LED compared to other lighting

[iamachavvy]

I have been looking into getting some new form of lighting for my plants, but i am confused.

Is LED lighting better than the rest??
How much energy does it use compared to other lighting??
Does anyone have any suggestions of which lights to buy??

Any facts on LED lighting are welcome. Thanks.

 

[Zombee]

All you really need to do is do your own independent research; I see growers happy with a wide variety of LED units from a dozen different sources. I can't speak for anyone else but myself and what I use, and even then I still have no complete grow with the units themselves.

LED's tend to have a more focused and smaller footprint, however they *can* bring to bear a tremendous amount of PAR wattage to bear. Almost any LED unit will product incredible vegetative growth, however, many have been reported to produce airy buds, or non-potent meds. You have to really hit up many forums, look for completed LED grows and draw your own conclusions.

The reason I'm hesitant to recommend any LED unit is that if I do, and on my recommendation you spend a fistful of coin and are not pleased, I'm the douche that told you to buy Unit X, right?

Good luck in your search, and let us know what you decide.

 

[BlazinBrian]

zombee is right about leds, MOST will produce fluffy buds as they wont penetrate as far, and they light intensity is quickly diminished within inches. I wont recrommend any lights but i'll tell you what ive seen, most leds are 90 degree lenses, spreading the beam of light over a wider area, which would help with area coverage, but the downside is the intensity is crippled. Theres a few grows on other sites, but i cant say which, your gonna google a few key words yourself, but ive seen hydrogrowleds to be quite effective, and make all the ebay leds (panels AND ufos) look like crap. again Im not recommending, cause i havent used them myself but im just letting you know what ive seen. happy hunting

 

[Zombee]

See? Everyone's had successes with several brandings. I've used HGL, and now added GLH to my arsenal. I would though, honestly, steer away from the E-Bay/UFO style lights. Really.


Really. They suck.

 

[anern]

More and more professional led lights tech information on the topledsupplier website.

 

[potberryfin]

LED is not better than the rest. It will grow some decent buds, the problem is that you will need a lot of LED lamps, which means you will have to dig deep in your wallet because they are expensive and dont penetrate far enough. It is rather a new technology and could be the future in the next several years when prices also go down. For large scale grows or dense buds/high yields nothing beats HID Lighting and in 2nd place comes T5 and CFL lights, which are cheap but just like with LEDs you would need many of them. LEDs comes in 3rd place in my honest opinion. But again, I am sure that will change in the next years...

 

[BluntForce]

I've grown some monster buds using LEDs and a 130W fluoro. I'll post some pics of a LUI I grew last year using 2-90W UFO's from shit chinese co.'s which still turned out really nice. Just have to upload the pics. Sorry newb here.