LED grow lights... input please.

[mad max]

Any news about led grow lights?

[Mary Stokes]

i am still waitin for some proof that these things work.
We growers use hps bulbs cause they do the job and we show results here all the time.
come on dudes less talk and more results :smokin:

[Alaric]

all the way through------last time I researched led techonology the INTENSITY is very lacking.

Intensity of natural sunlight is around 10,000 fc (foot candles), clear summer day at noon.

A 1K hortilux produces that intensity about 18" directly below the fixture----another 18" is only 2500 fc (in the shade relative to sunlight).

Alaric

[Gart79]

all the way through------last time I researched led techonology the INTENSITY is very lacking.

Intensity of natural sunlight is around 10,000 fc (foot candles), clear summer day at noon.

A 1K hortilux produces that intensity about 18" directly below the fixture----another 18" is only 2500 fc (in the shade relative to sunlight).

Alaric

I will try to explain what I know (since I'm a physics person). If I'm wrong, anyone can correct me - I certainly wonâ??t take offence.

Basically, an LED is potentially the most efficient way of making light (pn-junction); itâ??s a diode. As some people on here are rightly pointing out, although light radiation can be given in intensity, it doesnâ??t mean anything to talk about the whole intensity of a source like the sun, if your including wavelengths that are unusable - one must concentrate on those particular colours that are (whatâ??s the intensity of blue and red in the white sunlight you mentioned?). Eg - take the sun, for example, say itâ??s about 1000w per M squared (power per unit area) on a good clear day. But plants are GREEN, which means that they reflect all that green light (they arenâ??t going to use it so we canâ??t compare it to the LEDs intensity). The suns spectrum is made of loads of colours.

So, now you have to take away all that green light (green and yellow and others, because plants only use red and blue right?) from the total intensity donâ??t you, because itâ??s meaningless to your plant to include things like yellow light intensity. But hey - itâ??s great to us humans because our eyes are really sensitive to that colour/wavelength (with me so far?).

So in order to make ANY comparisons to do with intensity, one must determine the intensities of the particular wavelengths of light (in a spectrum of emitted light from a source eg fluorescent/LED/sun) that our plants need.

With this in mind, I could see it is highly likely that a low intensity of 7W of LED's light (just the stuff our plants like) could outperform a 100W HID (because the HID gives out loads of light that the plant isnâ??t going to use).

It would be great if there were more reviews of this product online. I'm not saying itâ??s definitely brilliant, but it could be.

[Abattoir Dream]

well.... this is the first time ive read this thread, and its pretty cool, i was thinking of looking into it myself a while back, but never got round to it, now ive read this board, it made me think of using LED's for side lighting, only like, 10 per light, i think if a company found out the right mix of LED's, for good vegg. and flowering spectrums, and a way to keep it simple and tidy, they could sell pretty well, i mean, think about it, any grow could benefit from a few LED light boxes just sat in each corner, it wouldnt get too hot, and your plants would love it, even if you just had a couple as boosters for a cfl set-up, ready to be switched on for flowering... its definately something i would pay for, if it existed...

[Gart79]

my reasoning behind going LED was the total waste of electricity that even my highly efficiently bright wing fluorescent was making (110W), and not forgetting the highly suspiciously orange/yellow glow I'm forced to have emanating from my wardrobe. Lol - Itâ??s a nightmare!

IF these LED lights do what they are claiming to do (http://www.solaroasis.com/grow_shop....0Professional), then I'll be willing to convert some pounds to dollars and purchase from the US, but I cant understand why there arenâ??t any UK distributors yet.

If I go online looking for good and honest personal reviews by customers about LED grow lights, there arenâ??t any, just a lot of speculation - which, although more is always welcome, is no substitute for a real trial.

I'm not going to put these things down right away, because I have studied LED tech and know about what is poss. If these are good/get good enough (which is inevitable really), then all other grow lights will be obsolete, making all those ballasts and other things obsolete too; all those air cooled HIDS and all those range of products will go. It will mean grow projects can happen more out in the open in a house, rather than confind to some sellar, or spare room (in could be in the corner, behing a curtain), because the light the plant absorbs, we humans are not sensitive to (unlike the onslaught of light given off by flouresents and HIDs) and thatâ??s why Iâ??m really interested!

[Treetops]

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.ph...ic=62193&st=40

[Gart79]

Cheers for that; itâ??s quite interesting! I think I'll go and buy an LED array. They (solar oasis) are claiming 100W HID's/250W fluorescents worth of useful plant light from one ruby bar (that is possible, because most a HIDs light is wasted, whereas no LED light is wasted). If thatâ??s true, thatâ??s enough light output for my small grow!

The grow shops (in our country) are claiming that LED lighting is not being looked into, as it isnâ??t productive enough; someone is not quite right; I just guess it'll cost me 130 quid and a fare amount of hassle to find out.

[oldsanclem]

The bright red tail light is a very narrow spectrum. I have tried to use a white hight output leds in a tail light. Installed it in to the tail light. Put power to it , and no light came out the red lens. Reason a White led does not produce a spectrum of reds. NOW all the leds red, blue, green etc are all that way. Now if you look at the spectrum of growing its a smooth arc. NOT (freq's or angstroms )
IF leds worked it would be all over the internet and in every industral user would jump on them faster than a duck on a june bug.
O WELL back to using 30 year old florsents 4 ft bulbs and a 30 year old Mh ballast and a new bulbs.
O lord I see the light, zaaaaap , darn its a bug zapper.
Now think if LED did work effeciently industy would use them in a heart beat. After all its only a few Billion dollars saved each year.
Do pot grower know something industry does not know.
Bottom line my fairy godmusther is a whore and charges for her favors. imp:

[Gart79]

The bright red tail light is a very narrow spectrum. I have tried to use a white hight output leds in a tail light. Installed it in to the tail light. Put power to it , and no light came out the red lens. Reason a White led does not produce a spectrum of reds. NOW all the leds red, blue, green etc are all that way. Now if you look at the spectrum of growing its a smooth arc. NOT (freq's or angstroms )
IF leds worked it would be all over the internet and in every industral user would jump on them faster than a duck on a june bug.
O WELL back to using 30 year old florsents 4 ft bulbs and a 30 year old Mh ballast and a new bulbs.
O lord I see the light, zaaaaap , darn its a bug zapper.
Now think if LED did work effeciently industy would use them in a heart beat. After all its only a few Billion dollars saved each year.
Do pot grower know something industry does not know.
Bottom line my fairy godmusther is a whore and charges for her favors. imp:

The reason why you donâ??t get a red from what is called a white LED is that there is no red light in the spectrum (hence your filter cannot filter it out as it isnâ??t there to begin with). Its really a blue LED with yellow phosphor (thatâ??s what I've learnt). Interesting experiment though! I donâ??t see how that could affect the chances of LED plant lighting succeeding? LEDs usually donâ??t emit a wide spectrum because of the way they make light. That is an advantage in plant lighting, as plants only use certain bandwidth of light energy, so what you said is actually an advantage for plant lighting and is not a problem at all really.