100% LED Light Usage

[wolfcry]

hey all,

I was hoping someone here could tell me if they've strictly used LED lighting, NOT in conjunction with HPS, CFL etc. and what were the results of the plants?

Were they spindly? Sickly? Mal-nourished? etc. etc.

I've been doing research on them but from what I've read, LEDs should only be used in conjunction with other forms of supplemental lighting fixtures.

Thanks.

[hydroguy]

hey all,

I was hoping someone here could tell me if they've strictly used LED lighting, NOT in conjunction with HPS, CFL etc. and what were the results of the plants?

Were they spindly? Sickly? Mal-nourished? etc. etc.

I've been doing research on them but from what I've read, LEDs should only be used in conjunction with other forms of supplemental lighting fixtures.

Thanks.

Howdy wolfcry,

LED lights are an evolving industry, they have come a LONG way in the past few years and will undoubtedly continue to improve in the years to come.

With that being said, I jumped on the LED bandwagon about 2 years ago and invested in (4) 1'x1' LED panels, mounted them all together and set them over a 2x2 flood table. Perfect match I thought, 4 sq. ft of light over a 4 sq. ft tray and it REALLLLLY lookeed cool when it was running. What I ended up spending was way more than a 250 watt MH unit would have cost. Within 2 weeks I new I had made a costly mistake, the LED unit is now sitting out in my shop somewhere.

Times have changed since then, there is a product out called the "UFO", among others, that I have heard good things about. For the time being though your better off running a 250 or a 400 HID IMHO. Down the road though I am more than confident there will be an LED I will purchase, but for now I'm gonna stick with HID's.

Just my $.02's worth of experience,

hydroguy

[wolfcry]

Howdy right back at ya hydroguy.

Wow, that's not good at all. I must be confused though, I thought LED's only used up 9 - 10 watts per hour which is considerably less than HIDs or CFL's and were supposed to cut the bill to practically nothing.

This link will point you to an online retailer that makes the claim they run on 9 watts of energy while pumping out more usable light energy for the plants up to 40%.

https://www.led-grow-master.com/index.html

Is this correct? Meaning, if it ran on 9 watts, wouldn't that be more cost effective than HID or CFL or am I steering in the wrong direction?

I'm new to the whole hydroponic / indoor growing setup so I'm trying to learn as much as possible and there's definitely a learn curve to hike over. I want to be able to grow plants indoors (I'm a Chef and will be using the produce grown) but I do not want a hellacious electrical bill in the process.

Also, did you notice any differences in growth when using the LED lights standalone?

Thanks for all the help!

[hydroguy]

The debate about LED's will continue for some time to come until the day when they are a proven alternative to HID and that day will surely come as advances are made at a staggering rate.

I'm in the process of building an herb garden at the moment and if I felt there was a viable option to HID's they would be here instead of the HID's I just installed. Like I mentioned earlier there are some LED's out there that are getting close but for me they are cost prohibitive. Retailers claim that the initial costs can be covered by reduced operating costs and this is true but for me I'll be running my indoor garden only during the winter time and the excess heat will used as supplemental house heat and not externally vented.

I should mention that operating costs of HID's are a bit overstated by some, the 1000 watt systems I've ran in the past costs about $40 per month each. But as energy costs continue to rise and we become a "greener" community LED's will undoubtedly have a place in my and many other gardens.

Best advice I could offer is get one and try it, heck, post some pictures here and we can all learn from each other. That's the whole reason for gardening forums IMHO.

Good luck to ya wolfcry,

hydroguy

[hydroguy]

I got to thinking about your link and the source of some of the info you have acquired. If it meets the moderators approval I'd like to post a few links to some online magazines that I read on a regular basis. There's tons of info, at times too much LOL.

Point is just don't take my advice or an advertisers advice, read and research as much as you can before making a decision, happy reading:

https://www.progressivegardening.com

https://www.maximumyield.com
(my personal favorite)

https://www.growingedge.com

https://www.gardenandgreenhouse.net

https://www.urbangardenmagazine.com

and there are others, again, if crossed a line by posting these links my most sincere apologies and please delete this post.

hydroguy

[wolfcry]

Very nice Hydroguy! Thank you!

I'll definitely be reading quite a bit in the next few days. Those links will most definitely help.

The plants on the progressive gardening site were very impressive. Even more so considering they are grown hydroponically or basic soil less containers. Very impressive indeed.

I know this is a little off topic, but the growing edge site had an article related to Genetically Altered salmon and I have to admit that that really bothers me. Not so much that the product is being Genetically engineered, because if they can produce food that is actually safer to eat without introducing a new danger or risk to the consumer or to the natural ecosystem, I'd be all for it. But because of the true reason it's being done (strictly for higher commercial yields for higher profit margins with record low production costs) that will never happen. In order to stablize a product that has been genetically altered, the engineers must replace what they take out with a substitute element (which is always synthetic because it must be mass produced and be cost effective and will 99.9% of the time effect those who consume it in a negative way. Aspartame is a prime example of this.) otherwise it [host dna] collapses and you'd have some pretty freaky mutations and the system wouldn't work.

