Best route to take is via the various different diy led strips. If one fails it’s cheaper to replace a single strip than an entire led board.
Easily extended and added too cheaply.
You can configure them to suit any grow area shape or size
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Some good general info.
…this link…only because it’s such an impressive example of an LED grow.
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Just asking a honest question, sorry i don’t have a clue what im talking about. I do know my gear will still be working when your wishing you would have bought v3 instead of v2. I’ll leave it to the expert.
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HLG has a great rep for customer service and quality.
It’s unlikely an entire board would go out, you are more likely to lose individual diodes. I’ve seen the Chinese knock offs do this, where a few diodes go out. Never seen it on HLG stuff, but I guess it’s possible.
If a board did go out, they are under 100$ each even for the newest versions. The drivers are meanwell and those guys pretty much make the best drivers in the biz, but if you lost a driver they are usually 50-100$ to replace.
I believe HLG has a 1 year warranty though, so if any of this happened in that time I believe they would replace for you.
I build my own lights since it’s cheaper (using same diodes and drivers as HLG), but if I was in the market for high quality LEDs backed by a good rep, I wouldn’t hesitate to go with HLG.
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If it was me I would look at HLG quantum boards or solostrips. I couldn’t be happier with the HLG quantum boards like others have mentioned. It’s not really crazy DIY. Just pick out your boards and a driver. Hook then up and hang them.
The Amazon Chinese stuff works but it’s crap. The HIDs work well but there’s so much better stuff out there now.
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Depending on model. I know the 550 rspec have a 3 year warranty. The hlg 600 has a 1 year warrantly i believe.
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Thanks everyone for your help I think if I don’t go solstrips on this one I will for sure be looking into building out one for my veg room but anyone know of anyone building out the solsheets hadn’t checked today but site was down yesterday for solstrip so haven’t really gotten to look at any of them yet
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Lol obsolete product is not ga ita or de hid if so why are all the big growers still using em? Imo u should give examples of why it is obsolete before u cone on sounding all high and mighty. I dont see any warehouse grows with led I think I saw 1 room that was bigger then a closet lit with led and it was just something they were doing for r and d so yeah when u here somebody say leds aren’t there yet it is probably because they arent otherwise everybody would be using em. I would love to get rid of a few air conditioners so keeping my rh up would be alot easier
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They probably still use HID’s in a lot of them because they’re cheap af and tried and tested true. But that doesn’t mean the current gen LED tech is crap. 10 years ago? sure, pretty much all led’s were garbage comparatively. Nowadays though? LED’s like HLG’s are great and work just as well, if not better, than a comparable HID setup. I’ve ran 400w mh/hps a few times before and these two rspec boards at 320w blow those bulbs away.
So if it was me, I’d be going HLG or solstrips…
A 4x6 space = 24 square feet.
The general guideline for current led’s is 30-35w/sq.ft of good, quality, leds. So to evenly light that tent you’d need somewhere between 720-840watts of leds.
If you went HID, the general guideline there is 45-50w/sq.ft so you’d need 1080-1200 watts total to light the space evenly for flower.
The led’s will run waaaay cooler than any hid, no having to deal with hoods and glass and extra cooling. They should last way longer, at least longer than any bulbs you’d have to buy every year for the hids. And the quality of light is basically the same. You’ll still get fat sticky buds guaranteed.
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@HolyAngel I just gotta say I love that you brought the derailed topic back to my original question I had no real basis on what to go for on watt/sq ft so thank you that helps a lot if I do decide to diy one as this is only planned to be the start full room size is 6x12 I’m only utilizing one end of the room at the moment because of funds but will be doing the full room in the end all led preferably
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I trust your judgment, but I bought a $1K unit about 6 years ago, perhaps the technology has changed enough since then, but it featured USA assembly, Cree 10watt diodes, it was a nice unit. Vegged beautifully, grew fine looking plants. But those plants dried to be very C grade, I quite literally ran 8oz of fresh frozen bud (IDK, 3-4 lbs wet) and yielded, I swear to god, 1 gram of full melt. When I would usually get at least 1/2 oz full melt beach sand. Good varieties too, can’t blame the variety for lack of trichomes.
People say I needed more watts, and maybe that’s true, but buds close to the light bleached, and buds just a bit away from that weren’t any good either.
I get great results with HPS 1000 mag ballast. I’m sure you’ve grown with such.
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Yes. That is correct. I’d run lights at 11 hours instead of 12, but that’s right about perfect.
You can run a 1000 in a 3x3 and get very hard, dense, sticky buds covered in trichomes.
