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Originally Posted by FarmerShawn
I've been looking into LED growlights, but I have found little reliable or useful information beyond pot growers speculations.
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What I have found after a lot of digging is that 95%+ of all LED information out there is at best a misunderstanding and at worst outright fraud. Most of it is just parroting some crap that's floating around. If you go searching at places like this.
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu then you can find some actual information.
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Does anyone have any experience or insight on affordable units?
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I don't think they exist.
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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.
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Current LEDs have about the same efficiency as fluorescent tubes and thus produce the same amount of heat and use about the same amount of electricity. Where the LED gains is that it's easier to aim the light where you want it. As far a spectrum there are fluorescent tubes that in theory match a plants light needs better than a general purpose lamp.
As far as longevity LEDS still suffer from depreciation of light output worse than fluorescents and even more to the point the design, manufacture and therefore life and efficiency of the ballast in a LED is going to be identical to that of a fluorescent. The only significant difference is that you don't need someway to provide a voltage spike to start them. Other than that both light sources are supplied by constant-current, pulse-width-modulated power supplies.
Short answer fluorescent fixtures are what win when the cost is figured in.