HLG550 vs Gavita? Anyone with experience with either/both?

kdt15

Active Member
1000$ vs 400$
powers same space

Thoughts? I always lean toward LED but im curious what peoples experiences are or the the pros and cons of each?
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
Are you putting these in a tent? Running a 1000w gavita DEHPS in a tent is not realistic at all, you need a lot of vertical height. The sunsystem AC/DE hoods are more suited for running dehps in a tent.

Id look into the HLG 600 kit instead of the HLG 550. The hlg 600 kit is $723 prebuilt, and is 620w versus the HLG 550 which is only 510w.

The HLG 550 is closer to a replacement for a single ended 1000w hps, but will definitely give a gavita a run for it's money. The HLG 600 kit will definitely replace a 1000w gavita.

The LEDs will save you a ton on your electricity bill, they'll put out WAAAAAAY less heat, you'll run less risk of light bleaching your plants, you'll actually be able to see your plants under them, and in my opinion will increase quality across the board. Oh, and you'll very likely see higher yields too.

edit: forgot to mention: You can actually veg under the HLG light, whereas you'd be silly to veg under a dehps lamp.
 

kdt15

Active Member
Are you putting these in a tent? Running a 1000w gavita DEHPS in a tent is not realistic at all, you need a lot of vertical height. The sunsystem AC/DE hoods are more suited for running dehps in a tent.

Id look into the HLG 600 kit instead of the HLG 550. The hlg 600 kit is $723 prebuilt, and is 620w versus the HLG 550 which is only 510w.

The HLG 550 is closer to a replacement for a single ended 1000w hps, but will definitely give a gavita a run for it's money. The HLG 600 kit will definitely replace a 1000w gavita.

The LEDs will save you a ton on your electricity bill, they'll put out WAAAAAAY less heat, you'll run less risk of light bleaching your plants, you'll actually be able to see your plants under them, and in my opinion will increase quality across the board. Oh, and you'll very likely see higher yields too.

edit: forgot to mention: You can actually veg under the HLG light, whereas you'd be silly to veg under a dehps lamp.
thanks! no, in a large room.

wow hlg600 is 723 prebuilt, 550 is 1050$ x_X? WTF?

thanks! I was doing some math and running 1g/watt for rough yields from LED lights as an estimate to compare with my teams gavita grows, which are hitting like 2g/w. is it possible to get 2g/w with LED HLG550/600?

also, just curious if you have any #s on how much elec you saved from led? Im all for LED but team scoffs at the mid 5 figures to run hlg's in the rooms compared to their traditional gavitas (even though i mentioned the cooling costs)
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
Yeah, i dont understand why the 550 costs more than the 600 but is less powerful, makes no sense.

Yes, you can hit 2 grams per watt with these LEDs if your setup is dialed in. If your team is hitting 2 gram per watt with gavitas, they'll easily hit 2 gram per watt under these LEDs.

I cant give you a full on energy savings that includes AC and all that, but just running the 610w versus the 1063w a gavita pulls, you'll save approximately $225 a year PER LIGHT @ $0.10 a kw hour.

Once you factor in the savings on AC and ventillation, it's gonna probably be twice that or even more savings.
 

kdt15

Active Member
Yeah, i dont understand why the 550 costs more than the 600 but is less powerful, makes no sense.

Yes, you can hit 2 grams per watt with these LEDs if your setup is dialed in. If your team is hitting 2 gram per watt with gavitas, they'll easily hit 2 gram per watt under these LEDs.

I cant give you a full on energy savings that includes AC and all that, but just running the 610w versus the 1063w a gavita pulls, you'll save approximately $225 a year PER LIGHT @ $0.10 a kw hour.

Once you factor in the savings on AC and ventillation, it's gonna probably be twice that or even more savings.
awesome, i agree. ill bring these points up. mathematically no brainer.

as for the 2g/w for hps, thats a little misleading with regards to LED since we are naturally using half the amount of wattage per 4x4 space (1000 vs 510 or 600 watts) so per 4x4 space we will be running half the amount of overall yield as hps. is this correct or does it somehow equalize in the end (3 lb per 4x4 hps and 3lb per 4x4 table led)?
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
awesome, i agree. ill bring these points up. mathematically no brainer.

