Hello everyone, looking to purchase an led to get started back on growing. I've had the spider farmer sf4000 in my 4x4 tent and it was pretty amazing. Now I am looking at the spider farmer sf7000, or plantopias pt6000 pro or pt x 6000. Just looking for opinions. Plantopialed.com Spider-farmer.com Sent from my SM-G988W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Plantopialed $240 for 110 watts = $2.18 per watt SpiderFarmer $160 for 100 watts = $1.60 per watt Good white lights are available for less than $1 per watt on amazon. Plantopialed won't be in business much longer at those prices.
Not all white LEDs are created equal. Just because two lamps are white and look similar to the naked eye doesnt mean they are of the same quality. @trojangrower posted this in another thread but its just an example, he doesnt have china made lamps in there but i bet they would be at the bottom of the results amongs some of these other LED. And he doesnt even have the high end LED in this test either.
Not all Chinese boards are bad bro. I like some of KingBrite's LEDs, although communication with them sucks. I'm not pro China, but you need to be aware that many of these diodes are manufactured either in Korea or China. But, I would recommend limiting the sales to maybe King Brite, if one decides to grow that route. The older Influx strips were manufactured in China and those used lm561c chips. Idk the status on this anymore, its controversial and confusing. Just saying.
There are two important factors about a light of a given power: how efficient, and how good is the spectrum. Plants evolved under the sun's spectrum, and any light that comes close to that probably has a good spectrum. Almost all white LED grow lights do. Blurples don't. White light with blurple spikes doesn't. Efficiency can be expressed as micromoles per watt, and most of those values range between 2.5 and 2.9 2.9/2.5 = 116%, so the most efficient are only about 16% more efficient than the least efficient. That means a 16% higher electricity bill. Light has become a disposable commodity, and paying $1 per watt is unnecessary. Certainly every brand will claim to be the best, or use the best chips, but for a disposable commodity it doesn't matter much. Off-brand chips might be just as good as name brands for all we know. I expect efficiencies to go up over time, meaning I'll want a new light, and will be happy not to have spent much on the lights I have now. Maybe a 4 micromole per joule light will come out next year using off-brand chips for $0.50 per watt?
IDK what you mean by disposable commodity. I plan on using my lights for a few years. It's true that if I built a cheap light for 50c/watt I would be ok with changing it sooner but i'd rather avoid having to build a new light every year or two if possible. As for 4 micromoles/watt, I don't think we will get there that quickly without some kind of new breakthrough in tech. It will come but not that fast. 16% reduction in electric might not seem like much but this really depends on where someone grows and their cost of electricity. Just as an example, if you are paying $50 a month for electricity to run your grow lights, you will save $120 a year on electric, or $480 over four years which is a very modest life expectancy for an LED lamp, assuming one would want to change them before they burn out. For someone paying $20 a month it might not be as advantageous.
My electric isn't that much. I was paying 100 Canadian a month for the electric in the apartment. I'm sure my spider farmer sf4000 was costing me about 20 a month. I don't care so much on the costs to run the light. I really just want to get growing asap again. Probably gonna lean toward the spider farmer sf 7000. I contacted plantopia and they recommended me their pt 4000 pro for my 4x4 tent and said that the pt 6000 pro would be unnecessary. Sent from my SM-G988W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Or what about the hlg boards? The 600 rspec or even the 650R Diablo boards. The first one on sale at 990$ and the 650R is 1560$ both Canadian currency Sent from my SM-G988W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
There is the 550 v2 eco 499.00 and rspec 599.00. Then a scorpion Diablo optimized for vertical rack grows for 999.00 in the refurbished lamps right now. Sent from my SM-G988W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
600 rspec is on sale, should I go with that one? Sent from my SM-G988W using Grasscity Forum mobile app