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How To Compare Grow Lights

whats a good or great cmh or led light for 200-300 usd or should i just get an hps 1000 watt to start out with cause for my first grow im aiming for yield over electricity cost and if i can control the heat in the summer idc what light it is. pretty much saying i dont want anything fancy i cant afford it yet! what would you buy if it was your first light and you had 200-300 to spend on it
 
so when you are looking at leds the wattage they show like a 1200 watt led really kinda means 1200 watt hps equivalent i know its not exact cause thats how they make there money but is it close?
 
It can mean a few things. Such as the total wattage value of all the diodes combined, which is a pointless metric. Or an equivalent gas discharge value. Which is highly unreliable. Or the actual power consumption. So you have to read the products description carefully because manufacturers will misrepresent what thr product actually is to provide the appearance of a superior product.
 
You will not be able to get a LED fixture at that price point that competes with gas discharges efficiency and performance. If you are looking for maximum yield, you want a light source that accomodates your grow space with the maximum photon flux levels for that area. For example a 4x4 should not have anything more than 600w HPS. Where as a 5x5 should not have more than a 1000wSE HPS. Double ended fixtures should not be used for spaces less than 5x5.

CMH can compete with sodium discharge with efficiency, but they cannot compare in total photon flux. A 615w CMH can satisfy up to 4x4. If you can afford a 615 CMH, this would be the best choice as you can use the same fixture for the entire grow. Where as with sodium discharge, you need to use halide discharge together. Which is a downside compared to ceramic metal halide.
 
Used gas discharge basically means just the hood/reflector, as you would ideally just buy a new bulb for it. So yes, you can buy a second hand reflector, but you ideally want to replace the bulb as previously said. Second hand LED is likely not in the equation, as you would still need more budget to aquire a fixture to compare with gas discharge.
 
I will defer to DANGERDAN here, but I'd say that light might compare to a 250w HPS - but not more than that.
It only draws 223w... I have no idea how they say it is 1200w equivalent... It isn't.
I would steer clear of such gimmickry
 
Yes, there are no strict regulations for grow lights. So it makes it easy for manufacturers to make false and misleading claims.
 
what is a good led equivilent to an 1000 watt hps seriously i think just an basic hps is the yield i can get for the money i can afford i right now to start and yes i figured that was way too underpriced.. oh yeah what about diy led fixtures is it worth it where would be the best place to get parts for an diy and is there a guide or something like that is it basically just buy cobs and drivers and wire em up?
 
LED products from companies such as california lightworks, spectrum king, fluence, nextlight, and black dog provide comparable performance to sodium discharge, but require a substantial investment that take years to recover the initial costs. So they are not cheap.

Rapid LED offer about the most simplest solution to purchasing and assembling DIY fixtures. However you have to be able to understand some basic principles in electronics or follow their insutructions carefully, there is still some DIY involved. There are a couple of people here who have made these fixtures with good success.
 
ive heard of rapid led and i think i can figure it out ima give it another quick research / lookover but right now i dont think its the best choice for me in my situation since im finding such good deals used hps set ups im thinking ill get started with hps and then upgrade or add leds as i go to get more sprectrum and watts without adding much more heat.. the only thing that turned me away from rapid led is if its diy it should b e less expensive but i didnt see the price difference being worth it..
 
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