New here -hello

Yes. I am using the cheap Chinese 114 LED (72 Red/ 42 Blue). My only recommendation on LEDs is to try and find out the individual specs on the LEDs themselves. Lower quality ones are 5mm LEDs in a 10mm LED package. Meaning the output is low. Other cheaply manufactured ones pull 30mA ea. Should be 20mA and adds up quicky if your trying not to spend on electricity. You see I had an 8 x 2000Watt setup with over a hundred plants on Hydro timer drip and drain in Hydroton. We had amazing crops of Pure Kush and Dream Queen until a divorce ruined my partners living situation (100 plants went unattended and died early and gory deaths). It was nearly a full time job to keep everything sorted. Fun but alot of work and astronomical electricity bills ($1,600 USD to $2,000 USD per month). My goal is to produce enough to supply my own. So I flower 2 and veg 2 at a time (with a few extras for shrinkage). So far I am realizing my potential as the cheap bastard that I am. I have not noticed a change in my electricity bill. I cloned and early stage flowered under 4 ft florescent (1 grow and 1 normal bulb) and vegged and now flowering under two 400W equivalent LEDs. My biggest battle is with the cold and yes since I am a cheap bastard I refuse to put a power sucking heater out there. I expect some pretty colorful buds from the cold. temps have been just above freezing at night and get to 60F (20C?) during the day. Although they all seem to be slowing down there is no sign od death from cols yet. These LEDs do not put off any heat.

Good points JCashman dude. It is all fun if you dig smoke and pretty plants. For me hydro is too time consuming at present and also I am in a teeny tiny corner of an outdoor shed. Space for control and drain vessels just does not exist until I expand. One thing I am going to try eventually is some 5 gal buckets since I have all the makings. For now with just a few plants it is just far easier to use plain old potting soil. I am using leftover "Super Natural" nutrients in my soil grow though. Since I am in Cali I can grow legally (per state not federal law) up to 6 mature and 12 inmature plants. So I want to do a greenhouse and use the sun. Some of my frends in the Santa Cruz mountians grew monster plants outside with over 2 pound per plant yield. We used to get about 2 or 3 ozs per plant from our indoors hydro grow and as I have mentioned at an over $1500USD/mo price tag. Of course thievery and critters can ruin an entire outdoor grow in minutes. Ergo the greenhouse idea. Anyway I am looking forward to harvesting my mystery pot (I found the seeds in some of the outdoor bud I mentioned and are purportedly freak feminized seeds since the grower swears no pollination occurred). Anyway I ramble. Stay cool. 99%

Jonny K said:

I love the way the plants look under LED. Very trippy looking.

Click to expand...

Jonny, yes it is freaky, I have a hell of a time looking at trichrome colors and have to turn off the LEDs sometimes when I am playing dope voyeur. When I was first vegging I had not setup the inner "tent" in my shed. It put off a weird red glow from the eaves at night. I have since plugged all the light holes since I am at 12/12 now. stay cool 99%

Yeah it's funny. When you come out of the growroom everything looks green.

OldLuck

Yes I am. I have two cheapo Chinese non vented (72 red/42 blue) Square LED lights. These are simply made of a very simple bridge rectifier and LEds with resistors. I know this because I opened one up when some of the LEDs quit. It turned out to be a cold solder joint so it was easy to fix. I am scheming up a design to make a few cheap LED panels from LEDs and resistors. Seems after some research that the specs on the LEDs used is a very big factor on current draw. My main goal is to grow indoors cheaply. In the past I experienced 2000 USD per month electricity bill. One must grow and sell to make that cost effective. I am not interested in selling, just smoking for nearly free. My biggest problem has been the cold which hasn't damaged but does seem to stunt growth. Since the LEDs put off no heat essentially it stays pretty cold out in the shed.

Hydro all the way! NFT is so easy its should be illegal!

I have converted 3-4 soil veterans to hydro just by simplicity and results. The time you save can be spent reading up and smoking up!