Icemud's LED Grow With Advanced LED XTE 300 Series With EX-Veg 200

There are a few variables to take into account that may help fluctuate the readings some. First off the device you are using to calculate watts, how accurate is that device and take that into account? Also house voltage is not the same everywhere, some places might be 118vAC and other places it could be as high as 128-130vAC - all that will affect the output/usage. Probably the best test would be to measure the lumens at crop height and use the watts readings as more of a general idea of how much power the light is using.

My question for LED lighting is how EFFICIENT are the lights?? How much of that 250w is being turned into useful energy the plants take in say compared to a 600w HID?


ICE your grow looks like purple buds to me but I'm a novice here at best. I'd be jumping with joy buddy right there, looking great.

Cheers:cheer:
 
From info I have gleamed ( you might want to fact check for yourself ) is that the LED puts out something like 4x or 7x as much par light but it acts more like twice the PAR light (watt for watt) for a end result.

The HPS despite watt for watt having *much* less than half the red light as the LED panel grows around 1/2 as well watt for watt , its a mystery to me as why.
The PAR numbers suggest the LED should grow much more then it does. Don't figure.

I would compare the 250w consumption LED to a 450w HPS as being equal.
 
There are a few variables to take into account that may help fluctuate the readings some. First off the device you are using to calculate watts, how accurate is that device and take that into account? Also house voltage is not the same everywhere, some places might be 118vAC and other places it could be as high as 128-130vAC - all that will affect the output/usage. Probably the best test would be to measure the lumens at crop height and use the watts readings as more of a general idea of how much power the light is using.

My question for LED lighting is how EFFICIENT are the lights?? How much of that 250w is being turned into useful energy the plants take in say compared to a 600w HID?


ICE your grow looks like purple buds to me but I'm a novice here at best. I'd be jumping with joy buddy right there, looking great.

Cheers:cheer:

From info I have gleamed ( you might want to fact check for yourself ) is that the LED puts out something like 4x or 7x as much par light but it acts more like twice the PAR light (watt for watt) for a end result.

The HPS despite watt for watt having *much* less than half the red light as the LED panel grows around 1/2 as well watt for watt , its a mystery to me as why.
The PAR numbers suggest the LED should grow much more then it does. Don't figure.

I would compare the 250w consumption LED to a 450w HPS as being equal.



From my experience so far, to get a yield equal to that of a HPS light you need about 60-80% of the wattage (roughly) in order to see similar yields, so that would be a savings of electricity from 20-40% or so. The advantage that HID/HPS has over LED is that the light is not directional and puts out a very good footprint across the entire grow area with a fairly even footprint, where LED is a directional light and doesn't cover the canopy as well as HID, however has more penetrating power than HID due to the use of angled lenses to help direct and focus the light into the canopy.

So for instance, to replace a 1000w HID bulb, you should have at least 600w of LED and you should see similar results. I saw a video a while back of a 600w LED vs 1000w HID and with 40% less electricity use, the yields were near identical. The good thing with LED is that it actually raised the THC content over 3% over the HID bulb harvest, and the LED also had more terpenes than the HID crops. So not only are you saving electricity, but also getting better product.

The reason that people don't get good yields with LED is in my belief due to the bad advertising from LED companies...we have all seen them where a 300w LED is supposed to compare to a 1000w HID... NO WAY it will... but 600w of LED will :) Another reason I think people get bad yields with LED is because they believe the companies "recommended coverage areas" and height requirements but in all honesty I don't even believe that a majority of these charts and coverage areas are accurate which leads growers to expect things that just aren't possible.

But when used correctly, and PAR is accounted for vs coverage area, then the results are fantastic...such as I am seeing in my garden.
 
Hey Everyone!!!! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!!!

Well I'm going out of town for a few days so I won't have any updates until the weekend. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!!!

Day 63 Flowering:


In prep for my few days out of town, I gave the girls a good watering today, giving them 3x as much water as usual. I figured that this should hold them over for the few days I am gone. In the last 2 feedings I have only given them plain R/O water as I am preparing them to be harvested very soon and want to help use up/flush out all the salt fertz in the soil that I have been using. With the plain water feedings I have been noticing the typical late flowering yellowing of the fan leaves as the plants use up the remaining N in the soil and start shedding the water leaves.

