July 2019, the days are long and hot in Los Angeles, CA and I’m daydreaming about starting my own Cannabis company in the PNW. It’s not too long after, that I’m conditionally approved for business by the state of whatever and am ready to start selecting and purchasing my grow equipment.
With the aid of some experienced bay area growers who do this on the “real” scale, I’ve budgeted out a posh way to spend $35,000 on equipment and grow some very good Canna What! We had settled on HPS (high pressure sodium) Duel Ended lights as they’re fairly inexpensive to buy and are generally regarded as the best flowering lights for producing quality yields in Canna Who! But the lighting equipment is arguably the most exciting grow product to pick out. The rest of it’s just… guages, switches and stuff… in my opinion. 
So I started reading about the battle between new school LED technology and the undisputed, industry dominant HPS lights and low and behold Gavita International, who had long held out against entering the LED lighting market was weeks away from releasing their next Gen 1700e, 1000 watt, Osram and Samsung LED grow light to the general public… “ Interesting!”
To be honest, the unit price point here was a legit turn off because I could grab x4 high quality 1000w HPS lights for the same amount of money and thus fill my canopy space and leave a lot of $$$ for feeding/watering automation which would equal a lot less work and time in the garden. AND, there’s not quantity discount or sale pricing anywhere.
However, aside from simply getting into the MMJ industry semi-early, I think a company still needs to stand out, heads above the rest to have a fighting chance at survival and with LED’s being the future of lighting, it was probably a bullet I needed to bite. A few other options presented themselves but I ultimately settled on grabbing x6 of these units and the corresponding controller and light adapters which offer some additional functionality such as dawn/dusk (15 minute ramp up/down light intensity to simulate a natural sun cycle) and extreme temperature controls. This was far and away the biggest spend of the grow setup. A cool $10,000 went into the newest lighting tech on the market and a few days later they were delivered and ready for my electrician to wire in my new drops. I justified the spend by assuming that my long term electricity bill would be cut in half every month. The lights themselves only use 60% of the wattage needed to power the HPS’ and they also generate a tiny fraction of the heat which would allow me to exhaust and cool less across my rooms.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. The adapters are likewise used on previous Gavita lighting models and the required cable type was not included with my order. I had to get in contact with an account rep (very nice and knowledgable fellow) who promised to overnight me the cable. The “overnight” turned into a couple weeks of excuses about warehouse employees and shipping issues but it did eventually show up, free of charge and we daisy chained everything in. It’s worth noting that these lights can be operated w/o the controller, they simply are OFF or ON at 100%.
Aside from feeling like I was helming up a state of the art grow operation, I had to see how my vegging plants would react. Manufacturer reco is to keep these approx. 18" above the plant canopy but my gut was telling me that would be too intense for my young girls (at this point, I had no idea if they were girls or boys) so I used the controller to set the lights at 60% intensity with a 23 hr ON / 1 hr OFF light cycle. This further lessened my electricity costs and the plants seemed to thrive for nearly 2 months of veg.
I got a lot of surprised admiration from grow forums and discord channels when I would post progress reports of my garden but one of the problems I had was that no one else was experienced with the lights. Seriously, just look up the hashtag #gavita1700e on instagram and you’ll only find a couple accounts (one of them is me — @montana_canna_co. I mean, these were literally brand new to the market when I bought them and we put them immediately to work so you can rest assured this is one of the first real harvest field tests for the 1700e’s. That’s part of the reason I wanted to write up this review so that others can skip the informational blackouts I went through when installing and operating the lights throughout our harvest.
So, that kinda brings me to today! January, 16th 2020. Day 1 of the flush. My lights have been running since October 30th and on a 12/12 since December 4th. We’ve got roughly one week left to fatten up the buds and can truly see the finished product the Gavita’s produced in my environment. But I’m also curious what you think and I’m available to answer questions. Instagram is probably the best place to inquire but you can try me here and I’ll likely be back soon for an update.
The pros/cons breakdown below points out my overall thoughts.
PROS
- $$$ Saving on electricity — My monthly electric bill is less than $300. That’s UNHEARD OF for a grow op. Nearby gardens are well into $600 / month for a similar size canopy with HPS lights. At this rate, I should most definitely see an ROI on my decision to go LED. BUT, I’m not here to save money on the grow, I’m here to produce world class canna What!
- My environment stays warm but not hot — The lights definitely heat up but they don’t seem to radiate and it doesn’t feel like they’d do significant damage or fry the canopy right away if I let it grow too tall.
- Easy to raise/lower and control — The EL2 is simple and effective. What the manual lacks in explanation, the functionality makes up for in its straightforwardness. The lights raise and lower easily enough even in a crowded room or in the Gorilla Grow Tent 10x20.
- They look cool as Heaven — Let’s be honest, when I’m showing off my products and my process, I’m out to impress my customers and peers. This sure helps! AND I don’t have to stare at blurple every time I’m checking on the girls.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE PLANTS LOVE THEM — Again, I’m not doing a side-by-side here and I’ll have to wait one more week to truly see how the plants finish (bud size, trichome production, overall yield) but see the progress pics below and judge for yourself.
CONS
- There’s no inherent way to mount the adapter to the light fixture — We ended up just zip tying the adapter to the tent cross poles. To make matters worse, when I proposed this question to Gavita on their social media channels, no one got back to me. When I called my sales rep, he didn’t really understand the issue. You’re telling me I’m the first person to point out that the lights need to be raised and lowered as the canopy grows and the adapter is just supposed to hang in the air??!!??
