The skinny on LED's please

1 LED fixture with light mover.. looks good to me

medidedicated said:

Mars hydro and ACI made my best nugs. Loading up my after market light results next post. These are just better while my aftermarket struggled one round, did better the next.

While my better lights did better and better too so Id say I saw a difference running clones. Clones help test things. I was told something about that though I cant recall but you make youre opinion looking at these.

Viparspectra Im about to buy right now. I was told theyre less known to have funny/scary incidents. Im switching all to them if its all the same. Idk much about lights but can say my aftermarket is epistar and my good ones are samsung.

The VS is for my 3x3 one plant 12” hang distance 900ppfd in every inch of tent pretty much. Im stoked. I never used hps really but it would be half the cost and I noticed plants like a lot of light all flower long for best growth.

But its interesting idea I heard of that being done, a moving hps. Vert growing is nice too. Hps cmh great for heat if you have cold seasons. I use my after market I flowered with for veg to answer that.

Its just I wouldnt use a fancy flower light for veg unless its at end of its life. While after market lights Id still buy them for veg. Cheap and low watts. My cool temp basement probably why I can get away with low watts and intensity.

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Viparspectra is a really great company in my experience. I own two of their XS1500Pro -great lights for a great price.

Drop That Sound said:

1 LED fixture with light mover.. looks good to me

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ThThat's the exact YT video that prompted me to ask yalls opinion. He claimed 5 to 6 # crop off a single LED and a mover. I could run 4 of those in this space. That'd tickle me pink! Assuming real world results. And assuming my plants can pump that kind of flowers out.

The light he's using is a good one I assume...

@OldDude420 youre not hindering anything w your pics. I always enjoy looking at others successes.

Many of the old companies with terrible reputation had to change their game up and follow what was happening in the growing market to stay alive.

Though they are producing vastly superior lighting to what they used to, some, like mars, still like to use nonsense to sell their lights and still have poor customer service after the purchase, as well as untrustworthy figures and par maps.

But there are many who don't and many who have come from nowhere .

You'll also see that every old school hps manufacturer/brand also now do LEDs and most are offering them using the original ballasts to power them and are very cheap considering.
Though they typically are less efficient than the best.

You want to be looking at the umol/joule to see the efficiency of the fixture.

The issue is for as many as there are that are trustworthy, there's many more that are not.

In a 4x8 you want minimum 2x 480w lights up to 2x 600w lights.
Granted you could use a light mover on a bigger light, but your dli on either end of the tent would be average and centrally your dli would be far higher.

Because every man and his dog make 600s it probably would be more cost effective to get two of those over a bigger more powerful light.


Just make sure you do your research . There are environmental adjustments need making when switching from HPS to LED, but it hasn't stopped the majority who have swapped over.
But there are some who just couldn't get on with them.
For example the grower with a particularly cold climate might not appreciate having to heat the space with LED, as they don't put out the radiant heat HPS does

After many years of messing with several different led light i now generally prefer to use them as supplemental light only, I had a 600w lumatek zeus pro over a scrog for years and ended up only ever going to 50 or 75% power because at full power the plants were not happy. To cap it off the thing was massive and weighed a ton, plus i had to add heaters to get the temps up. Recently i went back to a hps and cmh combo, we'll see how it compares.
I still use smaller ones in the corners here and there but rarely above 50%.

lungbutter said:

After many years of messing with several different led light i now generally prefer to use them as supplemental light only, I had a 600w lumatek zeus pro over a scrog for years and ended up only ever going to 50 or 75% power because at full power the plants were not happy. To cap it off the thing was massive and weighed a ton, plus i had to add heaters to get the temps up. Recently i went back to a hps and cmh combo, we'll see how it compares.
I still use smaller ones in the corners here and there but rarely above 50%.

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That is my concern. 100%. We are approaching cold weather. I'd hate to spend the coin on LED while expecting to have lower power consumption only to end up needing a power hungry heater to keep the environment proper.

