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Old January 3, 2014   #12
Hermitian
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Vista, CA
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Originally Posted by FarmerShawn View Post
I've been looking into LED growlights, but I have found little reliable or useful information beyond pot growers speculations. Does anyone have any experience or insight on affordable units? I like that it appears that the lights can be hung further away from the plants than fluorescent lights, and that they use tiny amounts if electricity, and that they don't waste energy on parts of the spectrum that plants don't or can't use.


There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
LED plant lights are ok for indoor ornamentals that have low light requirements. For photosynthesis, plants require photo energy which we typically measure in Watts. Lumens is not a unit of energy but rather a measure of human perception of brightness. A label on a plant light or bulb that says "equivalent to XXX Watts" is referring to the lumen output of an incandescent bulb of XXX Watts -- not actual Watts consumed or delivered. It requires a significant amount of energy to produce fruit on a plant; e.g., tomatoes. The guideline is 50 W/sq.ft. to 75 W/sq.ft. with a spectral measure of 6400K to 6500K. You can obtain this with the SunBlaster by ganging together 16 to 24 4' long T5HO bulbs per 4' x 4' area.
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