Frostie069
- 189
- 63
Hi there,
I made the switch to LED lighting only recently and in general have been happy with them but as time goes on I am asking myself the question, how is this saving me money or how is this economical?
In winter I will probably have to run a heater, I'm already running a much bigger dehumidifier which will do some work through winter too.
LED light spread and penetration is far from fantastic which means I've just dumped some good coin into supplemental lighting and I'll still need to buy another two to sufficiently light the entire tent evenly.
I bought a LUX meter a little while ago, I know it's not the best way to test but im not dropping the coin on a PPF meter just yet.
I'm in the max LUX range(65,000) for flower in the centre of the tent and only running 50% off the main LEDs, now that's awesome, I will add a energy monitor soon to see what im pulling from the wall.
Outside edges are half that which puts them out of the range they should be in for flower. No good and you can see the deference in growth between centre and edges.
So by the end of it I'll be around the 3.5k in the hole to light a 5X5 evenly, running a 650w main light and 4x 100w supplemental lights. holy shit!!
then add the dehumidifier and heater.
Previous grows my MH or HPS would sufficiently warm and remove a good % of humidity. As for spread I never measured then, however I assume supplemental lighting would have been beneficial for outside edges.
As a summary while I'm only running my main LED at approx 50%, I need allot more lights and more equipment to make the LED grow work, and it comes with big buy in costs. My main led also needs heaps of space between light and canopy, means a more expensive tent. I can get setup for veg and flower from scratch with MH or HPS for $250-300 brand new bulbs inclusive, smaller tent, no heater and less running of the dehumidifier.
Anyway I'm committed now so I'm going all out on the LEDs but I feel a little bit "had" from the economical side of things.
anyone have similar thoughts or completely disagree?
Happy Growing and stay Frosty
I made the switch to LED lighting only recently and in general have been happy with them but as time goes on I am asking myself the question, how is this saving me money or how is this economical?
In winter I will probably have to run a heater, I'm already running a much bigger dehumidifier which will do some work through winter too.
LED light spread and penetration is far from fantastic which means I've just dumped some good coin into supplemental lighting and I'll still need to buy another two to sufficiently light the entire tent evenly.
I bought a LUX meter a little while ago, I know it's not the best way to test but im not dropping the coin on a PPF meter just yet.
I'm in the max LUX range(65,000) for flower in the centre of the tent and only running 50% off the main LEDs, now that's awesome, I will add a energy monitor soon to see what im pulling from the wall.
Outside edges are half that which puts them out of the range they should be in for flower. No good and you can see the deference in growth between centre and edges.
So by the end of it I'll be around the 3.5k in the hole to light a 5X5 evenly, running a 650w main light and 4x 100w supplemental lights. holy shit!!
then add the dehumidifier and heater.
Previous grows my MH or HPS would sufficiently warm and remove a good % of humidity. As for spread I never measured then, however I assume supplemental lighting would have been beneficial for outside edges.
As a summary while I'm only running my main LED at approx 50%, I need allot more lights and more equipment to make the LED grow work, and it comes with big buy in costs. My main led also needs heaps of space between light and canopy, means a more expensive tent. I can get setup for veg and flower from scratch with MH or HPS for $250-300 brand new bulbs inclusive, smaller tent, no heater and less running of the dehumidifier.
Anyway I'm committed now so I'm going all out on the LEDs but I feel a little bit "had" from the economical side of things.
anyone have similar thoughts or completely disagree?
Happy Growing and stay Frosty