FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm looking for a not too expensive grow light without the big energy bills. So im looking and I found this item on ebay, http://cgi.ebay.com/225-LED-Plant-Grow- ... 1e582c9f80

it's a 225 LED plant light planel with Red Blue hydroponic lamp.

I'm wondering if any of you guys tried this and worked for you to let me know before I purchase something that might not work.

I use this type of grow light, and i am very pleased with it, it simply does the job

I have heard a lot of good things, but I dont think LEDs are quite up to standard yet. Plus IMO it is awful to look at plants under them. But as Daniel_G and many others have said, it sounds like they get the job done. Being a big fan of my new T5 fluorescent, I would say take a look at this comparison from about a year ago of LED vs T5 (http://www.lumiversal.com/upload/T5%20v.%20LED.pdf). I am in no way a professional, or even have much real experience with these things. But from all of my research and from the results Ive seen in only about 2 weeks of owning this T5 i highly recommend at least checking them out. While mine was around $100, Ive heard that there are pretty cheap ones.

matadorjr wrote:I'm looking for a not too expensive grow light without the big energy bills. So im looking and I found this item on ebay ... it's a 225 LED plant light planel with Red Blue hydroponic lamp.

It seems that a lot of LED light arrays look similar, but are different. Some use the very small diameter and low power (not high-intensity) LEDs. They may also be very cheap LEDs from China that reportedly don't have a very long life, or of which a substantial percentage are sub-par. For just a few dollars more than the cost of the LED panel you found at ebay, you can get a similar LED growlight with much larger LEDS, much better coverage and intensity, from Sunshine Systems. I have and use six of Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45s--

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45
http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/produc ... oductId=10

The product you mention at ebay recommends a coverage area of 16 inches square. The GlowPanels are rated for at least 5 square feet (27 inches square). If you check some of the Internet forums of people who grow--well, a very popular "medicinal" plant, I think you will find some that are disappointed with the LED panels you mention, and recommend others instead, such as the one I mentioned above.

Whatever you decide to do, whether its this LED panel or another, or T8 size fluorescent lights as has also been recommended, please let everyone know the results and your opinions of the lights.

Well i bouth the Sunshine-system brand and not the "Wholesales" store from ebay. It's not the 45GlowPanel but i got the 14 one, that covers 1.5 sq feet. I had a $50 gift card from Amazon and i bought it from them but it still by Sunshine Systems. So it only cost me $3 out of pocket. So once I get it next week or so, I will pictures of my plants before the lights and take pics after a few days or so to see any results and I'll post my findings here.

I also bought from Sunshine Systems in the past. Our family owned Local Fish Store (LFS) bought about 30+ panels in different spectrum/color combos.
We got 4 or the RED and Blue and bunch of what they called 10,000K. Or Blue and White LEDs mixed to give it that saltwater appearance. Not that it has anything to do with the plant side of things but i noticed very bad results when trying to grown coral because i think that regardless of what K rating they put on their package, the bulbs them selves don't offer a broad enough spectrum to support the different algeas inside of each different coral.
I used 3x LED panels (45s)before over my 120 gallon terrarium. They lost half of there intensity over 6 months!!! Not good! I was unable to return the panels but my be able to switch out the power supply to rejuice them
I'm going to a talk on lighting in the next month. I want to know more about Plasma! Looks awesome and the CRI is around 90-95 from what i have ready.
95% the appearance and spectral output of the sun. This is why i now use Halides. However, my electric is more because of it.

Hope this helps Matadorjr! There's a good chance they have been tweeking their product, just wanted to let you know my experience with them.

Imo, high output T5 will give you the best growth for the lowest amount of money and the lowest energy bill. I have several different fluoros, T12, T8, T5. The HO T5 make the other lights look weak.

I have a friend that builds LED lights and he told me not to buy anything with diodes less than one watt a piece. I have limited experience with them but not enough to give any advice on them.