Firstly, I am an admitted Newbie. However, I am a research/data freak. I found complete reviews of various LED grow lights on Youtube. What a difference between products! As a result of this information, I am sending the LEDs I ordered last week back and getting a different kind. According to the research, the LEDs I originally ordered produce about HALF the PAR (the amount of usable light for photosynthesis), and effectively cover 1/3 less area.
I am so glad I did this research. I never would have expected such a difference between similarly priced products.
I would be happy to share info, just not sure if you can post brands here.
@dbrn32@MAXHeadRoom knows about the LED lighting subject. You can post links from amazon here. Or screen shots of anything else. What kind of LED did you order, and what did you return? @Medforme
@Covertgrower@Oldstoner I originally ordered Niello 300W, which according to the research delivers about 295 PAR. Way under what they claim, so I am returning them. I am replacing them with Meizhi 300W, which deliver over 500 PAR.
Many of us use Meizhi and love them mine are the 450 w reflectors they pull a little over 200 true watts and work great . Eventually your going to catch the I want its and get more lighting just grab some 450s now
@ Noctis420 MARS were good, but did not rate as high on PAR. Don’t remember the exact rating. Do note that in the research I did MARS was recommended frequently, so I think they are decent. Also, I am not sure PAR is the end all rating. Someone else might have better insight into other aspects.
@Oldstoner I have a small tent. If needed I will get one more 300W. That will be 900W total for a 3’ x 3’ x 69" tent. I think that will be more than enough. And I like that I can use one, two, or three lights.
Thanks for the info @Medforme the plants seem to love the light anywho. I was using a Morsen Horticulture Full Spectrum 600W LED but I switched and i think the Mars hydro are better. The 600s true watts are 130 and Mars was 132 for a 300watt lol. The Morsen did have 10 watt double chips it seems brighter but it runs hott and the Mars has 5 and runs much cooler.
There’s definitely some pretty big differences in grow lights @Medforme.
Just a couple things to be aware of… That light draws about 130 watts, so with two of them you could expect 260 watts and three would be 390 watts. I would also be leary of the review claiming 500 par, where did it come from? The manufacturer listing on amazon claims 300 ųmols dead center at 18" height. With the par readings dropping fairly drastically outside of a 1’x1’ area. That leads me to believe that the measurement was taken at about 12" height. No big deal if you are buying multiple fixtures, but it will be a small footprint at that height. Here is a screenshot of par mapping.
As far as I can tell marshydro is a lower end model. A hobbiest light for use newbies. To step up to the pro levels you going to pay about a $1 per watt are so it seems. While I am giveing it a chance, imo a 300w hps is still better then a 600w led with 280w tru draw. Imo. . I will add I’m putting 3 of the 600w marshydro in a 32"-32"-53" tent to see they will increase yield over the 300w hps.
I want to try the hps but I’m dealing with heat issues and led save on the electric bill. Hps might be good for winter though. I want something i can use all year. I mean I could invest in a stronger exhaust. I plan on getting a really nice led or 2 next year. After i get a few more grows under my belt…so what would you suggest that’s for a more serious grow? @Wishingilivedina420state
I just ordered a 8x4x6.5 tent so it’s going to go in this for sure. For now I’m going to have the two mars hydro and the 600 watt morsen. I’m going to want a better light for the space I’m sure for max yield. Sorry @Medforme for rambling on your thread.
If you are planning on filling that whole tent, you want to try and get to 35w/sq. foot of growing space. For 8x4 (32 sq. ft), that comes out to 1120w (true draw). The Morsen 600w, for example, has a 115w draw - so you would need ten of them to get to the general footprint required to cover that entire space with enough light intensity to maximize yield.
Cost-wise, that’s roughly $1K to light up the space in cheap LEDs. So now you can go look at the quantum boards and other more expensive options to see what the dollars per watt comparison would be. Of course, more lights, more configuration options.
For example my first grow I used a 1500w LED (260w actual draw) in a 4x4 tent with six plants and it was clearly not enough light.
What kind of yields are you pulling with the hps? Led’s definitely aren’t magic, but providing a full spectrum light is almost always much easier to grow under. For a new grower, I would suspect a bigger yield under the led. But if you’re in the neighborhood of a gram per watt with hid, I wouldn’t expect a huge difference in yield by moving to those. You would definitely want some higher intensity Led’s to surpass hid yeild.
That’s a big reason why I stick with my MH/HPS fixture. LEDs have come a long way for sure and eventually I’m sure I’ll give them a try but for now I’ll stick with what I got. I love my current setup and have great results and don’t want to ruin a good thing.
the plants seem to love the light anywho. I was using a Morsen Horticulture Full Spectrum 600W LED but I switched and i think the Mars hydro are better. The 600s true watts are 130 and Mars was 132 for a 300watt lol. The Morsen did have 10 watt double chips it seems brighter but it runs hott and the Mars has 5 and runs much cooler.