LED Lighting

So im very curious about growing with LED's, people say that there effective for MJ growing and they dont give off much heat and save you lot of $$ when it comes to energy.

Is it worth buying? has anyone ever grown with LED's? if so post your expirence with them pleese.

i have a 12x12" 225 led panel that works just fine.. altho it is for supplemental lighting..
I have CFLs over the canopy and LEDs facing the the entire plant..They do work, but arent really upto much with regard to flowering..Unless you want small yield and fluffy buds.
i guess with enough of the spotlight type leds you might get results but i dont think the technology is quite there yet for an all led grow.
led is the way forward,its just not 100% there yet

so what your saying is that LED's suck?

what type of light spectrum do LED's produce? im sure itll work for veg, but id only add them to flowering ontop of another light source.

chronicle said:

what type of light spectrum do LED's produce? im sure itll work for veg, but id only add them to flowering ontop of another light source.

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LED'S produce red,blue and yellow light spectrum. the mixture kinda resembles a purple glow.

Here read this discription

168 LED GROW LIGHT BULB MIXED RED & BLUE 110V Screw Bas - (eBay item 220181625495 end time Dec-13-07 17:14:22 PST)

chronicle said:

what type of light spectrum do LED's produce? im sure itll work for veg, but id only add them to flowering ontop of another light source.

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the one that im thinking of geting is blue and red, heres the description:


FEATURES:Solid state, Cooler running, High efficiency, Wide angle, New Dual Color Blended full spectrum plant lighting. 138 red LEDs and 30 blue LEDs. Threaded to fit all Standard threaded lamp sockets.

BENIFITS: This threaded LED bulb runs warm, not hot like other plant lights. You will not experience unsightly brown burned leaves when they accidentally touch the LEDs. This leaf burning is common with most other lights which get very hot. This more controlled running temperature reduces the need to water so often and keeps rooms with plants from getting uncomfortably hot in the summer months requiring additional air conditioning. Extreme energy efficiency permits this new LEDThreaded Plant Grow Light Bulb to pay for itself many times over each year in electricity savings. It saves 50% to 90% in energy consumptioncompared to incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes. Wide angle projection insures uniform leaf coverage.

Scientifically calculated even blending of red and blue LEDs eliminates the time consuming task of repositioning separate colored lights back and forth trying to achieve uniform exposure. 14 to 16 hours per day is all that is necessary for maximum plant health with this wave blended lighting system. This allows distances 6" and less between the LEDs and the plants accelerating photosynthesis. Red and blue wavelengths are for growing and flowering of plants.The typical white plant lights that are very hot are unnecessary and just consume excessive electricity. The purity of the LED generated light lengthens flowering periods. These LEDs turn on instantly and can be turned on by hand each day or work well with all standard lamp timers.

The design of this new all in one Full Spectrum LEDThreaded Plant Grow Light Bulb allows maximum level photosynthesis food production, growth and flowering all in one. It is the new Full Spectrum system providing maximum plant health, beauty and productivity.
These LEDThreaded Plant Grow Light Bulbs are perfect as an all year plant light for permanent plant benches, fill in plant lights to insure full plant health in the darker winter months and especially productive for spring vegetable and flower seedling development.



Specifications:
Body material: Glass
30 Blue light LEDs: 465nm (nanometer) wave length
138 Red light LEDs: 650nm (nanometer) wave length
138 + 30 = Total 168 LEDs
Color: Red + Blue = Purple looking to the eyes
Working Voltage: 110V
Power: 12.0 Watts
Dimensions: 4.75 inches (120 mm) outside diameter + 4.75 (120 mm) height

looks cool, but only 12 watts? i guess it just doesnt use much power, i dont know much about LED's. im always the type to support getting atleast a 400watt, but if money is a serious issue then just get like 8 CFLs. i think 'warm' is for flowering and 'cool' is veg, i have 6 in my bathroom wall sockets just cus theyre pretty.

I discussed this LED idea with an electrical engineer resently. He said the power to lumens ratio is only 25 percent more efficient than CFLs. But, of course the startup cost is enourmous. So, I think it is not such a good idea. But, perhaps in a year costs will have shifted enough to make it work.

I think LEDs are going to be the future.. if somebody can nail it down in the GROW world, they are going to make a fortune in LIGHT sales!

iloveyou

mockingbird131313 said:

I discussed this LED idea with an electrical engineer resently. He said the power to lumens ratio is only 25 percent more efficient than CFLs. But, of course the startup cost is enourmous. So, I think it is not such a good idea. But, perhaps in a year costs will have shifted enough to make it work.

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I agree for the most part, but i'd say its probably more in the region of 35%... when we first got our 12x12" 225 led panel i took it to work and tested its spectrum ranges, and found that it emits the correct wavelengths of red and blue alot more than other lamps we checked it against..
You can buy the 12x12" things on ebay for around 40-50 bucks..
I'm not saying they suck, just that you'll need the several 225/900 led units to do a full grow,which would prolly give decent results..
But for the most part i think they are the ideal companion for CFLs during veg and in particular ,flowering.

I'm using RED LED grow lights to supplement a 250w MH and I think they're very useful, my biggest problem was trying to grow too many plants for what i was using etc so next time I'm gonna do fewer plants so i can get the lights closer etc.

check out my thread history, my 250w MH w/LED supp 19 days flower thread has posts from the beginning of my grow somewhere in the thread.

Anyone that thinks LED are a good deal should take a look at the lumen output of these fixture. That piece of information seems to be difficult to come by on the units I've seen discussed on rollitup. The are getting better everyday, perhaps even as efficient as MH or HPS, but they will cost you 3 times as much to buy as the HID. I guess it is at least 2 or three years before most grower would have a good reason to use LED's unless they just want to experiment with them. For the typical LED's I have seen discussed here if you were to match them watt per watt against HPS you might do about as well with the LED.

well i have 4 of those 12x12 panels, so do you think that it will be enough? for 4 plants with the help of cfs of course.

ducks13 said:

Anyone that thinks LED are a good deal should take a look at the lumen output of these fixture. That piece of information seems to be difficult to come by on the units I've seen discussed on rollitup. The are getting better everyday, perhaps even as efficient as MH or HPS, but they will cost you 3 times as much to buy as the HID. I guess it is at least 2 or three years before most grower would have a good reason to use LED's unless they just want to experiment with them. For the typical LED's I have seen discussed here if you were to match them watt per watt against HPS you might do about as well with the LED.

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Part of the problem is that LED is an obsolete technology. GE and I suppose competitors, are about to release a new light technology into the market, that will obsolete LEDs and most light bulbs. Introduction is probably two years or less. It was invented by a organic chemist. The light "bulb" is a flat piece of coated plastic.

wait, whaaat. learn me. flat plastic, wtf