So a question. Im converting a 15 x 20 space for veg and flower, two separate rooms.
In the veg room, I was thinking of using LEDs, specifically the blue spectrum like the picture below rather than using CMH or HPS for vegging. I love the results of my Viparspectras so I was going to get them to run. According to what I read, blue spectrum is most desired during vegetation.
Then in the flowering room, I was thinking CMH or HPS. Leaning more towards HPS since they have a lower start up cost. Unless I find CMH lights that are cheaper but will have a decent warranty until my budget will allow me to upgrade.
Hello Humble, good to hear from you. My two cents is research a little on switching from LED to HPS. New LED lights might be better but the older designs would stall the plants until they got used to the HPS light. (a week or so) Mixing HPS with CMH will give you the most yield while allowing you to lower your final energy output, and the CMH run longer at a more efficient rate. Good luck i hope some of this helps you.
What @ryasco said. Youd be much better off using hids in both rooms rather then cheap leds and a good hps setup. Now if you were to setup two cob lights that would be your best bet. Save money. Less heat. More photons per watt etc.
If you think hps has a higher efficiancy then cobs you are most certainly not using a good cob light.
Youll get better yeilds, have more light, not need to buy new bulbs every 6 months, learn something about lighting, have less heat etc. Hps is oldschool. Even street lights are going cob.
Its quite simple. Wire to driver, one wire to cob, one wire back to driver. Simple. Attach cob to heatsick. Bam done. Chexk growmau5 on youtube. He tells you everything from what COB stand for right down to setting up cloud controllers on the light.
Sorry for not being clear enough… While you may find more efficient source of light than HPS, I don’t think it will be so cost effective when you count purchase price in… I saw LEDs 4x expensive than same wattage of HPS.
I do know this is pretty hot topic and my opinion may not be majority view …
Can you give some examples so we can compare costs say 600W HPS to some COB?
Same wattage doesnt mean the same amount of light. Wattage is broken up into two parts. Heat and light hps are very inefficiant because most of the wattage turns into heat. With shitty leds its the same. My 690w cob light costed about 600$ for everything. A good hps setup is 200$ for a hood, 2-300 for a ballast, 100 bucks per bulb (use say 4? (Even though my cobs last longer then 2 years)) so for a good HID setup(not a cheap amazon bundle) its about 500( with only one bulb if your brave and dont care about the loss of efficiancy or possible fires) 100$ less. Thats not savig very much. Then you get your sick cob light for several years, you can upgrade it whenever, change lighting, move the cobs around as needed etc. Oh did i mention cobs put out more photons per watt then hps? Thats because we dont waste our time with heat. My hps hood is always warm. (Aircooled). Cob heatsinks are cool to the touch:)
$100 ballast PRO - IT 600W 230V
$45 venture sunmaster super 600w hps bulb
$115 adjust-a-wing avenger medium
Pretty average 600w setup for $260 plus some extra for cables.
When I take your $600 budget I’m left with $340 for electricity … If you had some light source say 15% more effective than HPS you’d have to pay at least 2266 (that is 340/15*100) for electricity till you make that $340…
Locally we pay roughly $35 usd per month of using 600W (12/12 cycle) so that would take 5 years to have that 115% light source paid for itself.
But I agree that HPS lamp should be exchange after maybe 1 year.
Then there is big question how long can your COB last?
I know for sure that ballast and hood can last 5 years (I haven’t got that much faulty ones), I just have to exchange bulbs say each year. Do we know for sure that COB can last that long? Do we know it will produce as much light as in the beginning or will it more likely deteriorate over time?
Not that I’m against LED or whatever, they’ve been massively improved in past few years. But I’m not still convinced we are there yet.
150 dollars for air cooled hood, ballast and 2 bulbs. I dont have 500 in all of my hps lights. And, they are just fine, been running over a year now no issues. Vivosun. No way id drop 500 bucks on an hps. Bulbs are 9 bucks a piece, again vivosun, again absolutely nothing wrong with them, tried and true. But then again, according to the internet, i do the impoosible everyday. Its a miracle i even wake up now a days…
Yes but im thinking top of the line. Most efficiant hps setup possible. Topshelf ballast, bulbs, and reflectors. No cheaping out at all. Ushio bulbs and all. Imagine the heat comming off that hps with no hood. Talk about needing an acXD thats rougly 1000w added to your 600w hps electrical bill. I dont like my temps going over 75f personally. Youre supposed to change bulbs every 6 months to be most efficiant. Especially cheaper bulbs. But sunmaster makes great cfls. Nonidea about the hids they use. That extra 340 bucks is the price of an oz of top shelf which you will get back your first run no prob. How did you get that 2266$ price tag over 3 months of growing? I only use about 1-200 bucks per grow for electricity and about 2 bucks for nutrients. Cobs can last a long ass time. Between 50-100k hours. Depending on how hard you run your cobs. You can even dim them without sacrificing the lifespan. All lights go dim after a while. But people on rollitup have had cobs going for about 4 years with no loss of light.
We are passed there for leds. They have beat hid lighting many many times.I suggest you head over to the led thread at rollitup and see for yourself:)
Our electric is crazy, runs over 600 month…and i live in a 1970s trailer. But my grow is only a small part of that…swimming pool, huge fucking garage, chicken coop n pumps, hot tub, big fish tanks, etc…and my personal airfield, that has a building that is always lit up, and runway lights.
That was just hypothetical calculation how much would you need to spend for electricity to save that 340 USD when you use 15% more effective light source than HPS… Return on investment so to say… I meant to illustrate that you would need to grow for 5 years with LED for savings to start go positive in comparison to HPS. If you grow for shorter time HPS is more effective cause you save more using it (due to cheaper purchase costs).
With HPS there is low initial investment and then probably higher payments for energy (due to lower efficiency and need to exchange bulbs)…
With LED there is higher initial investment that is supposed to justify lower payments for energy (due to higher efficiency).
My example setup for $260 is pretty average gear. Nothing expensive but also nothing cheap - you could find it for half of the price from some OEM brand.
Well. Idk about that. Less expensive bongs break easier. Less expensive toilet paper gets shitty hands. Less expensive leds needs more work and more of them for coverage. Cheap cellphones=suicidal slave workers. Vivosun is just like apollo. They work most of the timeXD my biggest problem supporting china rebranded leds, hids, glass bongs, is well… if samsung uses slaves i dont wanna know what these guys are usingXD and im not into supporting slavery. Not since i killed off the last few slaves i had from back in 1805;)
Well. Theres the saving money part. Then the yeild part, and the coverage part. And the heat part. If youre growing for a short amount of time why spend 200 bucks in hids when you can spend 100 bucks in cfls and not need an exhaust fan? By cheaping out i mean not buying the best you can. I always want the BEST in my garden as i grow for my head.
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