Off the shelf retail store screw-in LED and CFL bulb comparisons

[John_Dough III]

I've never used cfl's other than for vegging. I used a 400w mh/hps setup and i like these led's better. For regular ass lightbulbs they get good penetration. All my stuff comes out super dense.

i'm at 60w /sq ft. I actually downgraded lol 8 bulbs down from 10. 15 watters 4 per sq ft.
my box is technically 25x13.
they're probably 8-9 inches away from the canopy.

 

[Samuel Caldwell]

SC get a grow journal up. I'd love to follow along.

Thanks, jonhova. I'll probably start one later. I haven't been growing for the past couple years and I'm itching to get back at it. Gotta see how my new setup works before showing it off too much.

 

[shifty4301]

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on this thread for some time now and I know the answer to my questions are in here somewhere, but figured I'd get the answer quicker by asking.

Currently running 16 9.5 watt 2700k bulbs in my 18 inch x 2ft x 4ft cabinet. Just flipped the switch to flower yesterday since I have been vegging for 9 weeks or so. I had preflowers on 2 of the 3 plants I have in there right now so I figured It was a good time to switch. My question is should I change some or all of the bulbs to a different watt or k rating? I have been stock piling leds so I have others I can use. I have some 14 watt 5000k, 8.5 5000k, or 9.5 3000k.

This is my first grow so any advice is appreciated. I'm not sure of the strain, it's seeds I happened to find in a few different bags. I am using them to practice on.

Thank you in advance

 

[igrowone]

..
Currently running 16 9.5 watt 2700k bulbs in my 18 inch x 2ft x 4ft cabinet. Just flipped the switch to flower yesterday since I have been vegging for 9 weeks or so...

no advice on the spectrum choice, i'm still a led 'lurker' myself
but 9 weeks veg in a grow chamber of that size sounds wild
i'd think flower is going to out stretch that chamber real quick

 

[shifty4301]

It's actually not that bad. I have been topping and lsting the chit out of the biggest one. Only about 6 inches tall just really bushy. I have almost 3ft of vertical grow space before they hit the highest position I can set my lights at.

 

[igrowone]

It's actually not that bad. I have been topping and lsting the chit out of the biggest one. Only about 6 inches tall just really bushy. I have almost 3ft of vertical grow space before they hit the highest position I can set my lights at.

interesting, that is serious training
kind of amazed that could be done, but seems to have worked
good training practice, might be extreme since a small chamber can be filled up much quicker, depends on your wants and needs

 

[Tbonegrower]

Run em with the 2700ks. I run 14 9.5 watt bulbs in a space with less than 3 vertical feet. They love it.

 

[shifty4301]

Thanks T. I'll just let them go.

Igrowone I have been really mean at times to the biggest and oldest one. In no real hurry at this point. Had family and people over during the holidays so I couldn't really do to much with them. This is strictly a parctice grow. Not expecting the world. I have 2 plants in 2 gal smart pots and the 3rd is in a 3.5 gal pickel bucket. The one in the bucket is the one I am abusing the most. Next grow I will either go with 4 2 or 3 gal or 2 5 gal smart pots. Not sure yet.
I'm also working on another cabniet to veg in. I have a pc that i used when they were seedlings, so hopefully I can get a perpetual grow going in the future. It's all a work in progress.

 

[Tbonegrower]

Good luck on the perpetual. I am pulling it off with two boxes and less than 6 sqft total. I run a tiny two site bubble cloner, and pack those cabs full! Lots of air flow is key...

 

[Sarcclash]

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on this thread for some time now and I know the answer to my questions are in here somewhere, but figured I'd get the answer quicker by asking.

Currently running 16 9.5 watt 2700k bulbs in my 18 inch x 2ft x 4ft cabinet. Just flipped the switch to flower yesterday since I have been vegging for 9 weeks or so. I had preflowers on 2 of the 3 plants I have in there right now so I figured It was a good time to switch. My question is should I change some or all of the bulbs to a different watt or k rating? I have been stock piling leds so I have others I can use. I have some 14 watt 5000k, 8.5 5000k, or 9.5 3000k.

This is my first grow so any advice is appreciated. I'm not sure of the strain, it's seeds I happened to find in a few different bags. I am using them to practice on.

