One light cost $1300 ??
Retail yes.. There are others like Gavita and Fohse that cost much more.. If you know the right people we don't pay retail
One light cost $1300 ??
Still a lot of cash no matter how good it is ..In my humble opinion
HLG just released their new Scorpian Diablo 650W. It now has efficacy of 3.2 and 2130ppf. $1300 retail.
The old version was 630w, 2.9 efficacy with 1920 ppf.. This is HLG best-led light..
the local grow shop has a couple of gavita leds for 999...im wondering if i can talk them down for the pair...or i can go with hlg and only pay a bit above actual cost
Retail yes.. There are others like Gavita and Fohse that cost much more.. If you know the right people we don't pay retail
you can get a Gavita 1700e for $1,099.99 with power cord and adapter ; no inner circle special pricing
HLG just released their new Scorpian Diablo 650W. It now has efficacy of 3.2 and 2130ppf. $1300 retail.
The old version was 630w, 2.9 efficacy with 1920 ppf.. This is HLG best-led light..
Odd comment on the co2.
CMH was the last of the HID evolution's. CMH is actually old, but using the electronic control gear becoming more popular, they were able to fine tune it a little more. Changing the sockets so that the new drivers and lamps wouldn't get mixed up with the old stuff. It wasn't a great leap, but looked the part. Being MH you get enough blue on your plants, without needing orange lights turned really high to achieve enough. This made a lot of people that struggled with high light, better able to cope. Heat dropped. Plants were not pushed so hard. Often resulting in a better harvest.
LED is alright. Sometimes people struggle though. I too believe you can get the right diodes and drivers from many manufacturers, at many price points. As with nearly all manufacturing, it's cheaper to buy from China. Who can deliver in a few days. Often halving the price.
An old 600 is a garage sale item now. It's a good starting point if you lack experience. A lot of people just can't do it.
Gavita's price and history strike them straight from my considerations. I have seen a great grow under them, but don't feel the lights can take any credit
Double Ended HPS is newer than CMH
Hammerhead, I agree mostly with everything you're saying except the last part and that's only halfway true. Basically, and I was a giant led hater for years, but basically the tech (size of lights) is definitely there for the heat needed to keep leaf surface temperature to 82-86 max max with co2 and plenty of humidity. But as far as Any led that can't produce the heat, I completely agree.
by buddies been pulling over 2 packs on his 6 light that he asked me to design for him. We went over lots and lots of different options, and I was urging him to use HID, but he got "sold" on the LED lights. So I was pissed cause he didn't do what I told him (haha), and im a salty asshole, and I had to find the best lights for the best price and all that shit, cause it's what I do, and it ended up really surprising me after looking into the specs. With fairly common third party par testing maps and heat testing and power consumption testing available today, I found leds I couldn't imagine creating the light they do. And heat also. Well anyhow that guy got over 2 packs per light his first run (experienced grower with a gangster gg4 cut) and the room wasn't even full of plants on barely over 600w LEDs. The things work if you get a powerful enough model (ppfd) for good light penetration that also create enough heat to keep that leaf surface temp to that desired range.
I'm designing another 8 light for a different individual, and in less than a year there are already better models available for his application than the ones I was shopping last year. They create more ppfd per watt and better light spread. The light spread ppfd testing has really called the bullshit manufacturers out with pure data. And that helps me. Some of the 1000w swap out models are just fucking too much light unless you have co2 supplementation. Like the plants gotta be several feet away or you will get light stress.
I got dehumidifiers, 8 heavy duty industrial circulation fans, 4 8" inline fans for scrubbers and a veg room, 3 ton mini split ac/heat pump, environment/temp/co2 controller, digital light controller that hooks up to your phone if you want and 8 LED light fixtures from a reputable company capable of a minimum of 1000ppfd coverage on 200 sp ft of canopy at 18" height thats been 3rd party tested, priced at less than $10k for all the aforementioned products before any discounts on any equipment is applied from my hydro shop people. So considering the tech, it's a no brainer to go that route nowadays.
I priced the same room for non air cooled, as well as with HID, and it was a no brainer to run LEDs air cooled with how much cheaper and more efficient they have become.
I would definitely recommend people do the appropriate level of research before doing any buying or any growing tho. And I definitely agree that CMH are the shit, I just have to reluctantly disagree these days that they are better than LEDs. Again, long time LED hater. The future is now though. I can no longer deny it. I spent 18 years under a 1000w hps or 54. I was talking shit about them one year ago, no lie. Now I'm looking for that .75g/ųmol instead of that 1g/1w. They dump nuggets.
but if someone ran 1 light in a tent and got one of the most efficient, coolest led available in like 350-500 watts, I agree that they most likely won't have enough temp at that leaf surface for optimum photosynthetic activity. It would negate the point of buying that expensive efficient cool light. Because it would barely work to its theoretical potential without heat.
I mean I think we're in total agreement on LED rooms needing leaf surface temp to 82-85 degrees. I was merely saying, for the average home grower, the newer higher output LEDs (~1000w) will definitely put out enough heat to be in that range. Yea I think 1200 average ppfd is also achievable in home grows with multiple ~1000w models with good usable ppf and ppfd ratings where as they weren't not so long ago.
I think buying a 600w or less led is basically useless unless you're heating the room up somehow or it's just naturally warm already in the room.
so are you saying giant warehouses with commercial1500w Fohse led lights or fluence lights need to he heated in addition to the heat put off by those giant fixtures? Because I have exactly zero experience building out warehouses with modern commercial led lighting. I contracted for a company called CGI based out of Colorado back in 2014 and 2015 and everyone was refitting their dispos to gavitas and such back then, so I don't have any relevant experience with LED commercial warehouses because I haven't worked in dispos since then, but I'm certainly curious what they need to cool or heat or dehumidify those spaces.