LED - FLOURO- MH or HPS ???

Hi, Im starting a nice grow room and I would like to get some input on what the real growers think is the best kind of lighting to use.

I keep reading about LED and how much better they work for growing then the rest, I would to get some input from people who have used all 4 kinds or have some knowledge of all of them.

Which way is the best to grow with?
Why better then the other 3 kinds also.

All input is Appreciated

how much money you have?

I veg with T5's and flower with HPS and love it.

MH are good for veg as well.

LED's are a waste of $$ IMO but some like them and some people like Miracl Gro as well, depends on your financial situation.

Think of where you have read that LED's are so much better, was it the sales website or some journal with no pictures to prove their results. I don;t really care to weigh in here because all lights have advantages and disadvantages, every grow is different and everyones ability to adapt and fix things is different. Easiest would be LED or Flouros, but yeild the least vs inital investment.
I do the same as jesus, veg with t5's and flower with a 1000 w hps.

How much money you have. I use LEDs and hps to flower and CFLs and t8 floro tubes to veg.
It's all about what light will fit your needs/space/budget.
Little more info

TruenoAE86coupe said:

Think of where you have read that LED's are so much better, was it the sales website or some journal with no pictures to prove their results. I don;t really care to weigh in here because all lights have advantages and disadvantages, every grow is different and everyones ability to adapt and fix things is different. Easiest would be LED or Flouros, but yeild the least vs inital investment.
I do the same as jesus, veg with t5's and flower with a 1000 w hps.

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I agree with this guy. But.... I have seen a down side on LEDs with first hand experience. Well I guess every light has there down falls

rak1 said:

Hi, Im starting a nice grow room and I would like to get some input on what the real growers think is the best kind of lighting to use.

I keep reading about LED and how much better they work for growing then the rest, I would to get some input from people who have used all 4 kinds or have some knowledge of all of them.

Which way is the best to grow with?
Why better then the other 3 kinds also.

All input is Appreciated

Click to expand...

LEDs are expensive but they are the best/most efficient for growing with watt per watt (as long as its a good LED light and you are going by the actual power draw and not the advertised name which is usually much higher). Expect it to cost as much as $1200 to replace a 600w HID system with LED (although if they are good LEDs you may only need 400w of LED to replace a 600w HID

lots of people will say led's are great, and that flowering with cfl's is great also, it depends alot on your budget, your grow area size , so many things can affect your choice , is heat an issue , can you vent in fresh air?, I think cfl's are ok for vegging but MH hid lamps are better but cost more to run, i flower ith HPS and because of coverage and lumens power , this for me is the only way , led's are exspensive to buy and in my view are shite lol, you need to many million dollar panels to get anywhere near the power of a couple of 600W hps bulbs, i personally veg with t5's and Cfl's and flower with hps lights , beaware there are 500 trillion led salesman lurking that will tell you led's are the shit , nonsense, indoor grow lighting is a massive business , tred steady =)

Good way to put it. WATT FOR WATT. LEDs have more good things about them then bad. The light runs super super cool. No heat at all. Less money on fans duckt exc. I use 2 90w LEDs UFOs and a 150w hps in a tent and it works wonders! Just as good as my friends 600w hps set up. I maintain the same yield while using almost half the energy and electricity.

everywhere cannabisgrowers have talked about it.
they have said, leds are good for veg and very small flowering rooms.
usually with some supplemental light (fluo usually)

it seems to be best to build your own. (to get the best bang for your buck)

considering how long they last, its not really that high of a price, although when they do fail, you do have to replace all or most of the system. (the most expensive parts anyway)

considering their coverage ,its a pretty steep price though.
mostly useful as a small stealth grow or where heat is excessive perhaps.
but, i havent tried them, just read a fair bit about them.

only seen them once in action at a growshop (got the usual spiel, 90w equal to 400w!)
well, the light was surprisingly strong surprisingly far from the bulb, though very simple colour and difficult to compare that really by sight to mh or hps. (specially not side by side)
but the covered space by the leds was miniscule about 1/4 what a 400 would do, at best 1/2 (again, mostly a quick glance) but looked more like 1/4

and the pricetag was 4 times more than a 600w hps (much brighter)

Interested in this one. Find out how people feel about LEDs

LEDs are expensive but they are the best/most efficient for growing with watt per watt (as long as its a good LED light and you are going by the actual power draw and not the advertised name which is usually much higher). Expect it to cost as much as $1200 to replace a 600w HID system with LED (although if they are good LEDs you may only need 400w of LED to replace a 600w HID

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Im not disagreeing with anyone, but like i was just reading on ebay, about 1 ft panel / 15 w of Led is about the same/good as a 400w hps setup.
Is this just bs sales or what?

Led's are for little ppl who live in shoe box's, there shite, been there , never again , i like buds , not pop corn....

Bs sales.!!! If your going to get LEDs you need real LEDs!!!! Those panels are complete garbage. People buy dumb stupid cheap LEDs and it doesn't not do anything then leave a bad review on LEDs grow lights.....if your going to go with LEDs get a REAL LED grow panel or UFO. They are more pricey but you'll love every electricity bill that comes in every month

Chelseys Man said:

Bs sales.!!! If your going to get LEDs you need real LEDs!!!! Those panels are complete garbage. People buy dumb stupid cheap LEDs and it doesn't not do anything then leave a bad review on LEDs grow lights.....if your going to go with LEDs get a REAL LED grow panel or UFO. They are more pricey but you'll love every electricity bill that comes in every month

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Do you mean those round UFO'S on sites for about $30-$40 ?

rak1 said:

Im not disagreeing with anyone, but like i was just reading on ebay, about 1 ft panel / 15 w of Led is about the same/good as a 400w hps setup.
Is this just bs sales or what?

