opinions on LED's

hey geys. so eventually i wanna set up two different tents. One with soil and a 400w hps and another one with a DWC using led's. Whats everyones opinions on the best LED's out there today? I've been looking at some pro gro models, which we're specifically tested on cannabis. I know this is a huge controversy right now but just curious about ppl's opinions.

just bought 2 apollo lights with 500w, probably about 350w actual for $300 and so far so good. plants start flowering today, excited to see what kinda buds they'll put out. You don't have to spend $1000 to get good LEDs, though.

whats the recommended footage for a 500w? Would that enough for a 4x4? what watt chipsets does it use?

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH said:

whats the recommended footage for a 500w? Would that enough for a 4x4? what watt chipsets does it use?

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I have two hung side-by-side. they are 3w diodes, i think epistars. One's 240w and the other 270w, i have them in about a 2.5"x 5" closet, like a pink supernova in there. If I were doing a 4x4", i'd either go 2 apollo 8's in parallel, or get 4 independent COB LED's you can hang separately to cover the whole area. Better coverage with more smaller lamps than one big one, LEDs have a smaller light footprint that HID.

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH said:

whats the recommended footage for a 500w? Would that enough for a 4x4? what watt chipsets does it use?

Click to expand...

With LEDs a watt isn't a watt. Chinese imports with Epi chips will require more watts to produce the same amount of lighting as say an Area 51 which uses Cree. With the imports you need about 30-40w sq. ft. With something like Area 51, you need about 20-30w sq. ft.

It also depends on whether you'll grow shorter plants like autoflowers or scrog. You can get by with less wattage. For example, I'm growing 2 autoflowers in a 2x4 tent using Blackstar 135 UFOs (85w actual). That's 21w sq ft. I have them positioned so the flowering plant gets more of the light. (You need less wattage in veg than flower.). I'd guess 105w for the flowering plant and 65w for the veg).

And, depends upon multiple fixtures giving you better coverage than a single fixture. For example, two Area 51 RW-75 are supposed to perform better than a single RW-150.