Being a Chef, I see and know first hand what genetically altered food does to those who consume them. Take milk for instance. High in commercially produced hormones, especially estrogen. To see the evidence of what this does, just look at the over-developed 9 - 12 year girls walking around looking as though they're in their late teens and early twentys. Not to mention the ever increasing rise in toxicity levels in humans that is creating a pandemic in illnesses such as cancer, toxic shock and million other problems and concerns because of the high dosages of antibotics that are in the products that are virtually destroying the human immune system.

But what I find the most disturbing is how the FDA is nothing more than coporate lobbyists now that will approve anything for the right pay off without any regard to true public safety or voice.

Ok, my lil rant is over lol.

Thanks a bunch again hydroguy, the information you provided will definitely help!

[Hydrogardener]

I have three 90 watt UFO LEDs and use them for indoor gardening. Here is a link that you might find useful.

https://www.greenpinelane.com/

[wolfcry]

Hi hydrogardener and thanks for the info.

When using your LED's do you use them NOT in conjunction with other forms of grow lights?

If yes, what is the end result of your plants? Are they sickly looking, spindly, malnourished etc. etc..?

Also, if you wouldn't mind, how much a month does running the lights add to your electric bill and how long do you run them each day? And do you have your plants in a light proof grow room or is there natural supplemental light?

I ventured over to the site you posted and read the field testing for the 90 watt UFO. Very interesting. Though the plants in the pictures, unless it's my eyes due to the color of them, appear to be kindly sickly looking. then again, as I stated, it could just be my eyes.

Reason I'm asking such technical questions, is because I have a 16' X 16' room on the third floor of my house that has 3 sky light windows (2 west, 1 east) that allows for a fair amount of sun but because none of them are south facing, it's not as much sun as I'd like it to be. Not to mention, because I'm on Vancouver Island, there are a lot of raining days so there's days hardly any sun penetrates the room.

I'm trying to find the BEST lighting method that is the MOST cost effective (won't kill my electric bill) that will benefit the plant in all growing stages. Vegetative, flowering, fruiting etc. Because of where the plants will be, I would need a light fixture capable of providing excellent supplemental lighting.

[Hydrogardener]

I do not use them in conjunction with any other lights. The lights may add about ten dollars a month to my utility bill. They run 14 to 16 hours a day.

The plants are fine, the color is due to the light changing the color balance of the picture. The plants are a healthy deep green and very compact. Eventually I plan on using only LED lighting for indoor gardening.

Recently I assisted a school in Canada establish a hydroponics program for troubled students. They purchased UFOs, HPS and T5 fluorescent lighting for their program, and feel that they obtained the best results with the UFOs.

[wolfcry]

Thank you for the info Hydrogardener. It's definitely helping.

Would it be ok if I got the contact info for the dealer you use? I've been doing research on them but the stuff that comes up states to beware because 95% of them are fakes and will burn out within months of using. And because of the price, I'd really hate to be scammed like that.

I was wondering also if I could get the name of the school you assisted. I'd love to speak to them to get their advice about how they set everything up.

[Hydrogardener]

Thank you for the info Hydrogardener. It's definitely helping.

Would it be ok if I got the contact info for the dealer you use? I've been doing research on them but the stuff that comes up states to beware because 95% of them are fakes and will burn out within months of using. And because of the price, I'd really hate to be scammed like that.

I was wondering also if I could get the name of the school you assisted. I'd love to speak to them to get their advice about how they set everything up.

The first two lights I purchased on ebay from this person. The lights have been in service for over a year and they were as advertised, and I had no problems with the dealer. The third light was purchased directly from the factory by the school teacher who sold it to me for cost.

I am going to keep the name of the school confidential at this point. I will say that they reported the project to be a great success.

With the current state of the economy UFOs are selling for half of what they originally cost when first introduced.

https://myworld.ebay.com/redhotnow/

[Hydrogardener]

This group of lettuce seedlings have been developing under a red/blue 90 watt UFO for only two weeks. As you can see by the photo they are healthy and compact. Seedlings grown outdoors in a garden should look this good.

[img]https://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp121/hydrogardener/seedlings.jpg[/img]

[melonlady]

Those plants did look alright. I am just a huge skeptic after seeing lots of comparisons between LED and HID and LED being blown away or failing completely. I hope LED does become a better light than HID because it is soo much more cost effective. If you have some light already coming into your house then you should use T5 lighting. The bulbs can be switched out to grow or bloom. Some of the T5 lights, such as the Bad Boy, can get pretty big and have lots of Watts. Be careful though because the T5 light dissipates quicker so you have to keep it closer to the plants BUT it doesn't get as hot and doesn't use as much electricity as HID. Hope that helps!

[Hydrogardener]

Well to each his own I guess. I have a six tube Pioneer T5 light that puts out 29,000 lumen as well as the LEDs. In my opinion the LEDs perform as well or better, and I don't have to replace tubes every 5,000 hours for a hundred dollars. The LEDs don't fade like fluorescent lights do either and they last 100,000 hours. I recently worked with a school in Calgary and they had HIDs, T5s and 90 watt LEDs all running as an experiment. They said the LEDs outperformed all of the other lights, and they ordered 60 additional units. But do what you think will work for you.

Check out this guy when you have a chance.



https://www.greenpinelane.com/