Which would be better lighting?

[BIGtyme]

HI, im doing a side grow and im torn between 600w hps or multiple smaller LEDS because smaller led would give me a better coverage in theory?
so ill be using a 3x3 tent with small plants, light penetration isn't going to be a probelm with either hps or led. soiless hydro grow hempy style. i was considering getting 3 or 4 meizhi 136w draw from wall. so all together with the 4 would be 544 true watts in a 3x3 space. Now my house is every cold in the winter sometimes dropping into the low 50s i keep a small heater to keep the temp above 65+ during the day when lights are off. Since these are cheap LEDS im thinking they may produce more heat than the single 600w hps because of how cheap they are. The tent will have a 4" exhaust with passive intake.
Now what i really want to know by some experts is how to maximize my yield. i know the hps is tried and true, the 4 meizhi would be >$300. I don't think thats bad, but i don't know. The par are these according to this guy (

) is about 600 dead center, and the in a 12'x12' the corners get up to 200ish. pretty weak compared to hps. and i can get my hps pretty close while keeping a low temp on the canopy. My system is dialed in and i should be able to pull at least a 450g but im shooting for and even 600 or more. ik its possible with the 600 but im thinking i may get more with the LEDS because of canopy coverage? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Hello buddy, I and a couple of other growers use 80x80-90x90-100x100 tents along with 600w HPS setups, if you got a winnable ballast you could work between the 250/400/600/660w settings, they also work great in cool tubes.

I think with led you basically get proper equal coverage but there are qb led setups that folk are now using.

For the price of a good led you could buy a 600w dimable ballast, cool tube, extraction kit and piping, you could probably get a mh and full spectrum bulb too.

 

[farside05]

From experience, I've played the 4 cheap blurple LED game. Yes they will grow plants, but you can do better. For about the same money you could get 2 of the Mars SP-150s or TS1000, or look into a Quantum board setup (that may cost a little more). The newer style "white" or full spectrum LEDs will draw half the power the blurple ones will and will give you far better results. I cut my electric usuage in half and my yield is up 2.5x from what it was by converting from the 4 cheapos to a custom build 3500k strip build.

 

[Jackalope]

I have been sold on the buds HPS lights for years. Even down to 400 watts they do well. I would go with the 600 HPS. It may be a bit much for the tent size right now. It can be turned down and it will also work in a larger set up if you chose to increase in size at a later date.

 

[Alafornia]

CMH 315 watts. They are dimmable, give great coverage and penetration, and put off less heat than MH/HPS.

 

[Nunyabiz]

The key is PAR not watts.

You need roughly 600 PAR as evenly across the whole canopy as possible.
4 Mars Hydro TS 1000 would do that at 18" between 4 separate lights and the cross over.
That would be about $500

You could build a light with 8 Photoboost strips which is only about 320 watts but would give a very even PAR across the whole canopy somewhere around 600 PAR I would think.

That would probably be between $400 to $450.

Proper LED is going to be better than HPS.

 

[Jackalope]

Proper being the key word. Not all people want to build their own stuff. HPS lights come cheaper and are ready to run when they show up.

Once I have grown a great crop with LED I am sure my opinion might change. ( which will be someday) Hard to beat proven results. By proven I mean the hundreds of thousands of pounds being grown under them through out the years. Nothing wrong with new. As long as you have the right new. Lots of LED lights out now do not do what they claim. I'm waiting till the riff raff are weeded out LOL.

 

[Barney86]

I use blurples, Hps and cmh, the hps wins hands down for bud production imo.
Blurples lose the competition because the penetration is pish in comparison to the other 2 and the buds just aren't as sticky or dense.
I'd avoid the mhezi and go for hps.
Cobs and qbs are better and cheaper to run but not everyone can afford the start up cost.
Hps costs £70 for a light that can pull 25-30oz in the right hands.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

I think I'm the same, if been sold on hps since the day I started growing apart from the cfl setup, a great grower on here did say to get the best led get you pay big prices, I must admit I don't think of ever played over £100 for a full his setup, my cool hoods were only 30-35 so I saved every way lol full spectrum bulb is only 25 so 3 a year is nothing over time.

 

[Nunyabiz]

I get at least 20" + of penetration with old cheap blurples.
All of my current grow has about 22" colas and the buds at the bottom are filling in nicely.
Need at least 3 lights drawing 200w from the wall for cross over, and if you SCROG then you have all the penetration needed.
And PAR is PAR it doesn't matter if it's coming from LED or HPS.
Except the LED has a better spectrum than HPS.
Quite a bit of the light (green yellow) from HPS is mostly wasted energy and just creates heat.

In fact LED produces MORE oil/trichomes than HPS and slightly better yield watt for watt.

 

[Mayne]

4 luminus COBS, $280 done, run them at 1800a with a 2100B driver,

 

[ucandewit]

You won't beat the versatility, output, or production from the Samsung based strips and boards. If you compare apples to apples, in other words, the same amount of wattage at the wall, the Samsung leds are gonna win every time. Especially, if you figure in the extra costs of taking care of all the heat produced by the HPS/MH and even the burples. I am in no way saying the boards don't produce some heat, but it is nothing compared to what the others produce. Yes, they are a little work to set up if you buy them separately, but compare how long they are gonna last. This may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the person, but once you put in the effort to try them, you will be hooked.

 

[Lowrider72]

CMH, 630w over a 4 ' x 8' tent, .... 880g.
That was no enviromental control, 2 gallon pots, uneven canopy and spread with broad not focal reflectors.
Easy growing, plants love them.
Good results with LED too but what wattage in same area.
I can go same Umols as Leds with focal reflectors 600+ umol over 4' x 4' area.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Sir, if you use the light in a 3x3 area, why not check out our TSW-2000? It has a higher PPE around 2.15umol/j so that can save more energy, while the light output is not decreasing. The light only puts out 300w, but we have been tested its light data, will fit for 3x3 for sure. Also this light give perfect coverage and less than 300USD.

ts 2000

• Mars Hydro
• May 30, 2019