watts = heat....regardless. certain units have a better way of dispersing the heat than others. the lumigrow and the smartlamp are perfect examples. the lumigrow uses a HUGE heatsink, and very good fans, so it runs much cooler. the only things lacking from LED units that cannabis craves is the heat. plants need heat. i am going to experiment with all of this on my next round of testing. keeping the temps between 83-90 degrees should show much better production. i say you are lucky to be getting temps like that for your testing. good luck...we will all be following.

as far as IR hurting your plant.......i dont see how it could.. IR doesnt heat up the air, but the objects it comes in contact with. i get incredible results out of my HPS units. alot of it having to do with the heat it produces.

LEDS (and other lights) convert power (watts) into light (lumen, candela, lux, PAR) and heat(BTU). The more efficient the light is you get more light than heat. A magnetic ballast is not as efficient as a digital ballast. This brings up a good point ... there is heat coming from the power supply and the lights themselves. This is true for LEDS, MH, fluorescent, and HPS. Sometimes you will see a lumens per watt efficiency rating on lights.

LEDS have an efficiency curve ... there is a point (volts and amps) where the LED works at its max efficiency. When you over power / drive LEDS ... they tend to convert the extra power into heat instead of light.

Heat sinks work well for dissipating heat from LED lights and should be considered in the design of your setup. Also, i'm hoping to see (and you will one of these days) an LED power supply that measures power use and temperature then adjusts the power to lower or raise temperature. Yes, you can dim LED's ... trying doing that with your MH, fluorescent, or HPS. However, CHECK WITH YOUR MANUFACTURER BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR LED GROW LIGHT ON A STANDARD AC DIMMER SWITCH!!! You need a special dimmable power supply and/or drivers to dim LEDS on an AC circuit.

Good information, I really like all the tech talk. People learn new things ever single day through great forums like this one. Thanks everyone for your input, I appreciate it!

And here is an update.....lots of pictures......now it is go time, things are either going to start really taking off or--- well I dont want to go there just yet....

Veg room w/ two mommas (PE & GB) and all the clones in solos have rooted out their rapid rooter, so they currently are veggin - not rooting. Long veg time for some if you do the math...


Pine Apple Express and some mild LST


She is healthy


Momma Giga with some nuts ass LST


Look closely, the main stem does a full 360 degrees....its a circle


Look again, now the circle grows underneath her own main stem, creating some LST with out string


Another shot


And some bud development






tight nodes
[img]http://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/medium/DSCF2099.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/medium/DSCF2102.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/medium/DSCF2101.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/medium/DSCF2106.JPG[/img]

Awesome intense light coverage
[img]http://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/medium/DSCF2107.JPG[/img]


Geez....videos are so much easier to upload then all this cut and pasting....lol but I had to show some detail eventually. Take it easy everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Thanks for the pictures. Nice. I could not view the videos due to buffering problems at my rare stop at a high speed connection.

Without the pictures I was feeling I was missing out. Thanks

I also want to share my open root surgery I performed on momma gigabud today. She was past due.

I bet she is sitting in the cutting bored wonder what the hell is going on.


Looks like it may hurt just a little bit, she will thank me later though


All said and done


Let the healing process begin.

nice pics. Great looking buds

Nice work.

How old is your mom?