The plants and buds have continued to swell over the past week, and even though somewhat slow, they definitely have gained a lot of girth since my last update, and I imagine that over the next few days they may even swell a bunch more :)

Can't wait to try them all and see how they turned out :)

Today I opened my tent to a horrible reaking smell, and when I looked at the bottom of the tent there was a bunch of liquid on the ground..... I was puzzled to what this was until I looked at my milk jugs for CO2 production and realized that one of them had either leaked, or exploded or something because it was empty... how odd??? well I sucked up all the liquid and got rid of the milk jug but I find it odd that about 2 weeks after mixing up a new batch, this happened..I wonder if there was some kind of rapid yeast development and it just all at once activated and bubbled up and out of the jug...but I found it really odd that 4/5 of the liquid was out of the bottle... must have been a violent reaction.... note to self to use less water and keep the jugs at 1/2 full instead of 3/4 full :) oh well, no biggy and the plants were unaffected.. does cover up the smell quite well though... smells like apple cider vinegar.


Well here are the pics of the ladies today on day 63 of flowering.

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Pretty dank looking my friend !!!
 
Here is a quick update of my VEG tent featuring the Advanced LED EX VEG 200's. I am very impressed with how fast these lights veg my plants, and I've actually already had to trim them a few times to minimize them getting too tall before my flowering tent is ready for them which should be in just a few weeks. Overall the plants look pretty healthy and are growing very very fast, and I am only using each 200w panel at 1/2 power. I will up the power to full in another week to get them ready for the much brighter flowering tent.

I am considering running my V'scrog but I don't know if it will be too late by the time my flowering tent is done, but I may just trim the plants back and scrog them out but its yet to be determined.

I did notice that my leaves look very healthy and green, but under normal light they show a slight Mg defficiency so I will be adding epsom salt to my next feeding, which will be when I get back from my vacation. Otherwise the plants look really good, other than the slight MG deficiency.

Here are some photos of the girls in veg..

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From my experience so far, to get a yield equal to that of a HPS light you need about 60-80% of the wattage (roughly) in order to see similar yields, so that would be a savings of electricity from 20-40% or so. The advantage that HID/HPS has over LED is that the light is not directional and puts out a very good footprint across the entire grow area with a fairly even footprint, where LED is a directional light and doesn't cover the canopy as well as HID, however has more penetrating power than HID due to the use of angled lenses to help direct and focus the light into the canopy.

So for instance, to replace a 1000w HID bulb, you should have at least 600w of LED and you should see similar results. I saw a video a while back of a 600w LED vs 1000w HID and with 40% less electricity use, the yields were near identical. The good thing with LED is that it actually raised the THC content over 3% over the HID bulb harvest, and the LED also had more terpenes than the HID crops. So not only are you saving electricity, but also getting better product.

The reason that people don't get good yields with LED is in my belief due to the bad advertising from LED companies...we have all seen them where a 300w LED is supposed to compare to a 1000w HID... NO WAY it will... but 600w of LED will :) Another reason I think people get bad yields with LED is because they believe the companies "recommended coverage areas" and height requirements but in all honesty I don't even believe that a majority of these charts and coverage areas are accurate which leads growers to expect things that just aren't possible.

But when used correctly, and PAR is accounted for vs coverage area, then the results are fantastic...such as I am seeing in my garden.

I must say you seem to have figured out the combination of square footage and LED selection and placement. :welldone:

I thought I might ask your opinion on this solution:

5x5 Gorilla - Veg only

Advanced 4 DS 200 EX VEG ($1760)

Seeing what your plants look like gives me a wee bit more confidence in spending that amount.... compared to what I would be replacing, or purchasing in place of as the actual case my be a 600w MH or a CMH bulb. Any thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated. Please if you a moment, please feel free to pop over here

I had been following your set up for the past few days, Ronnie pointed me your way. Like I said earlier.... :goodjob: Very nice indeed!
 
From my experience so far, to get a yield equal to that of a HPS light you need about 60-80% of the wattage (roughly) in order to see similar yields, so that would be a savings of electricity from 20-40% or so. The advantage that HID/HPS has over LED is that the light is not directional and puts out a very good footprint across the entire grow area with a fairly even footprint, where LED is a directional light and doesn't cover the canopy as well as HID, however has more penetrating power than HID due to the use of angled lenses to help direct and focus the light into the canopy.

So for instance, to replace a 1000w HID bulb, you should have at least 600w of LED and you should see similar results. I saw a video a while back of a 600w LED vs 1000w HID and with 40% less electricity use, the yields were near identical. The good thing with LED is that it actually raised the THC content over 3% over the HID bulb harvest, and the LED also had more terpenes than the HID crops. So not only are you saving electricity, but also getting better product.

The reason that people don't get good yields with LED is in my belief due to the bad advertising from LED companies...we have all seen them where a 300w LED is supposed to compare to a 1000w HID... NO WAY it will... but 600w of LED will :) Another reason I think people get bad yields with LED is because they believe the companies "recommended coverage areas" and height requirements but in all honesty I don't even believe that a majority of these charts and coverage areas are accurate which leads growers to expect things that just aren't possible.

