Diy Led

[Tommy217xxx]

Has anyone out there tried those DIY LED grow light kits? I've seen a few different kits and was wondering if they were worth the money. Here's one that I found.

 

http://www.homegrownlights.com/12Vled.html

[+420Atheist]

I have not tried a kit but from my research LEDs are not a good option. First every side by side grow I have seen in the forums the LEDs do not produce as tight of buds. Secondly to match the lumens per watt of HID lights you have to match watt for watt. In other words you need 400 watts of LEDs to produce the same light as a 400 watt HPS.

 

The manufacturers of LEDs make claims that their 150 watt is COMPARABLE to a 400 watt HPS. When you check the area an LED will cover you will find (if the manufacturer even list an area) it will be half of what a 400 watt will cover. So there claim is that their 150 watt light will produce the same amount of buds that a 400 watt HID will. That is how they are "comparable." Well you and I both know that coverage area is very important. There are only so many buds that can fit in one area.

 

The other thing that really bugs me is I have books that are 20 years old on growing. I have books that were printed this year. All from some of the most trusted names in growing. They all say the same thing. The measurement for lights is lumens per watt and the spectrum they cover. Yet the LED manufacturers don't give that information in most cases. They often give numbers of things like Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density. What they claim is that is a better measurement. What they fail to disclose is what that measurement means. PPFD is the rate of protons usable to the plant over time. Normally expressed in protons per meter per second. But without knowing that part you can't even compare different LEDs. In reality this measurement is of very little use to growers. The number of protons in the square meter below the light is different that it is a few inches in either direction. PPFD is used by scientist to measure sunlight which makes sense because that does not change greatly from one square meter to the square meter next to it. You will also see the PAR measurement given. Which is of even less value because usable light changes as the plant matures.

 

Anyway my research says to stay with HIDs. Less expensive, more efficient, and the anecdotal results have been better.

[philanthropy]

LED tech is not ready. I spent MONTHS researching and experimenting at the beginning of last winter. The kit you see is TOTAL junk. Even the BEST LED systems out there are not good enough for flowering. I even took my experiment to the point where I ordered my own LED's that were much higher intensity than the ones used in any of the commercial systems available, and soldered together my own boards and built my own lights. I made lights that did an 'ok' job flowering, but I was using 800 watts.... i grow on 1000w HID systems, and for the extra 200w's, the HID was much better.

 

I'm gunna give it a few more years before I look into it again. Hopefully by then someone will have developed a more advanced HILED that will compare to todays HID lighting.