That was the only reason I've kept the HID's in the back of my mind. I'm going to need some heat. This space doesn't have climate control. So having to figure that in as well.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Hygro my man knows whats up. He got me into to growing massive 2+ # indoor scrogged out solo DWC plants a decade ago, and I been spoiled with maximum yeilds ever since.

That was a sweet video I checked the whole thing out. I didnt see much content so I didnt follow. First time seeing that idea applied with leds. So he quite literally is only spending half the cost of lights?

Being hash only it cost me more to grow but thats interesting if the opportunity to do so arrises. Says it moves every 2 mins wow. I wonder what a side by side would do if he did one full lights one moving half and half.

Think about it. When you have a 1000w LED on full blast, and moving back and forth so it doesn't scorch the canopy (and use a weed whacker or big garden shears to quickly hedge\top the plants perfectly flat like hygro does, lol) even though its so close to the plants... Do you really need to worry about VPD and temps so much in the rest of the temporarily unlit areas? The light is way closer and hotter, and warms the leafs up as much as an HID as is scans back and forth, but it doesn't stay in one spot long enough to do any damage. Seems like there wouldn't be a reason to heat the whole room up an extra 10 degrees like needed when you have the light in a fixed position..

I just dont know how that doesnt stress the plants out its every 2 mins suddenly no light almost. When lights go out it reaks like chlorophyl. Like the stomatas open and close every 2 mins almost shut but not quite as its not total dark.

Not much ppfd though. I grew outdoors once with only 3 hrs direct sun and got 21gs 4 plants 3x3 green house. I grew with lack of light too though. Indoors if the lowers are too shades it will read like 0 lux and still grow but larfy.

Just interesting if he still gets good results and pretty underground I never seen anything like this. I think I have once but it was an experiment with no results yet at the time. Never blew up though or at least to where I seen it since.

Check out these guys: https://vivosun.com/Grow_Light-c3 their VSFD series carry 5 year warranties and they make some good lights. I use a VSFL 4300 in my 4X4 tent and my gilrs are loving it.I have yet to go above 80% intensity with my unit. Somehow or other Spyder Farms and Vivosun have very similar products, so not sure if there is a connection there or not. But I will say so far Vivosun for my needs has really stood behind their offerings.

LEDs are like any other electronic component made anymore, they get better as time goes forward in quality, light emission/spectrums and better use of energy. They keep improving them every year. It's hard to convince the old guard who got used to using the older lights, but many have started to move to LEDS.

Drop That Sound said:

Think about it. When you have a 1000w LED on full blast, and moving back and forth so it doesn't scorch the canopy (and use a weed whacker or big garden shears to quickly hedge\top the plants perfectly flat like hygro does, lol) even though its so close to the plants... Do you really need to worry about VPD and temps so much in the rest of the temporarily unlit areas? The light is way closer and hotter, and warms the leafs up as much as an HID as is scans back and forth, but it doesn't stay in one spot long enough to do any damage. Seems like there wouldn't be a reason to heat the whole room up an extra 10 degrees like needed when you have the light in a fixed position..

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As far as temps go for me, I'm only concerned within the lights would be off. Assuming an 18/6 space and a couple 12/12 spaces. Could configure it to where there are always 2+ lights on. That would heat the space.

It's going to be a good size insulated yard barn.

I really like the concept of the led on mover. Probably going to try it. It should become obvious during veg whether or not the whole space is getting enough light or not.

In my mind, I see the plant as an empty cup first thing of the morning. As the day progresses and the sun moves, the cup fills with photosynthetic energy. I dare say it's topped off well before the end of the day in a full sun situation. I'd be curious just how quickly they get topped off.

Again. That's my mind. Lol. It's oftentimes wrong.

medidedicated said:

I just dont know how that doesnt stress the plants out its every 2 mins suddenly no light almost. When lights go out it reaks like chlorophyl. Like the stomatas open and close every 2 mins almost shut but not quite as its not total dark.

Not much ppfd though. I grew outdoors once with only 3 hrs direct sun and got 21gs 4 plants 3x3 green house. I grew with lack of light too though. Indoors if the lowers are too shades it will read like 0 lux and still grow but larfy.