But when used correctly, and PAR is accounted for vs coverage area, then the results are fantastic...such as I am seeing in my garden.


Nice to hear the LED's produce MORE THC , 3% increase in THC will bump some of the top THC producing plants from 25-26% to a incredible 29-30%. The future is stoney , I am going to look deeper into the topic for educational purposes. More flavor from terpenes is the icing on the cake , these are the two reasons I smoke weed , taste and effect. I use a Vaporizer which releases the extremely tasty part of terpenes in the first few tokes, as I bet everyone knows... on the 420 website.

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The lights look like they are giving good penetration to the bottom half of the plants , I am curious how much this method of growing produces for you , over the scrog. There must be a near ideal way to grow with LED's , a technique yet to be tried or maximized , might be a vertical garden might be a 360 degree garden , not that I have heard of a 360 degree garden. The future will expose the best method / method for us or by us.

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Hey Green Dreamz!!!

Thats sweet you got a XTE... Your plants will love it ! mine are :)

As far as draw watts, both of my panels read at 247w...both of them.

I actually didn't inquire about the difference, because I figured it was a typo on their website.... 274 or 247...but never checked with them. I'm not sure if they have profile on here, but I would suggest either emailing or calling Kyle and he should be able to give some insight to it.

Really happy to hear you got the XTE.. I so far think that these are the best LED's I have used... :)

Along the lines of my earlier question. The XTE 300's you are using, do you think in a 5'x9-10' area that 8 XTE 300's would be too much. That works about to be @ 2000 wall watts.

If thats a bit much then this seems to be the choice to make

6 XTE 300 - vs - 4 XTE 400's for the above 5x9 tent.

Have any thoughts on this since yo have first hand experience with these lights. :nomo:
 
Merry Xmas Ice
 
Along the lines of my earlier question. The XTE 300's you are using, do you think in a 5'x9-10' area that 8 XTE 300's would be too much. That works about to be @ 2000 wall watts.

If thats a bit much then this seems to be the choice to make

6 XTE 300 - vs - 4 XTE 400's for the above 5x9 tent.

Have any thoughts on this since yo have first hand experience with these lights. :nomo:

I think it would be ok if not pretty awesome HighCountry, but i only have a week now with my new XTE 300 and although i already can tell a difference in resin production i feel its still a little early in the game, but watching Ice's grow with them is what i went off:) sorry i couldnt be more help:).....check your PMs
 
All your girls are looking outstanding Icemud.
 
Hey Everyone!!!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.

I will catch up with updates and all the questions and such from the past week tomorrow as I just got back from visiting my parents for the holidays. I had a wonderful trip and even though was sick with a horrible fever I still fully enjoyed being around family for the holiday :)

I hope all of you had great celebrations as well. :) Stay tuned for updates :)
 
I must say you seem to have figured out the combination of square footage and LED selection and placement. :welldone:

I thought I might ask your opinion on this solution:

5x5 Gorilla - Veg only

Advanced 4 DS 200 EX VEG ($1760)

Seeing what your plants look like gives me a wee bit more confidence in spending that amount.... compared to what I would be replacing, or purchasing in place of as the actual case my be a 600w MH or a CMH bulb. Any thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated. Please if you a moment, please feel free to pop over here

I had been following your set up for the past few days, Ronnie pointed me your way. Like I said earlier.... :goodjob: Very nice indeed!

I think that 4 of the DS 200 EX VEG would most likely veg your 5x5 very well. I have 2x of them in my 2.5x5'x7' tent running at 1/2 power and they are doing an excellent job in vegging my girls, so I think 4 would cover your 5x5 really well.
 
Along the lines of my earlier question. The XTE 300's you are using, do you think in a 5'x9-10' area that 8 XTE 300's would be too much. That works about to be @ 2000 wall watts.

If thats a bit much then this seems to be the choice to make

6 XTE 300 - vs - 4 XTE 400's for the above 5x9 tent.

Have any thoughts on this since yo have first hand experience with these lights. :nomo:

Its really hard to say since I have a smaller grow area and haven't used the 400's. But based on my garden, I probably would say 8 of the XTE-300's would be perfect, but you might be able to get away with just 6 depending on your vertical height you have. I am not sure how the 400's differ in coverage area but I think 8x of the 300's would be optimal. I would suggest giving advanced a call and asking them what they think, since they probably know more about the 400's coverage area and can either recommend them or the 300's. With LED, I think that more, smaller wattage lights is better than larger wattage ones because the light is very directional, therefore more surface area of LED will equal a much better coverage area without minimizing penetration too much.

You may even want to get 2 of the XML 350's and maybe a few of the XTE200's or 300's to fill in around them.
 
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