Thank you in advance

Upthread blynx and Terpene both mention higher wattage bulbs, Terpene has posted using higher k bulbs with great success thru flower, as I have using 2700k 16 watt bulbs. Bear in mind 16 watters will produce more heat.
I have expanded their use to growing my tropical trees and cacti through zone 6 winters.
I can't thank those two enough, blynx for starting this awesome thread and impeccable groundwork, Terpene for his own slant as seen through his excellent posts.
While you may find use in the quick answers you get, you really should take the time to go through the whole thread, hard to put down.

 

[BruceBanner]

Can somene tell the difference in quality of the high between CMH and our LEDs? Is the difference not so high?

Would be a great experiment to compare clones

 

[Terpene]

This is only bench racing, but I think LEDs are probably capable of producing 1.2x per watt what HPS/MH/CMH can. I know there are a few members in this thread seeing the very similar results what they're used to. So who's willing to do a heads up?

 

[pANicModE]

 

[ReikoX]

You know, I have pretty good data on that. I ran 12 clones in my filing cabinet with 86 watts of off-the-shelf LED. I got a total of 23 grams with an average of 3.4 grams. I also ran 27 of the same clones under 150 watts of CMH. I got a total of 86 grams with an average of 3.2 grams. There are many variables that are different, but the end result was very similar in quality and quantity.

 

[Terpene]

already on the way.. had a 150w hps cab.. now the same cab with the same nutes, medium has 72w LED. im getting way better growth with 72w led then i did with 150w hps.. that by itself should say sumthing

You know, I have pretty good data on that. I ran 12 clones in my filing cabinet with 86 watts of off-the-shelf LED. I got a total of 23 grams with an average of 3.4 grams. I also ran 27 of the same clones under 150 watts of CMH. I got a total of 86 grams with an average of 3.2 grams. There are many variables that are different, but the end result was very similar in quality and quantity.

So thats two members who are seeing the similar (if not better) results at roughly half the wattage. 2x is much better than my estimate of 1.2x!

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

you can get 1.5 on hps, 1.5 x 1.2 = not what youre getting on leds

 

[ReikoX]

So thats two members who are seeing the similar (if not better) results at roughly half the wattage. 2x is much better than my estimate of 1.2x!

Just realized I put the wrong total weight for the filing cabinet. It yielded 40 grams with 86 watts for about 0.47 GPW. The CMH yielded 86 grams with 150 watts for about 0.57 GPW so it was slightly more efficient.

 

[frica]

This is only bench racing, but I think LEDs are probably capable of producing 1.2x per watt what HPS/MH/CMH can. I know there are a few members in this thread seeing the very similar results what they're used to. So who's willing to do a heads up?

Depends on the LED.

Obviously there's a big difference between the older 80 lm/w* LED bulbs, and the ones that go up to 120 lm/w* today.
Blynx is doing 1 g/w with 80 lm/w bulbs, more efficient bulbs can easily up that.

Or 150 lm/w* T8 LED tubes.
Or even higher with low driven COBs/mid power modules.

*assuming similar CRI and colour temp.
90CRI are LEDs are more efficient than their lm/w makes you assume.

It also depends on how much lighting you have in an area.
1000 ppfd will give a higher yield, but 500-550 ppfd will give a clearly higher yield per watt.
If you're running 50 watt per square foot you will never get the best grams per watt.

Also a HID bulb gone vertical does better g/w than a HID with reflector.

Also you have to remember that the ballast of a HID isn't 100% efficient so a 150w HID consumes more than 150w.

 

[Terpene]

I'm not trying to get into a pissing contest with the HPS crowd only saying how impressed I am by rough estimates that are substantially better than I would expect from home store bulbs.

I was also reading those results wrong - my bad. ReikoX (whos 2017 thread is great btw) is seeing 90% what hes used to from CMH watt for watt. Panic says hes seeing better than HPS watt for watt, but Ill let him comment on by how much.

As a side note - I've heard the HPS/vertical argument before, but wouldn't any vertical, coliseum setup yield better than a traditional flat canopy because there's more surface area (and larger plants) to light?

 

[pANicModE]