BlackStar 600W UV LED Grow Light Cree 2 watt
This is the 7th upgrade to the bestselling LED in the business. Since
then, the LED's have been upgraded 6 times. It was the first grow light
to use 425nm blue LED's and was also the first grow light to use 2 watt
LED's.
The BLACKSTAR line uses 2w and 3w chipsets, delivering the most
powerful LED's in the world. Penetration of the canopy is unmatched, we
use a combination of 60deg LED's and 120deg LED's for the perfect
ballance between penetrating power and coverage area.
Not all light is created equally. And neither are LED lights! At least
not as far as plants are concerned. After discussing this matter with a
few PHD professors at Cornell University, we were directed to a few
studies. Below is an accurate chart of light spectrum usage by plants.
Details can be found at
http://course1.winona.edu/sberg/308s05/Lec-note/15-new.htm
What does this mean for the indoor grower? This is the wavelength
spectrum of white light that plants use. So how does this affect our
analysis of HID lights? Below are the light output spectrums of the most
popular HPS and MH lights in the market.
The graphs speak for themselves. Neither HPS nor MH provide much
lumen output under 580nm. This means that the largest portion of lights
used by plants 420nm-455nm is not supplied by either light solution. The
peak lumen output is 580nm, 595nm & 615nm. As you can see, that
translates into a loss of about 83% efficiency when overlaid with the
light used by growing plants. Thus, a 40,000 400W HPS bulb translates
into 6800 actual usable lumens.
These charts are available from the manufacturers and widely
distributed, touting that they are closest to the natural light output
of the sun. Thing is, plant's don't use all of the sun.
There are mitigating factors. Our friends at Cornell have informed us
that a healthy plant gets the most vegetative boost from blue and
ultra-violet wavelengths. We have long known this in the industry
because traditional success dictated that vegetative growth is done
under MH lights (more blue) and flowering is done under HPS (Red)
lights.
The later in leaf diameter is outlined in the study attached below:
http://www.sae.org/technical/papers/2001-01-2272
The final analysis is that the most successful growth is found at
420nm, 450nm, 630nm and 660nm wavelengths. There are ideally 4 peaks of
growth spectrum. Red is slightly more important for flowering but blue
produces faster growth and absorption. It is also important for plants
to get more 600nm-630nm wavelengths because it is reported that those
wavelengths determine leaf diameter. Larger leaves will make a larger
plant. And who doesn't love a big tomato plant! Larger leaves lead to
larger surface area for further absorption, etc, etc.
Since LED's produce a fairly uniform output +/- 10nm we concluded
that given the correct wavelengths, LED's could possible do the job if
they lumen output was great enough and they had the correct spectrum.
In the 2009 LED Growlight Showdown, our winner (Lighthouse Hydro)
employed a unique LED. After the analysis, we concluded that the reason
for the win was the use of a mixture of 630nm UV/Blue LED's rather than
the traditional blue 660nm LED's used in all other LED systems tested.
This is confirmed from the spectrum usage graphs above.
So in usable lumens we have the 5010 lumen 90w LED from Lighthouse Hydro vs the 400w 6800 lumens of a Sun Agro bulb.
LED= 43 usable lumens / watt HID = 17 usable lumens / watt
Yes, the LED is superior but based on lumens/watt alone a 90w total output is not equivalent to a 400w HID light.
On Lumen output alone, a 90w LED does not match the 400 HID light
system. In usable lumens alone the conversion is more like 90w LED =
320w HID (HPS/MH)
This item is available for drop shipping direct to your location!
Visit OregonGardener.com for additional options.
;)
