Hey I'm still fairly new to all this, so if something I say is very obvious please be understanding. I have been reading a bit on LEDs as alternatives to CF and HID lighting, I like that it apparently gives off no heat. My question is, would it give a comparable yield, and would it eliminate the need for cooling systems or even venting?

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a LED is an alternative to incandescent bulb but not to an CFL, leave alone a HID.

something (LED) that gives you 20 - 80 lum/W can not beat something that runs at 130 - 150 lum/W (HPS) nor emit less heat at the same lumen output. so please don't waste your money on todays LEDs, they are still not up to that task.

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Keep the gun oiled and the thumb green!

Yep, what ^he said.

I might consider it for mother plants to sit under, if the price were lower.

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Welcome to my garden

Ive seen good results from more expensive specialty panels for vegging with but these LED's were not the $10-$20 junk that is gotten from ebay either....
The panels were both put on a tandom lightmover and used over an area that was about 4foot wide and about 8 foot long. Growth was a very healthy green color and internodes were kept very compact despite the lights not putting out very many lumens.


the person using them said that they would never DREAM of using them for anything else however.
IMO the price range and inital investment of these lighting units is initally what makes them less usefull for the average home grower that only looks to grow smoke for themselves.

man i was gonna go get a LED setup but maybe not... whats a good ballast for a 400 hps?

I am running 2 - 400 watt lumatek digital ballasts, and I am lovin them. So far I haven't seen much for complaints on them. The best part is they make no noise.
Another great thing about they HPS digital is you can run the metal halide bulbs in them. I use the agrosun classic & agrosun gold bulbs which has inhanced red spectrum for the flowering stage.

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Cheers!!!!! Shinningwind
current log @ HGS
Shinningwind's Outdoor Adventure/09

shinningwind,

Is a metal halide bulb better than the Horilux eye to vegetive?

Smoking Joe

The metal halide's I use are inhanced with 38 % more red light than a regular metal halide. I use these throughout the grow. I really like them. Very tight buds though.
The blue spectrum is suppost to be better for vegging.
Plants will stretch less under the blue spectrum and keep a shorter node spacing.
I use a 1000 watt eye hortilux enhanced spectrum it produces 25% more energy in the violet,blue and green spectrum than a standard 1000 watt hps bulb. I have only used this one in flowering. I have not used it for vegging.
Not sure if i completly answered your question or not, but I hope that helps.

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Cheers!!!!! Shinningwind
current log @ HGS
Shinningwind's Outdoor Adventure/09

im vegging with led right now
have flowered with them and u can get a decent yield per watt but not compared with an hps.......
ill find out in a week if they are good for vegging or not

Hi Shinningwind,

I am in the process of upgrading my 250 watt hps to a lumatek ballast. Been using t5's for vegging and the 250 hps hortilux eye for flowering. As you mention with the lumatek you can use metal halide's with the same ballast, so my question is would it be better to use a metal halide for vegging? My next grow is a autoflowering strain that finishes in 5 1/2 weeks and not really sure what light combo would be the best? Considering using the t5's on 18/6 cycle, but for flowering the 250 hortilux eye is the best! I was flowering under the t5's and switched over to the 250 hortilux and almost overnight the buds started getting a lot bigger with new growth. So what combo would you suggest for autoflowering strain and what combo for a regular strain?

Thanks

Smoking Joe

I have heard people have great results vegging with t-5's.
The easiest route to take with the best results would be to get the full spectrum metal halide like the argosun classic, or gold and use that the whole way through.
If your looking to have mutiple things on the go.
t-5's for vegging. A small batch of girls flowering with the 250 hps and what ever else you have on the go with the full spectrum halide for whole grow period. I always keep one of the plain cheaper Hps bulbs on hand for a spare for the lumateks.
Really its whats gonna work best for your situation.
I personally like the full spectrum metal halide's for the entire grow.

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Cheers!!!!! Shinningwind
current log @ HGS
Shinningwind's Outdoor Adventure/09

I Have Tried The Led's And They Suck,they Kept Plants Alive And That Was It...maybe For A Mother,but That Is It.

Yeah I've done some extra research into it, and it seems like the LED's would have nowhere near the growing power supplied by the conventional bulbs. It's a shame, they looked to be a great energy saving tool.

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