School me on your lighting experience

dankydank1973

Active Member
Fellow growers. What's happening!

As energy costs continue to rise, I am finally starting to think about a lighting change. I've always run hortilux mh and hps. Typically one 600 watt and one 1000 watt in a 4x8 tent using magnum XXL low pro hoods. I love the setup... I usually pull down roughly 3lbs from 6 plants.

In terms of HID lighting. I love that they throw out heat when growing in winter months. I love that they always deliver. I'm not liking my power bill though anymore!

I'm no expert in New lighting technology so I'm hoping you guys can school me up.

Are the new lights (led, cmh, whatever else I'm not aware of) capable of throwing out enough heat for a 4x8 tent in the winter months?

Are they capable of putting out the same yields while saving on electricity?

Did you notice difference in the final product? I.e yield, color, terp profile, etc..

Let me know what you guys have found! Super curious.

Thanks!
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
I've tried them all...Timber, HLG, Area51 (lol), Nextlight...Most impressed with the light output of the HLG Quantum Board as far as LED goes. They are all good brands, though. Nextlight went belly up, though...too bad...nice lights.

Because I take such good care of my stuff, I still have my original 400 watt HydroPot MH HID light from the 80's...and I've decided to do a run of old school strains using old school technology -just to see if there is a major difference. I'm also going to run a HPS conversion bulb for flowering -works on the same ballast.

The nice thing about using unshielded HID bulbs is that they give both heat and UV -so I don't run a heater or any supplemental spectrum things...kinda nice. We'll see.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Thanks. Well, I'm trying to do a journal this time. I'm running a Chocolate Thai F4, a Northern Lights #2, a Tuna Kush hybrid (salute to the Canadians!) and a Meig's County Gold hybrid....but I'm pretty terrible at keeping a journal.

It's going to be interesting because the MH light is already at the top of the tent next to the exhaust filter to try and deal with the heat from that unshielded bulb. It's almost 400F when I point the heat sensor at the bulb! I'm banking on the fact that the weather will cool down and the room will get cooler, too. I'll have to do some interesting LST and HST techniques to keep the plants from burning up! heh I guess I can always revert to one of my LEDs if it comes down to it. I'm hoping to run them like I did in the old days! It could be fun and interesting.
 

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
I found the lack of IR generated by LEDs to be a real issue in my basement grow during the wintertime.
My basement has one heat zone and stays in the mid 50's during winter, so burning gas to heat the framed grow area would be a big waste.
After some not so great grows with two 480 watt LEDs in the winter, I found out I needed to run a 750watt heater and keep temps around 83F.
Next winter I dug out my two 600 watt HPS and ran those open, not connecting them to the 6" extraction fan in the ceiling. Temps stayed in the low 70's and the plants loved it.

In my experience HIDs outperform LED in colder grows. I think a huge part of it is the high amount of direct IR that hits the leaves and keeps transpiration at a healthy level.

Now I run LEDs in the summer and HPS in the winter for my flowering room.
The veg area does well under T5s all year round.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
The heat aspect can be a make or break deal for LED vs HID depending on your situation. Where is your grow located and why is it so cold? Two 600 watt LED's would kill it for you (even at 80%), but you need to keep the temps at 80 degress (ish)-minimum- to take full advantage of them. They will put out less heat, and less IR, than the HID, but if you can maintain your proper temperatures, I expect a yield increase on the way for you. Can you insulate the room better so that 2 LEDs will cut it? Be sure to keep temps up with a heater during lights off-at least don't allow a huge drop. You should have a dehumidifier in there too, which adds a fair bit of heat. I love my Mars Hydro bar lights, and I'm currently testing an HLG 650R and I think I love that even more. It has a crisper white light that is easier on my eyes somehow and it puts out a great light for pictures.
 

farmingfisherman

Well-Known Member
I found the lack of IR generated by LEDs to be a real issue in my basement grow during the wintertime.
My basement has one heat zone and stays in the mid 50's during winter, so burning gas to heat the framed grow area would be a big waste.
After some not so great grows with two 480 watt LEDs in the winter, I found out I needed to run a 750watt heater and keep temps around 83F.
Next winter I dug out my two 600 watt HPS and ran those open, not connecting them to the 6" extraction fan in the ceiling. Temps stayed in the low 70's and the plants loved it.

In my experience HIDs outperform LED in colder grows. I think a huge part of it is the high amount of direct IR that hits the leaves and keeps transpiration at a healthy level.

