air temps around 30C/86F.

This is no longer news or in any way controversial.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hijack. Would HPS be better in colder climates then? My temps are 18- 22 celcius under hps in summer (2-3 days maybe reaching 28), so heating the room would probably be counterproductive for led?
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
McFrosticles said:
Sorry to hijack. Would HPS be better in colder climates then? My temps are 18- 22 celcius under hps in summer (2-3 days maybe reaching 28), so heating the room would probably be counterproductive for led?
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Light grows plants better than heat so I'm not running out spending money I don't have to buy decent LEDs to save power then have to use power to keep the room warm enough with a heater.

For what a good LED system would cost up front to say give you an honest equivalent of 600W of HID lights you could buy at least two 600W ballasts and good bulbs to go with them. More likely three or even four.

All my ballasts are older magnetics and they work great. I need a couple of capacitors to fix my 1000W MH/HPS and a dead 400hps but that's about $40 each and easily done. Dead electronic ballast and you might as well toss it out unless you have a degree in electronics. The magnetics are a lot easier on bulbs too. I have a 400W Hortilux conversion bulb that gives me MH light off an HPS ballast and I've used it for almost every grow for 16 years and the plants still love it. I'm sure the spectrum has degraded a lot but good enough. Wife recently found a 2nd one of those in some old boxes we never unpacked and it is almost new so should get another 15 years or so out of it. :)

:peace:
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
Light grows plants better than heat so I'm not running out spending money I don't have to buy decent LEDs to save power then have to use power to keep the room warm enough with a heater.

For what a good LED system would cost up front to say give you an honest equivalent of 600W of HID lights you could buy at least two 600W ballasts and good bulbs to go with them. More likely three or even four.

All my ballasts are older magnetics and they work great. I need a couple of capacitors to fix my 1000W MH/HPS and a dead 400hps but that's about $40 each and easily done. Dead electronic ballast and you might as well toss it out unless you have a degree in electronics. The magnetics are a lot easier on bulbs too. I have a 400W Hortilux conversion bulb that gives me MH light off an HPS ballast and I've used it for almost every grow for 16 years and the plants still love it. I'm sure the spectrum has degraded a lot but good enough. Wife recently found a 2nd one of those in some old boxes we never unpacked and it is almost new so should get another 15 years or so out of it. :)

:peace:
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Do you have any idea how much excess electricity you're using, not only with HID vs LED but using those tired old bulbs? You could have paid for your LED conversion by now!

I'm not suggesting spending money on heat- although that is exactly what you're doing right now. Does hydro cost less than natural gas where you are?

INSULATE. Why am I even saying this to someone living so far north?
 
M

McFrosticles

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Do you have any idea how much excess electricity you're using, not only with HID vs LED but using those tired old bulbs? You could have paid for your LED conversion by now!

I'm not suggesting spending money on heat- although that is exactly what you're doing right now. Does hydro cost less than natural gas where you are?

INSULATE. Why am I even saying this to someone living so far north?
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I live in rented apartments built about 150 years ago I'm not sure what sort of permission I'd need or if it's even possible, My intake comes from ambient temps of 17Celcius summer and -10-5Celcius all winter so not sure it would make a difference where I am!
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
hillbill said:
Haven’t bought a bulb in six years.
LEDs and COBs.
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It is insulated but the walls and floor are concrete and cool. As long as I have 2 - 400s or a 1000W going I don't need to add heat. My heater is on a thermostat to keep the temp up during their night or boost it a bit if I only have one 400 going in the winter. I'd rather deal with cool temps than excess heat. All the air entering the grow room comes from the larger area down there thru filters so I have never needed AC which is a real power hog too.

That real old bulb only gets used once in a while to fill in if needed as I have newer ones for the 400s and brand new ones for each of my 2 - 1000W. Hortilux rules!

I wouldn't likely live long enough to recoup the initial outlay to replace my HIDs thru power savings and if I do move out of here in the next year or so I may not be able to grow pot where I land so I'm sure not going into hock for fancy new lights now.

This is just a hobby to supply my own meds and not a business.

Each to their own my friend.

:peace:
 
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