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You read the ad and really believed it? That was exactly my point, don't ever believe salesman!
Seriously do you believe that we all missed that you can do with 15 watts what we do with 400 watts? 1 of those panels is barely as powerful as 1 cfl, a small one! If you plan to use LED's with any success at all you must really research and buy a powerful light. The very least would be a 90w UFO, but now they are coming out with 3 - 5 watt per led lights, those have some potential, otherwise they aren't worth anything. They are just a scam. Those are super cheap worthless leds.
Best bang for your buck in lighting is HID (hps or mh) at this point, but then you have to cool it, and that raises the price. If you really want good info tell us about your area and abilities (could you figure out how to vent to outside if needed, etc.) and we will do our best to point out issues and what we truely think would work for you.

Haven't checked in a while but when i lasted checked you could expect to spend $90 on a 90 watt led.

TruenoAE86coupe said:

You read the ad and really believed it? That was exactly my point, don't ever believe salesman!
Seriously do you believe that we all missed that you can do with 15 watts what we do with 400 watts? 1 of those panels is barely as powerful as 1 cfl, a small one! If you plan to use LED's with any success at all you must really research and buy a powerful light. The very least would be a 90w UFO, but now they are coming out with 3 - 5 watt per led lights, those have some potential, otherwise they aren't worth anything. They are just a scam. Those are super cheap worthless leds.
Best bang for your buck in lighting is HID (hps or mh) at this point, but then you have to cool it, and that raises the price. If you really want good info tell us about your area and abilities (could you figure out how to vent to outside if needed, etc.) and we will do our best to point out issues and what we truely think would work for you.

Haven't checked in a while but when i lasted checked you could expect to spend $90 on a 90 watt led.

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My grow room is going to be 12x12 120sf , so Im kinda researching all the lights possible, I have been on ebay for days now.
I can vent the room fairly easily, but I need light info.

if the LED light you are looking at costs less then $1000 your taking a chance, if its less than $500 your wasting your $. also expect to need about one of these per 4 reasonable sized plants. so in a 12x12 room i would say 6 to 8 of these will be needed at minimum if your filling the place up. or you could go with 2 1000w HPS (~$400 per full set up) and only be slightly lower than the optimal lighting.

however don't get me wrong....if you got the cash for the LEDs i would give them a try and get more than is recommended. Get with like 10 of em and put some UV-B cfls in there with em and bang you will have some nice stuff.

I'm going to flower with a the 100w blackstar led. Only because I am growing in a mini fridge that will be outside(shaded, but heat will be somewhat of a issue I'm sure) so I am pretty confident it will work for my needs. For anything else I would probably go with hps.

Yeah leds is not for you then, you actually have 144 sq ft, although i highly doubt you want to use all of that as active garden area, but i don't know how big your wallet is.
I will start with basics of light coverage and more importantly penetration. In HIDs (MH or HPS) a 400 does about a 2x3 a 600 a 3x3 and a 1000 watt a 4x4 area. T5's, t8s and t12s are different coverage an 8 bulb 4' t5 does about a 4x4, but will not penetrate like a hid will, but you can keep it much closer as it is an equal light spread, vs a single bright ass bulb in the middle. Typically these are used for veg and not flower as they do not have quite the lumen/watt as hid nor the ability to get the super dense buds. LED's have very small areas of coverage that are very hard to dial in, it is hard for your eye to see the "light" they are making.
For what you are doing i would consider building a veg room and a flower room. I would def go with HPS or HPS/MH combo in the flower room, but the veg room you could go with some t5's and have very bushy plants to flower.
With HID's reflectors make a huge difference, and have a huge variance in price. There is basically 5 types, uncooled open type, deep types, shallow types, huge types and cool tubes. Each has benefits and downfalls, open you have a hell of a time cooling, but can have the best light spread (adjust a wing), deep type are my favorite with a very directed beam of light, few downfalls except the directed beam of light doesn't have huge area coverage, but unbelievable penatration. Shallow spread the light across the whole garden but lack in the amazing penetration, but are probably the most used hood out there. The huges ones are the new fad, but i really question the use of light with those, seems too spread, probably causes more variation in light. Cool tubes will forever be popular because they are so adaptable, horizontal, vertical, with hood, without. Have even seen someone attach a cool tube to an adjustable-a-wing. Vertical parabolic type hoods have really lost popularity, but fall under my open uncoolable type.
A good thing to keep in mind is that a 1000 watt hps that is not cooled will produce about 5000 btu. Good luck, hope this helps seems like you are on your way, but remember there are websites out there that will keep up with ebay prices all day long, often beating them. Need any links i have plenty.

rak1 said:

My grow room is going to be 12x12 120sf , so Im kinda researching all the lights possible, I have been on ebay for days now.
I can vent the room fairly easily, but I need light info.

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HTG SUpply