Just interesting if he still gets good results and pretty underground I never seen anything like this. I think I have once but it was an experiment with no results yet at the time. Never blew up though or at least to where I seen it since.

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With the light moving, it's getting light to many areas a fixed light could not. Light ngles are always changing.

One of my outdoor plants is getting maybe 5 or 6 of direct light mid day. Morning and evening it's indirect. Seems to be doing great.

Could be apples to oranges though. That video is hard to argue against assuming everything is truth.

Well there are really good bar lights that do but Im just wondering. Like why dont commercial grows do it? Seems like something only best for setups like what the hygro guy has. Or like my bedroom if it turned into a grow room instead of both.

My room is literally a bed and tv away from being a grow room. To save half the costs I think its a killer idea if you had a nice clean sealed small room with some climate control options already..

Not my situation anytime soon but I did seem to figure out a basic way to make more than enough weed/hash. For one or two people. It can shut down every other year. 10x10’ grow with everything altogether.

Just seems like something a bigger grow would benefit idk but like OP said the tents can help perpetuate schedules to heat room. Im actually doing that literally soon. Also too many amps drawn at once same room.

Thats another benefit of tents.

Im so new to the idea needed a sec to plug it into my setup out of curiousity. The 900w I use would be 450w moving back and forth. Just use a veg tent to prevent flowering if youre perpetual. Interesting idea I like it.

I think it's cheap enough now that you can try it and not feel fucked over if you spent $800 on a light and then find you need to fuck around with your environment to a large degree..

You might get something 2.5umol/j on the cheap, like it, and then think yeah I'd like one of those 3umol/j lights that cost a chunk more..
Or you might not like it at all and you've wasted very little.

Fully agree though that if you need to spend much on heating it makes the increased efficiency void..

I happen to vent my veg into my flower tent in winter to keep night temps up .
Works very well. But our summers are crap and our winters pretty mild in the UK.

It's nice we can all have these conversations without pissing contests and butt hurt, wasn't always the case.

Because the only thing that matters is the grower has the equipment to do the job they need and the quality of the weed is more important than the how we get there ey!

coreywebster said:

It's nice we can all have these conversations without pissing contests and butt hurt, wasn't always the case.

Because the only thing that matters is the grower has the equipment to do the job they need and the quality of the weed is more important than the how we get there ey!

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100% absolutely. Everyone's context is different. I, for one, only know what I know, leaving much to be desired. I assumed I'd get shut down pretty quick over a FAQ.

Seems like a good community here. Looking forward to learning and contributing what I can.

As I've already said, I appreciate you all.

BullPower said:

With the light moving, it's getting light to many areas a fixed light could not. Light ngles are always changing.

One of my outdoor plants is getting maybe 5 or 6 of direct light mid day. Morning and evening it's indirect. Seems to be doing great.

Could be apples to oranges though. That video is hard to argue against assuming everything is truth.

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Lighting angles: this would be more true with a bulb/point like light source. The way a bar light spreads the light out with a bar fixture i really doubt that youre getting any benefits for light angles.

BullPower said:

Apoligies ahead of time as im sure this is a topic that gets beat to death...

I use to run tent scrogs under HPS lights and fared pretty well. LED's were garbage at the time, but that has obviously changed. Lol.

I see a hellacious price spread on them. I am sure there is a quality spread as well.

Could someone give me suggestions on LEDs that are good or give me a good resource i could study over to learn the ins and outs on LED lights. I'm in process of building a room and can't decide whether to go with the old tech or go with LEDs.

I always veg'd under t5's. Are these still the best bang for buck or nah? Does one LED light work for both veg and flower now?

Thanks in advance to you all.

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I'm in the same boat,building a new room also and was going to get a 1000 watt hps cool tube.My neighbor keeps telling me to get an led.If it wasn't for the heat issue I'd just go with the hps in a heartbeat.So after researching a little I'm even more confused,prices range from like 200. To 1000 for the same wattage LED.So I'll be following this thread and hopefully some people who have experience growing with LEDs can suggest and explain the differences in these prices and tell us what's the best bang for the buck.