LED vs CFL

I like the CFL myself. But you get the full spectrum with the LED.
I have a friend that had good results with LED as well. I'd just go with whichever has more lumens. Which will most likely be the CFL
 
willard3 said:
 
 
Following Willard3's post and adding a little information, you can compare all of the light sources and make your decision how much electricity you want to spend this winter.
 
For 100,000 lumens which is a good amount of light for a 6x6 grow room you will need:
6250 watts of incandecents
1562 watts of CFL bulbs
1125 watts of LED
1000 watts of HID MH
666 watts of HID HPS
 
Edited to add that these are just ball park numbers since LpW doesn't seem to be entirely linear and because a bulb looses lumens as it ages.
 
Scale it up or down to fit the size of your grow space. Best bang for your buck isn't LED.
 
Wattage is not the main issue. Heat is. Further, LED is not measured by Lumens ? So that cant really be compared with hif, cfl, hps etc. Neither is lux important
 
NorwegianChili said:
Wattage is not the main issue. Heat is. Further, LED is not measured by Lumens ? So that cant really be compared with hif, cfl, hps etc. Neither is lux important
 
 
Wattage is the main issue if heat is your problem: watts per lumen is a measure of efficiency. The more efficient a light is, the less heat because heat is wasted energy.
 
True, BUT, a 1w led on a 1w panel, 0.98w is going in the led, right? A 3w led on a 3w panel, 2.23w. A ufo with 90 1w led is more efficient than a 3w led with 60 leds. But still, the point being, led is not measured with lumens but bandwidth. The higher the watt on a led the deeper the penetration, however, over 5-6w the heat due to energy loss is immense. Most panels that are running say 100w, is a 160w panel. To run cooler. Most panels are with 1w or 3w to avoid the heat issue. And my main question, how will a ufo led like that perform growth wise vs a cfl ? Has anyone taken them from veg to flower to fruit?
 
I don't know much about LED lighting so I did a bit of research. 
 
From Wikipedia:
As of 2012, the Lumiled catalog gives the following as the best efficacy for each color.[49] The watt-per-watt value is derived using the luminosity function.
  Color Wavelength range (nm) Typical efficacy (lm/W) Typical efficiency (W/W)  
Red             620 < λ < 645                                72                               0.39  
Red-orange 610 < λ < 620                               98                                0.29  
Green          520 < λ < 550                               93                                0.15  
Cyan            490 < λ < 520                               75                                0.26  
Blue             460 < λ < 490                                37                                0.35
 
 
From the example I put in the previous post, MH is 100 lm/w and HPS is 150 lm/w. AND, a 150 watt HPS system is $50-70. Way the heck cheaper than LEDs. 
 
If all the numbers I am getting from Wikipedia and Willard3's link are correct, I sure as heck don't see what the big deal is about LEDs. Sure they are better than CFL, but there are still better choices that run cooler and are cheaper in both purchase price and operating costs.  
 
If you expend more watts and make less light, you will have more heat. Don't confuse heat with temperature.
 
Heat = btu/hr,    temperature = degrees F
 
Be careful with UFO LED lights from ebay, i know many people that has been ripped off with generic chinese garbage...
Serious LED panels from trusted manufacturers are worth but pricey.
 
Cya
 
Datil
 
Back
Top