Now I run LEDs in the summer and HPS in the winter for my flowering room.
The veg area does well under T5s all year round.
Have you tried or have you already insulated the space you are growing in? I know its a basement so it naturally stays cooler but it still seems that you could capture more of the heat from the fixtures and other equipment needed to grow if the space was well insulated and sealed.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
If you put three lights (an LED, a T5 fluorescent and an HID) in a completely empty room and then put a cat in that room and come back 15 minutes later....whichever light the cat is sitting under is the one to use to grow weed. Nature knows all. That's as scientific as I'm going to get. :)
 

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
The heat aspect can be a make or break deal for LED vs HID depending on your situation. Where is your grow located and why is it so cold? Two 600 watt LED's would kill it for you (even at 80%), but you need to keep the temps at 80 degress (ish)-minimum- to take full advantage of them. They will put out less heat, and less IR, than the HID, but if you can maintain your proper temperatures, I expect a yield increase on the way for you. Can you insulate the room better so that 2 LEDs will cut it? Be sure to keep temps up with a heater during lights off-at least don't allow a huge drop. You should have a dehumidifier in there too, which adds a fair bit of heat. I love my Mars Hydro bar lights, and I'm currently testing an HLG 650R and I think I love that even more. It has a crisper white light that is easier on my eyes somehow and it puts out a great light for pictures.
In the winter I'm actually fighting low humidity. The gas heater seems to pull all the humidity out of the air. The veg area is in the same area as the heater, while it's great for the heat if I forget to refill the humidifiers the RH can drop into the teens sometimes. The flower room does ok humidity wise with just the transpiration from the plants and the extraction fan on low.

In the summer with the extraction fan on high and the two 480 watt drivers outside the grow area I can just barely keep it under 90F.
For now, I try to grow enough product so I can shut down the flower room during the extreme months. I try to skip the July, August months and skip the January, February months.
 

farmingfisherman

Well-Known Member
Have you tried or have you already insulated the space you are growing in? I know its a basement so it naturally stays cooler but it still seems that you could capture more of the heat from the fixtures and other equipment needed to grow if the space was well insulated and sealed.
The heat aspect can be a make or break deal for LED vs HID depending on your situation. Where is your grow located and why is it so cold? Two 600 watt LED's would kill it for you (even at 80%), but you need to keep the temps at 80 degress (ish)-minimum- to take full advantage of them. They will put out less heat, and less IR, than the HID, but if you can maintain your proper temperatures, I expect a yield increase on the way for you. Can you insulate the room better so that 2 LEDs will cut it? Be sure to keep temps up with a heater during lights off-at least don't allow a huge drop. You should have a dehumidifier in there too, which adds a fair bit of heat. I love my Mars Hydro bar lights, and I'm currently testing an HLG 650R and I think I love that even more. It has a crisper white light that is easier on my eyes somehow and it puts out a great light for pictures.
Totally missed this.:wall:
 

dankydank1973

Active Member
I'm in a bedroom. Theres only one duct in there and it's at the opposite end of the house so it doesn't provide much heat really.
I layer plastic on the floor and put up a matt insulation on the walls and use a space heater in there. My house stays around 64f through the winter. The room stays around 68-70 with lights out. 78-80f lights on (1600watts of COOLED hid lighting).
The house is really inefficient. Doors leak. Windows leak. It's on a crawl so the floors are always cold. I can straight up feel cold drafts in the house. It sucks. Furnace runs damn near all day when the real winter weather sets in.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
In the winter I'm actually fighting low humidity. The gas heater seems to pull all the humidity out of the air. The veg area is in the same area as the heater, while it's great for the heat if I forget to refill the humidifiers the RH can drop into the teens sometimes. The flower room does ok humidity wise with just the transpiration from the plants and the extraction fan on low.

In the summer with the extraction fan on high and the two 480 watt drivers outside the grow area I can just barely keep it under 90F.
For now, I try to grow enough product so I can shut down the flower room during the extreme months. I try to skip the July, August months and skip the January, February months.
I have the same situation here in northern Alberta. Cool basement/crawlspace and low rh most of the year. The room is insulated but 2 of the walls are concrete with 1/2" and chipboard over it so are always a little chilly and the floor is smooth painted concrete too. If I try to hit rh as recommended by VPD charts the floor and walls sweat. By Feb it will be around 45F in the greater part of the basement and my room air is drawn in from there thru cheesecloth filters. It's 7x9x6.5'h so about a 5x5 grow spot.

I have a variety of HID lights mostly older magnetics but 3 - 600W digitals. And a Light Rail 4.0 to extend the range of a bulb. Make a 400 do the work of a 600 and a 600 work as good as my 1000W. Only uses 9W itself.

I do have a little COB light for about 2x2 of my 2x4 veg tent here on the main floor and a DIY 11 LED bulb fixture using 9W bulbs with the globes popped off to cover the other side but not well. Very limited spectrum in those bulbs and I have a few 2700K mixed in with the 5000K ones. The COB grows not bad.

CrowdedTent.JPG

:peace:
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I can't imagine two 600 watt LED's + dehumidifier not producing enough heat to heat a bedroom. I have one in a normal size room and it gets so hot during the winter I need to throw open the door and led the cold air in at night sometimes lol. If all your heat is going out the window or something, just get a piece of foil backed foam insulation and cut it to shape and tape it over the window. You can find where you are losing lots of heat with a heat gun-then just block off those spots (or insulate them) somehow-it'll make a massive difference in a leaky room.
 
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