Horticultural LEDs are in a tech development cycle now like personal computers were in the 1990s. Six years has made a massive difference in efficiency, output and design. And price. For $699 our SolSheetz DBLX system will beat the average PAR intensity of a 1000w Gavita DE across a 4x4 ft canopy, with 40% less energy cost. Our motto is…
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I hear you, I really do. And I also know that eventually the tech WILL catch up.
Understand my hesitation, as losing $1000 has made me LED-shy. The harvest under LED was also essentially worthless so that was a decent hit too. I’m as small time as it gets.
I also worry about if the unit fails, I can’t just pop into the grow store down the street for a new bulb or ballast.
I was told you could flower with LED as far back as…2007?
It’s not that I don’t trust you, you’ve been at this way longer than I have, it’s just I can’t afford to switch to LED and have it produce subpar results. I understand the new non-blurple LEDS are much better.
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I run DE HPS. Soon as I can I will switch to home built diy strips, or HLG’s 600 DIY kit. Agree the big warehouses use DE Gavitas and such, but use many and have them very very high up, creating lighting throughout the whole room. From what I have seen here and elsewhere, the diy strips will kill! Seen 100’s of good grows with the new strips, know they work. They keep tighter node spacing and plants with more resin.
Anyone telling you the tech is not there yet, listen to someone else. The tech is here, it works, just look around the site and see it everywhere.
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Pictures can be deceiving. My LED plants looked great in pictures. Dried to nothing, yielded almost nothing in the concentrate department. I’m saying I lost $1K plus an entire 1lb+ harvest last time I ran LED, and that was only 6 years ago.
They’ve sold LED light for a long time, and I’ve heard “you can flower with these” from the very beginning.
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https://growace.com/blog/how-many-grow-lights-do-your-plants-need/
what do you guys think about this…this thread really opened my eyes…I was gonna go 25watts per sq ft on veg and double it for flower. Im thinking based on this information i may go with less area with the same light in order to bump up the light watts per sq ft. I was going with 400 HID and 4x4 area thats only 25 watts per foot…hardly enough need double that?? Whats your experience with 25 watts per ft in veg and flower??
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Light debates are so annoying on line lol I have to been trying to decide at least for veg.
There are so many variables that the debates should be separated into categories!
For instance, tents on one side full rooms on the other side.
Tent guys may want to focus more on L.E.D or C.M.L as they both have less heat and less light spread.
Full room guys and gals ( gals who grow 
sexy.) who have more horizontal and vertical room, might like/ want to look at H.P.S because they have a further light spread. and with a full rooms may be able to deal with temperature better.
Another category I purpose is what size electrical panel do you have, also how many watts do you have available on that panel?
100 amps.
150 amps.
200 amps.
400 amps.
This makes a big difference when choosing lights. Count up all your appliances then see how much they draw, I did and I was hella surprised. After my electrical heating with all appliances on ( toaster oven, bar fridge, freezer, t.v,play station, computer, WiFi, hot water tank, electric heaters.) I realized they add up, if all on at the same time, equals = 15,167.9 watts.
That is good to know because I have only a 100amp service ( 19,200 watt max on a 1000amp service.)
Leaving me with = 4,032 watt play.
So in the dead of winter, I know what my house can handle or that if I want to use more lighting I have to turn my hot water tank off for the time period when lights are on for instance, ( it’s fine, the tank only really runs a houri-sh a day.) Knowing that, I can add 4000 watts more in lighting. There ARE MANY WAYS TO PLAY AROUND WITH IT. Oven, stove tops, toaster ovens, microwaves are big power drawers same with clothes dyers. ( I don’t have 1 and hang my clothes.) so maybe don’t cook and or do any laundry when all of your grow lights are on and you can more lights. 
Last category I can think of: Climate.
For instance I am in cottage Quebec near an Ontario border. It is cold so dang right if I have a choice of one hot H.P.S light over three low heat 315 C.F.L lights ( taking approximately the same power) I am going with H.P.S because I enjoy my heat.
Now someone from the south states may have something different to say about that.
As far as my veg goes… I am tired of thinking about it! for me, my space, my electrical service and my climate and my amount of plants, ( 40 indoors 10 outdoor med license. cus I am ka ka ka krazzzy lol)
I think I am going with one 315 CFL+ two L.E.D dyi strips and 4 florescent t5, all mixed up. cus I am tired of thinking about it. lol Hope that helps someone.
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I found running hid lights in winter and using the exhaust as heat source my electric bill is about the same, since electric heat isn’t being used while lights are on. I am in southern Missouri, summer is a different story my average power bill in summer is around $700 running 6000w and winters im running closer to $450
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As far as w/sq ft for LED, I am running Solstrips at 30 w/sq ft and I can’t imagine a scenario where I would need much more if any, at least in my 4 x 4 x 8 tall. They are powerful 
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