What am I missing

So, I see a lot of commercial setups and large scale growers raving about plasma lighting such as the gavita pro line 270w.

The price seems ludicrous and I have come to the conclusion that I must be missing something as the 270w plasma puts out less ppf than a mars ts1000 (kid you not). 30k hour lifespan seems a bit lacklustre as well.

The price is roughly 10 times equivalent LEDs for equal coverage and ppf. What am I missing? All the selling points from every retailer here is efficiency and lifespan, but the efficiency is worse than even old tech epistar/bridgelux LEDs (let alone 281 or 301b boards), and lifespan is similar. For example my 240w 301b Longboard has a ppf of 570umol.. that's nearly double that of the gavita 270 LEP for $175 (roughly 1/8th to 1/10th of the price here)

I don't think you missed anything.. Seems a bit ridiculous..

HydoDan said:

I don't think you missed anything.. Seems a bit ridiculous..

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Just thought I'd check. I've overlooked some seriously obvious shit before at first glance, but it just seems like a ride to me.

I just started looking into them as I noticed a lot of huge scale grows using these, and a large scale commercial setup a mates doing HVAC for has used these gavita LED lights exclusively. I have seen them before but just assumed they were CMH from a distant glance and was surprised to find out all the local hydro shops sell plasma lights.

VincenzioVonHook said:

So, I see a lot of commercial setups and large scale growers raving about plasma lighting such as the gavita pro line 270w.

The price seems ludicrous and I have come to the conclusion that I must be missing something as the 270w plasma puts out less ppf than a mars ts1000 (kid you not). 30k hour lifespan seems a bit lacklustre as well.

The price is roughly 10 times equivalent LEDs for equal coverage and ppf. What am I missing? All the selling points from every retailer here is efficiency and lifespan, but the efficiency is worse than even old tech epistar/bridgelux LEDs (let alone 281 or 301b boards), and lifespan is similar. For example my 240w 301b Longboard has a ppf of 570umol.. that's nearly double that of the gavita 270 LEP for $175 (roughly 1/8th to 1/10th of the price here)

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I used one to flower out some large/tall mothers. They have the best penetration of any light I've used. That being said the bulb did not come close to the advertised longevity and was very expensive for what it did. I wouldn't bother.

curious2garden said:

I used one to flower out some large/tall mothers. They have the best penetration of any light I've used. That being said the bulb did not come close to the advertised longevity and was very expensive for what it did. I wouldn't bother.

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yeah, ive herd the light penatrations great, but expence is not so great.

it seems the future of growlighting is LED, GREAT FOR YOU GUY'S, ASHITTY FOR US UK GROWERS, WE NEED THE HEAT, oops caps lock. it would seem that there trying to take the experiance of growing and learning out of the growers hands, intelegent grow systems, you program in your lighting needs and off you go. again, great for some, not so for growers who like that hands on aproach.
also, there playing around with the spectrum that seedlings require and need to grow to there full potential. so what they saying, that the latest spectrums and lights are not the best for plants, never had that problem with MH/HPS, i dont think ill ever get rid of my metal halides or sodiums. i love em so much, and never had problems with them, apart from heat build up in the summer, nothing a few fans cant sort out