indoor Tent + Lights for Complete Indoor Growing

[XLNT]

Actually we do agree that the "crappy fixtures are honestly what has given LEDs such a bad name."

I live in Texas but do a lot of business in the Bay Area, Last month a friend took me to a small company that is doing LED R/D on Treasure Island (Between SF and Oakland) These lights are for commercial hydroponics operations. Yes they were expensive but when you take into the cost -vs- return they are more economical over a 3 year period. It was amazing the amount of light they were able to get out of these units. And once the manufacturing is up and running I am sure that will also target the prop 215 crowd and the indoor gardeners.

I know I was rambling in my last post, but I was only trying to point out that a lot of people still confuse “Price” and “Cost” when purchasing or buying an item. Price is the initial one time purchase price of the item - but Cost includes not only the purchase price but the lifetime operation of it.

 

[Ictus]

I see your point now, and agree. Yes sometimes the big systems will take a few years to make the money back (either saved in electricity, or more likely in bulbs not needing replacement), and that could be a big disincentive for a hobbyist with large plans and a limited budget. And you of course you then have to worry "what if parts fail before the break even period is over" etc. It could push it out beyond initial estimates. Some of the 'nicer' fixtures for aquarium use had some pretty horrid failure rates (Namely, the Solaris line). So far, DIY fixtures have been way more reliable (based on my own anecdotal experience). Probably because people DIYing these things always oversize capacity in every part of the system. People will warn you not to fully load your drivers and not to run them anywhere near max, etc. But some chinese company won't do that.

I really hope at some point in the future, we get more modular LED pieces. Like a wholesaler who will sell a 4' section of aluminum with ~24 leds or so pre-wired, with optics choices. Then plug into a big enough driver or supply and it just magically works. You can basically make those yourself but there would be some math and soldering. It's the direction I hope we go. There are some "T5 replacement bulbs" made of LEDs already but they're not really in the "high powered" ballpark. More for use as supplemental coloring.

I think these things are well suited to smaller or medium builds and people who are not afraid of getting their hands a little dirty. IMO LEDs are perfect for tent growing; you won't need to go to the same length to worry about heat, but you still DO need to dispose of the heat of couse.