First timer

[capecodbud]

I have a couple of questions first what is the take on LED verses hid I know the price and all but are the strains producing more less or the same ? Has anyone tried the Gropro supercharger sounds good but does it work ? also I just have my gals starting to sprout up I am using the florescent grow light for the first week or two ? Any help or insight would be great! 4 days into it just used some root nutient


Thanks

 

[Major PITA]

Welcome bud!
I don't do hydro so I'll let others chime in on the AHS system.
When it comes to LED vs. HID, there are probably as many opinions as there are growers using them. IMO, it would take a large-scale test of multiple cloned strains to get enough hard evidence to know the answer. There may be other members with lots of experience using both that can offer a valid, experienced opinion.
I use T5's for little ones and can keep them there longer than two weeks. Your clones or seedlings do just fine under fluorescents until they outgrow the coverage, IMO.

 

[Rifleman]

I've got a 1000w hps with a dimmable ballast. Unless it is cold outside I keep it at 600w. I'd consider LEDs if I knew they'd preform as well with less heat and electricity. Hopefully someone with real world experience with both will chime in.

 

[OlderGrower]

LOL the question to top all questions. I have been researching that one since I first started thinking about growing again and from what I have found out is..... it is confusing as hell. The most compelling argument I have heard so far is grams per watt per cost of watts. I do not know what power sells for in your neck of the woods but here in Oregon it is relatively cheap. .094 cents per kilowatt. HID's will produce a deeper penetrating light but it also creates a wide spectrum of light which part of is in the spectrum the plant uses very little of, thus wasting energy. Also you have to take into account the cost of running more exhaust into the equation and maybe even a air conditioner. You could get a vented hood and exhaust the heat out but you will loose 3 to 5% of the light because of doing that. On the other hand, a good quality LED will only produce the spectrums the plant actually uses but it is very expensive to buy initially. Also the light will not cover as large of a footprint as a HID which means more fixtures at that expensive cost. So after all that research what conclusion did I come up with? It's personal choice. And for every person who tells you HID are the only way, there is another guy saying LED's are the only way. When you get that concrete answer, pass it on because out of all the questions I had about growing in todays market, that was the one question I was never ever able to clearly agree with one side or the other. Both sides make valid points.

 

[Rifleman]

Exactly. Lol. I also pay less than $0.10/kwh Factoring the cost of the LEDS vs what I have on hand, my age, my cannabis consumption, and trying to equal everything out, the best I can figure is I would have to live to an older age than I care for to break even. Seriously to have the same ability I already have available with my ballast, bulb,and hood it would cost me $1500 for a $0.03/kwh savings. No thanks, not just yet. Momma raised some dummies, but I weren't one of 'em.

 

[fanleaf]

I'll go the other way on this one.

While I do own CFL and HPS/MH and LED I don't have a ton of growing experience. That being said, I do own LED's of 2 different brands (both are sponsors here) and I will say that with a 30 day veg and a single AK47 seed I just harvested 7.19 dry ounces with nothing but Advanced LED's. By the way.....That was my very first grow ever!

I have another brand of LED as mentioned. It was much cheaper and I'm in no way at all bashing it because I love it, I just love my Advanced LED's a lot!

They are spendy for sure but to have my first grow turn out such crystal covered and dense buds like it did in the short time....I'm more than sold.

If you do go LED just be sure you look at actual wattage and not advertised wattage. Also look at the core coverage!

 

[Major PITA]

My concern with LED is reliability. In theory they are priced competitively when you consider HPS bulb replacement and electricity costs, but only if the LEDs last. I've seen too many failures in and out of warranty for me to trust them to last 5+ years. Someday...

 

[fanleaf]

My concern with LED is reliability. In theory they are priced competitively when you consider HPS bulb replacement and electricity costs, but only if the LEDs last. I've seen too many failures in and out of warranty for me to trust them to last 5+ years. Someday...

That's where some of the higher quality LED's come in. Usually more expensive but some of the more top shelf LED's use better components. While you never ever know when something will go bad there are easy ways to handle it.

For myself I could have bought 1 or 2 LED's to cover my grow area but instead I bought 4 slightly smaller units. This gives me not only more PAR in the room than 1 or 2 lights but also if one goes down I can still adequately cover the room. Also using several smaller LED's instead of 1 large one can increase yields a good amount because your lights are now more modular and can be put exactly where needed.

Another thing is that if you only run 1 bigger LED and something happens in a grow just fire up the HPS until fixed or replaced. I haven't seen or heard of very many upper end LED's having issues.

 

[OlderGrower]

Exactly. Lol. I also pay less than $0.10/kwh Factoring the cost of the LEDS vs what I have on hand, my age, my cannabis consumption, and trying to equal everything out, the best I can figure is I would have to live to an older age than I care for to break even. Seriously to have the same ability I already have available with my ballast, bulb,and hood it would cost me $1500 for a $0.03/kwh savings. No thanks, not just yet. Momma raised some dummies, but I weren't one of 'em.

Hey I resemble that remark!! And I pay $0.094/KWH Plus I am already old to begin with.. Oh just great.. now I am going to be forced to live to 100 to break even on these damn LEDs

 

[OlderGrower]

while I agree with the Major though I have to say that Fanleafs logic is on track with my thinking. Now the only thing holding me up is "She who must be Obeyed" keeping me on a tight budget till I start work again, and explaining to Rifleman that we may be brother, though I am the dummy son mom raised.
I may be wrong, but the real reason I went with LED is because I wanted less of a carbon footprint. While I can not confirm nor deny that LEDs produce a smaller footprint, thats my story and I am sticking to it.

 

[Rifleman]

while I agree with the Major though I have to say that Fanleafs logic is on track with my thinking. Now the only thing holding me up is "She who must be Obeyed" keeping me on a tight budget till I start work again, and explaining to Rifleman that we may be brother, though I am the dummy son mom raised.
I may be wrong, but the real reason I went with LED is because I wanted less of a carbon footprint. While I can not confirm nor deny that LEDs produce a smaller footprint, thats my story and I am sticking to it.

LMFAO, if I had the extra capital when I built my grow room I would have liked to have gone with LEDs. To change now though would put me back in the hole on growing.