are you currently using them? any grow diary?
This is my first season with the new lighting. It is taking some getting used to, but I think I am getting it together. The thread above starts out with the end of the HPS lighting here.
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Yes. I would say that is where they would shine, pun intended. They seem good for even and cool light which is what you want if you want to keep your plants short.
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The PAR or PPF number, expressed in micromoles (umol) per joule (watt) is the benchmark for lighting efficiency. HPS and CMH top out around 1.7-1.9 umol/joule, LED goes up to 2.7 umol/joule.
The umol number is a guideline and doesn’t entirely count the improvement from a better spectrum - more red and blue and less green/orange is more powerful on the plants. CMH is a better spectrum than HPS IMO and good LED’s have even better spectrums. I think you will find most people like LED better after a few days and are getting rid of their HID lights after the first harvest.
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Not to mention bulb replacement. My dad has been using the same bulb for over a year. When I suggested he replace it he argued that it was so expensive.
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Im doing some tests on cheap LED strips, after reading the Samsung LED chip everyone seems to use, is from 2015.
Figured due to the price of LED “Grow lights”, I would see how far China is with copying them. I am mainly aiming to use LED for veg!
Im used to HID lights, and my flower room is running 2x 600 Watt HPS.
Im doing a flower test on my LED’s, just to see what the GPW will be like on these Ebay DIY lights.
My location requires the heat from HID lights, I fear with LED in my flower room. I would need to heat it, most of the year and only benefit from them 3 months during summer.
I plan to change my HPS lights to CMH’s, and remove my cooltubes. To save money on wattage in flower, and keep the better pennetration you get from HID.
Unless my LED test blow me backwards, and it so effective that it won’t matter that I need to heat the room. I still got my reservations, but I have to say LED have come a long way!
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gonna look into the long thread and report back 
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good that’s what I’m looking for I don’t really think I need light penetration. Have you got any kind of LED you recommend? I’m currently looking into the the samsung line.
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For the look where this is going I believe more and more LED’s are the future. The only drawback is I think the market if full of bad and expensive LED units which is causing a lot of controversy. If we filter the real efficient ones and bring them to better prices either by DIY or outsourcing then I believe we will all win specially people with heat problems also.
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this is a good point and after I’m decided with which ones does better at strictly gram for watt I will look into:
1.cost of buying a HPS + reflector + ballast VS cost of buying a led unit
2.durability of HPS vs LED unit
3.growing method used since LED lights have less light penetration
4.heat generation
5.security of operating LED vs HPS
6.potency of the end product
7.taste of the end product
8.aroma of the end product
9.bag appeal of the end product
10.time to finish the budding process
LED, Samsung mid power chips are the in thing right now. COBs are last week, purple LEDs are so last season. 
If you are buying lights pre-made, it is difficult to beat Fluence. HLG and ChiLED make decent pre-fab units as well.
If your into DIY there are the Solstrips (what I use along with several others here), quantum boards, and the ChiLED Logic pucks. All use the Samsung LM561C LEDs in different form factors.
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very very interesting!
DIY is the way to go and we could start building our own pannels or crowdsource a company to do them if they indeed work well. I have a friend who understands a lot about LEDS since he works with them I will try to get some info on it. I will also look closely at your thread to see where it goes. I keep hearing about the samsung LEL’s everywhere.
I run as efficient of a garden as I can and have used hps mh in the past and after swapping out the fat bulb for pcb boards I can say without a doubt I’ll never use the hid ever again in any capacity.
The better led still gives off heat it’s not completely cool, but compared to those 20thousand kelvin bulbs it’s night n day.
I replaced a 400w mh in my experiment cab with a 240w meanwell that I keep dimmed to approx 170w
I was able to remove the jet engine exhaust fan and now use a 4” cpu fan and my temp is never above 82
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this is exactly what I was looking into right now. Once I figure out which LED unit stands on it’s feet I will test it against HPS. LED business is going forward pretty fast.
If we can find what works best here and bring the price down by DIY we will strike gold.
Going to look for side by sides with these DIY samsung chips.
I’m also seeing some interesting threads on CMH, anyone got input on that vs LED?
For me the reverse is true. I use narrow beam angle LEDs - they have 90 degree beam angle, it penetrates better than my 600w Gavita HPS. beam angle can vary from 60 or 70 degrees all the way up to 150, it makes a huge difference in the way the light works.
If you match the right amount of intensity (PAR or PPF) to your canopy area you will get excellent penetration. There really is no downside except price. Quality LED’s will cost more upfront than HID.
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I have no experience with this company but have read good reports on their lights complete built or kit form
These guys have some interesting lights but pricey
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That fluence looks good. Might pull trigger after 1st of year if can expand some. I did research Fluence some years back but seems like they only had larger expensive greenhouse lights then…can’t remember!
I grow with a USA made blurple and a Cob in small space and spend around $25 a month for more pot than I can smoke (and that includes fans and veg closet).
I get past the penetration thing by side lighting and topping for 4 main colas to keep em short in 5 gal buckets.
My main lights:
https://advancedledlights.com/products/led-grow-lights/ds-xte-200/
My grow: Bez's 2X2 Blurple, COB, and Fluorescent Closet Grow - #16 by bezalom
If not Fluence next time maybe some DIY quantum board. As mentioned above already that the pace at which this technology is progressing now then who knows what the next advancement will bring.
I like the 300-400 watts I use (low electric bill). Biggest problem I have found from HPS to LED (at least for me) is lack of transpiration due to lack of heat. I actually added shop lights etc. to bring my temps up.
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I’ve checked out those Timber Lights and very much like Rapid Led (almost bought the Timber but Rapid had a tax free/ and free shipping on Amazon.
Those Platinum are made in China and can read many horror stories if sorted by default in Amazon reviews of them. Also, China known to spam positive reviews on Amazon (can even tell many by same weird broken English).
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9.9 times out of 10 the expensive lights you buy in north america are manufactured in china. the ones manufactured in america are even more expensive…
eg $65 for quantum board 304 made in china (on sale from 75) vs. $99 for qb288 made in america (on sale from $150!) vs $20 for near identical quantum board 304 direct from china (including heatsink!)
ChilLED gets their PCBs made in china and places the diode chips in america. fluence says “built in america” but does that mean they’re just putting the casing on a chinese PCB? not sure
i think the samsung LM301B is from mid 2017 … at least the earliest design files etc on the website are … but youre right those aren’t widely adopted yet
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The fact Samsung put out a new one, is to me only a stronger indication that china have copied the 2015 technoligy. 
Im sure the brand Chips in the end give more light, on the other hand it seems that the cheap LED’s work all right for the money.
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