ya i dont quite understand it either, they take pride in calling it their slim line, but lose 2-3 inches of clearance because the ballast is stuck up past the light lol
Both are good lights. HPS is tried and true, been running HPS for 30 years. Can't go wrong there. Plus gavita has an excellent rep.
Ya and $/watt hps is still by far the best deal
Yeah the LED tech is just way to pricey. Everyone tries to justify it with lower energy usage but I think that is often overstated. Probably take 5 years for any energy savings to pay for the light, and it's obsolete in 6 months.
This is what I come to every time I go to buy an LED light.
IDK man.. Me and one other grower have the same amount of wattage going on, 18,000. And his electric bill is over $2000 a month for just his grow with MH/HPS. My LED's run me around $670ish on a full 31 day cycle of 18/6 and includes my residence as well. I could see how they would pay for themselves pretty quick. No bulb changes, less heat, etc.. everyone has their preference tho.
Do you and your buddy live in the same city? Location has a massive impact on electric costs, obviously making the benefit more or less in certain areas.
Yeah.. let me rephrase that. We are both in the same State, and running 1000w EQUIVALENT. So where he is drawing a true 1000 watts at the wall, Im only drawing 480 watts on my 1000w, and they are on high all the time except for when sprouting seedlings.
Ok that right there is why you have lower electric costs, your running less then half the amount of wattage..... Lets be honest here now, do you actually pull the same yields in comparable grows?
What where the difference in yield?
Our yields were pretty close. We both ran an average of ~130 grams dried per plant. I dont know about his PAR readings, but mine ran 1100ish towards the end of flower. I never discussed that with him. I dont think he did any topping or super cropping tho, whereas I did.
How much did 18kW worth of LED equivalent cost you? Yeah my bills are about 1700 a month in the winter and about 2000 in the summer, that includes my home.
I pull a lot more than that out of my grow, two 9kW flowering rooms and I am only using 12 plants. So I can see a possible major yield sacrifice, like about half the yield.
I think I paid around $14,000 for the18 HLG 550 v2's.... about the yield, this was my first indoor grow, and have started the 2nd round. I did learn a lot of things from you guys for sure, and hope to increase my yield this next run.
Holy shit thats like 27k in lights.
No.. it was 18 lights..$14,000
