Hey growers. I’m embarking on a new test to scratch my itch of what the best, most efficient LEDs are in the market–along with which ones are saying they are efficient, but that may not actually be the case i.e., false advertising.
I’m sending lights into this company to run a battery of tests and I’m going to publish all the results online. I plan on testing dozens of LEDs and am open to suggestions. Although since each test costs north of $1k (per light), I have to be cost conscious as well. If LED companies can help subsidize their tests, that would be greatly appreciated!
Would love your feedback on how to make this test as valuable as possible for the growing community. It’s just getting started, so only 6 tested lights are posted for now. I will upload the PDFs from the laboratory next week if anyone wants to geek out on those
Great recommendation, and actually we did! Click through the link in my original post. We tested the Gavita Pro 1700e LED. It performed very well. Better than both Fluence SPYDR 2p and 2i models, which was a bit surprising to me. We also have the spectrum and 5’ x 5’ PAR chart for all models in that link. For convenience I’ll throw it down here.
Most companies have a 90 day return policy. Set up and schedule your grows. This way you can save a boat load. I did this with around a thousand lights. You definitely will wind up having to build some lights once you start gaining knowledge. I hope this helps
Thanks @NateCannaCribs. It’s always great so see the industry moving toward more evidence-based approaches!
If your question is to answer which ones are the most efficient, I’d simply be reaching out to LED manufacturers that appear to be on the forefront and ask them if they would be willing to send you a sample or demo fixture for 30 days, then box it up and ship it back. Shane from Migro (find him on YouTube; lots of great reviews) has a great working relationship with a number of manufacturers and does exactly that. His testing is done in-house and he provides a thorough review beyond just the numbers you would get from an integrating sphere, but not as accurate. Maybe a collaboration could be of benefit to everyone? He is located in Ireland.
If you’ve got other goals - which lights are the best bang for buck to the consumers, which of the lights your store sells have the best performance (for customers) and margins (for you), or something else - those goals should be well defined first. Lights for a home grower versus lights for a commercial grow are going to be tested for very different qualities.
This is a great idea that I look forward to hearing more about! The forum is a great place.
I have to say it : this forum is great I agree. It’s because of people like you @devjyarn! You are one of the most intelligent and scientific contributor, on the hobbyist side at least, so that makes for quality content! Thank you.
Thanks for the advice about getting lights for a limited time to test. I’ve actually just started doing that so it can be a little easier on our budget and we can more tests done that way.
I just checked out Shane from Migro. His videos are pretty good. I’m going to reach out to him to see if we can ‘trade notes’ in some sort of fashion and/or collaborate. Seems like a like-minded chap!
The goals of the test are just to have as many relevant lights tested as possible. Not so much a focus on commercial vs. hobbyist vs. ?, but more on just testing the most used and talked about lights for growing medicinal plants. The LED grow lights we started with are the brands we’ve seen the most sales volume in at GrowersHouse.com. Moving forward we’re mainly going to be testing lights based on forum/customer/YouTube recommendations. We’ll probably upload an overview video to YouTube in the coming month or so.
Some brands on deck are: Growers Choice, Mars Hydro, Scynce, and ?
This forum is a great place. A lot of smart growing minds here, such as yourself. Thanks again for the advice
Nice Nate… I have a couple Gavita 1650e how do you think that one compares to the spider and the fluence ? Also is there a big difference between the Gavita 1650 and the 1700 as far as testing goes ?
The Gavita LED grow lights are honestly even better than I expected them to be. I’ve already seen laboratory data on the Spider Farmer and it’s around 2.5 or so in terms of umol/Joule. DLC tested the Gavita 1650e LED light at around 2.61 umol/Joule and we just tested the Gavita 1700e LED light at 2.7 umol/Joule.
The way the Gavita is designed makes it very hard to ship, carry around, and just move in general. That said, it’s large design makes it much more uniform that the Spider Farmer LED and even slightly more uniform than the Fluence SPYDR 2i, the most efficient 600+ watt LED made by Fluence. Have a look at the PAR grids below for each:
Gavita Pro 1700e LED Grow Light PAR Chart (24" above a 5’ x 5’ grid canopy)