as for the 2g/w for hps, thats a little misleading with regards to LED since we are naturally using half the amount of wattage per 4x4 space (1000 vs 510 or 600 watts) so per 4x4 space we will be running half the amount of overall yield as hps. is this correct or does it somehow equalize in the end (3 lb per 4x4 hps and 3lb per 4x4 table led)?
You bring a good point there. So are they pulling 3 lb per 4x4 table with the gavitas right now? Because that would be closer to 1.3 grams per watt with the gavitas, not 2. Ive never seen or heard anyone pull much more than 3 pounds per 4x4 area either. They will definitely be able to pull the same 3 pounds under the LEDs though, using about half the energy.
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
Are you sure about this? At what foot print? At what height? I thought the HLG 600 kit was close to a 1000 watt single hps?
Here is the PPFD data for the HLG 550 in a reflective tent @ 22"




And this PDF has the gavita 1000w DEHPS PPFD data in a reflective tent taken at various heights, including 24"

https://growershouse.com/images/DE_TEST_INFOGRAPHIC.pdf

The PPFD of the gavita at 24" is literally identical to the PPFD of the HLG 550 at 22".

And keep in mind the spectrum of the HLG 550 is vastly superior.
 

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
one uses $300 less electricity per year and doesnt require $50 a year in bulbs, and cuts investment in cooling equipment by 40%
What about demand for dehumidification that apparently goes though the roof when running at higher "led appropriate" temps?
 

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
didnt know each gavita needs 50$ lb replacements per year, thanks for that.
Actually according to Jair [owner], he is constantly stressing replacing glass and bulb at the same time after every run or 3 months whichever comes first.
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I have heard from many sources that changing hps bulbs every 3 months is optimal. 6 months is okay too. 12 months is too long, but if you're broke as fuck it'll do.
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
What about demand for dehumidification that apparently goes though the roof when running at higher "led appropriate" temps?
not a given at all. every room is different and you cant equate VPD with a given light source based on all the different climates and growing styles out there

at the end of the day if you have 2 gardens with the same amount of metabolic activity they are transpiring equal amounts of water. how that affects your environment is site-specific
Most likely double. I paid 100 for the phillips
thats based on the cheapest bulb replaced once a year, im being generous

but yes $50-$150/year is a range depending on bulb choice and how aggressive you change them
 

kdt15

Active Member
You bring a good point there. So are they pulling 3 lb per 4x4 table with the gavitas right now? Because that would be closer to 1.3 grams per watt with the gavitas, not 2. Ive never seen or heard anyone pull much more than 3 pounds per 4x4 area either. They will definitely be able to pull the same 3 pounds under the LEDs though, using about half the energy.
they were estimating conservative ~70lb for 30 4x4 tables, so ~2.3lb/table.
thanks for the reassurance, just needed to make sure we could get same or similar yields.

just did a rundown on their numbers. 2.3lb/4x4 table is ~1000g/16sqft = 65g/sqft

with the HLG550 over the 4x4, to get 2.3lb, it ends up ~1.9g/watt (double)

either way im just nerding out. however, is it pretty common to hear good grows doing 2g/watt yields for an LED with no co2? i guess my 1g/w figures were old data from hps perhaps

im also curious how much co2 is needed. from my research, co2 isnt even useable by plants unless we are adding in more light (beyond 40w/sqft for LED) ?
 

kdt15

Active Member
Here is the PPFD data for the HLG 550 in a reflective tent @ 22"




And this PDF has the gavita 1000w DEHPS PPFD data in a reflective tent taken at various heights, including 24"

https://growershouse.com/images/DE_TEST_INFOGRAPHIC.pdf

The PPFD of the gavita at 24" is literally identical to the PPFD of the HLG 550 at 22".

And keep in mind the spectrum of the HLG 550 is vastly superior.
can u redo this assessment using realistic height distances for the gavita? heard they are always pretty high up due to the heat
 

skoomd

Well-Known Member
Sadly I can't. I pulled that off of HLG's website and they don'thave any measurements for 36-48", which is where the gavita would be ran at.

But if you look at the gavita's numbers in that PDF i linked, you can pretty much assume the HLG 550 will have the same values at the 30" and 36" distances they measured since they're so similar at 24".

As for CO2, you'd want to aim for 1000-1500ppm of CO2 to see the benefit from it. And you're right, you'd need more light to really benefit from it as well. Instead of 1 of the HLG 550s per 4x4, you'd want 1.5-2x HLG 550s per 4x4 for CO2 to be useful.
 
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