LED Grow Room First Thoughts

[The Happy One]

We got our first LED grow room set up and nearly ready to bring some plants in. Before firing up the garden, I wanted to put her through a day of operation to see how the operation went. My very first thought within a few minutes of firing up the lights was the amount of heat they actually put off.

We went with Atreum boards which are based on the Quantum boards technology and use the same top bin LM301's we've all came to know.

Face it, any board based on the Samsung LM301 chip put out a LOT of light.....and a heckuva lot more heat than I ever thought an LED would ever put out!
However, watts is watts, and we sized the HVAC to deal with 550 watts per light or a total light wattage of 17,600 per room. Believe me, running these LED lights in our 22x40 room is like running a 60,000 btu furnace and trying to combat that with an air conditioner, so don't let anyone tell you they have an LED light that actually can replace an HPS and put out little to no heat. This said, I CAN reduce the cooling requirements to about 60% of what it would have taken utilizing HPS lighting. That really is a big deal, provided the LED's can really produce similar results as an HPS solution. I put my reputation on the line that they will. I hope I'm right.
I've known from the past with using HPS lighting, with the heat from lighting comes the ability to penetrate a canopy, and I'm thinking these LED's will be able to do just that. I sure hope so, as we have a lot riding on the success of this LED venture. This room will also determine the fate of the lighting in the other grow rooms.

In closing, I'd love to hear from anyone who made the conversion from HPS to LED and what growing characteristics changed between the two. I'm also curious if the LM301 Quantum boards are being used in other commercial grows. If anyone is or has, please chime in. I'd love to hear your story!

 

[TurboBucket]

so don't let anyone tell you they have an LED light that actually can replace an HPS and put out little to no heat. This said, I CAN reduce the cooling requirements to about 60% of what it would have taken utilizing HPS lighting.

Really? reducing the heat load by more than half and still providing a comparable amount of light energy isn't a considerable reduction?

Not many commercial growers here.

I use atreum boards in my little tents not sure your looking for that input. Couple of things that get overlooked with LEDs, you typically need to hold a higher room temp than with hps. Hps lights directly heat the plants more with the energy they emit (more ir). Plant metabolism increases with temp until a lack of co2 causes a short in the chain reaction inside the leaf. (Basically). Less heat applied from the lamps means you need more heat from the air. Which means less ac, always a plus.

Second they need to be pretty close to the canopy. I run my boards at 80w ea and keep them as close as 8 inches during flower.

Some of it may be repetitive for you some may be new. I have no idea what your grow knowledge is. Good luck

 

[The Happy One]

Turbo...thanks for the reply. I guess I need to rephrase my comment. What I was getting at is IF I can compete with HPS lighting and do it for half the energy of both running the lights and conditioning the room, then yes. It's a HUGE plus. I mean HUGE.
You mentioned you were running your boards at 80 watts. I'm running mine at 137 watts. The drivers are Meanwell 485's tuned to 545-550 watts per 4 board light. In stock format, they were still running 122 watts per board. I fear if we were anywhere near 8 inches from the canopy I'd be smoking the tops...literally. Thoughts?
I have only two LED grows under my belt and that was with a single COB array I built for my personal 6 plant medical grow. I've never used the LM301's, however I bought a PAR meter just for the HLG Quantum board the local hydro shop had, and the PAR ratings from that light convinced me and my partner that LED's might have came along far enough to justify looking into them. There was a larger NextLight along side the Quantum light. The Quantum blew it away in average PAR readings.
Since we are in a sealed room with Co2 injection, I was leaning on 80-82 degrees. With HPS in a sealed environment I kept temps right at 80 deg, and the plants LOVED it. . I'm thinking I need to add a few degrees to that figure with the LED's. Thoughts?
Again, thanks for your time!