- They’re wide and I bonk my head — Yes, the fixtures are so low profile and they don’t breath hot air at you so it’s fairly easy to forget they’re right above your head. I’ve smacked into them multiple times.
- Incorrect equipment shipped with the purchase — as I mentioned above, the cabling was wrong and it took weeks to get the correct connectors and terminations to utilize the controller system.
—1 year later—
First, let’s talk power consumption. I’m running 6 lights with the coinciding adapters and master controller. I burn them 18/6 in veg and 12/12 during flower. My local electric coop charges 6 cents per Kilowatt Hour so let’s do the math.
ELECTRICITY COST
Energy Charge: $0.0642/ kWh ( for first 600 kWh /mo The G’s put out the equivalent of 1,000 watts but only burn 650w. (x6 = 3,900w total) at 18hrs that’s about $4.50 per day of use in Veg at 100% power and $3.00 per day in the flowering 12 hours. Keep in mind, I run my setup at 60% power in early veg and ramp up to 80% to start flower and don’t hit 100% until maybe mid-week 2. Bottom line is I’m running less than $200 a month for my 6 light setup.
FORECASTING A LARGER ROOM
We’re expanding in 2021 and will be adding a whopping 48 lights to the operation. I’m forecasting $1,100+ energy costs per month due strictly to lighting… not bad at all. For 1K HPS lights, that would be $1,800 plus the additional HVAC/cooling costs. Now, don’t forget that I have the upfront purchase expense to acquire 48 lights/adapters/controllers. That hurts no matter how I look at it at over $1,200 per light and NO seasonal sales or discounts. !!$$$$!! I’m just thankful we’ve made the progress we have in this industry. Who knows what the future holds. One thing’s for sure. This industry will be a race to the bottom so being efficient and thrifty is as much a business plan as it is a good practice.
ISSUES
My short history is not without issues. Sometime over the summer, a small strip of 12 diodes went out on a light. While seeming to have no noticeable negative effect on my plants, I requested a replacement from my local retailer and was given one under the 5year warranty. SCORE! Additionally, I’ve had some normal but seemingly excessive wear and tear on one of the adapter cables which is causing it to not make a solid connection with the cable and thus is prone to flickering if bumped. This was not acceptable for a number of reasons but was not deemed ‘broken under warranty’ so no replacement was given. This was the policy of my local store and not the Gavita manufacturer. I’ve muscled it into place and reinforced with some electrical tape which has so far solved the problem.
GOOD LOOKING OUT
Aside from the issues, the setup has also saved my garden in periods of high temperatures. Throughout 2020, we’ve been building a more appropriate grow facility while also making due with the existing infrastructure. Our air conditioning abilities are pretty much nil and we instead opt for high air flow circulation / venting. This works well in all but the hottest of months. For us in Montana, that’s August where temps can reach 100 degrees in the afternoon hours and drag on through evening. Even though the LED’s omit far less heat than comparable lighting solutions, they still radiate and will put a room inhospitable to cannabis. I personally, don’t like my plants to get warmer than 86 F at the extreme. This is where the Gavita EL2F master controller with its auto-dimming feature comes in handy. As the temps rise above a set threshold (85 degrees in my case), the light intensity is reduced down to compensate. It can go as low as 50% output. I’m sure we sacrificed a couple of days/hours of max grow potential but saved our crop from stress, herming or even death.
COMPARISONS — Gavita vs KIND vs Flexstar
I’ll be honest, I’m curious about the competition… actually, let me re-phrase that. I’m curious about the cheaper competition. My veg plants likely don’t need a $1,200 state-of-the-art, osram LED, Samsung driver Gavita / Fluence monster. I grabbed an older KIND LED blurple from a friend in Los Angeles and sought out x3 of these [Alibaba Flexstars ] for a soon-to-be-done comparison.
Shipping was $200 for each unit but they showed up safe and sound within a week. I haven’t had the opportunity to do a full life cycle comparison so it would be unfair to make assumptions at this point but if they happen to perform, I could possibly save thousands or even ten thousand on my setup.
The hardware appears to be identical to the Hawthorne/Gavitas. Truely, the cherry on top of this shake would be a 4 way light challenge with one of the Fluence Spydrx added to the mix.
So, I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth because just making a decision on which light solution to go with is hard enough without comparing apples to oranges BUT…. I couldn’t help myself from making a little stat vs cost on industry leading options on this. Make of it what you will but if the manufacturer stats can be believed as accurate, there is a clear winner here… hmmmm… AND just because I can’t keep quiet, why are companies charging $1,500, $1,700 dollars for a product that can’t set a higher bar? You be the judge.
ANOTHER BOTTOM LINE
So, as it always comes down to, specs matter not unless you have a spectacular finished product. I’ll speak little on this and let the images tell the story. I find that light penetration is great on all but the most bushy of indicas and with a bit of trimming we get universal growth throughout the plant.
LA Kush Cake, Sundae Float & Red Diesel in flower
Notice the color expressions from the different strains and the absolute knockout finale. We’ve grown a Sundae Float strain that reached nearly 33% THC content and under the microscope, it’s clear that the plant is getting what it needs to develop world class trichomes.
I’ll do a part three write up when we can do our light comparison.