A very efficient LED light will provide a square FOOT with enough light running at 10 watts.

Yes LEDs are improving, but they ain't there yet.

YMMV,

Mike

T5s are what everyone is going to that don't like HIDs. My grow area consists of 6 4' 2bulb T12 fixtures that are 2x overdriven. I am making the transition to T5s slowly. I have 4 T5s over each terrarium and am slowly changing over the T12s to T5s. The plants do just as good under T5s and they use less power. I may overdrive the T5s as well so I have miniature suns over the plants lol.

Only if your crop is illegal.

struw,

Wrong, still not as effective, but perhaps safer!

Mike

No "safer" is more effective because it includes safer for the plants. Even if the authorities don't catch the grower, they will burn the crop.

I don't know about where you live but around here, the cops don't seem to care unless the bust is large enough to make the 6:00 news. I've talked with too many people who know someone growing a few plants. Geez, last year was the first summer in three years I didn't have volunteer plants growing (never find them until I get ready to pull up the veggie plants - talk about far-red light effect of being shaded.

Short version of a long story - about four years ago, after hearing shots fired up the street, we found a guy walking around our backyard. Faced with the threat of being shot from really close range with a 30.06, he ate dirt for a few moments until we marched him out front where there was lighting, where he got to smell concrete until the cops arrived. The cops let him go and he showed back up in the yard at 3 am, claiming he lost his cell phone. I think he lost a bag of very valuable seeds.

The first couple of years, there were dozens of plants that looked like pot, but I figured they weren't and tilled them up, except one or two always managed to germinate after the garden was planted. Yep they were pot.

I don't try to grow it for two reasons: one, I quit smoking 25 years ago and two, I run lights, including Red/Blue LEDs upstairs where the cops can see them through the windows. Besides, my house is paid off and I don't want to lose it.

Mike

Then some neighbors will steal it. Heck, my neighbors steal my tomatoes. In general, plants under full sun (outdoors) attract more pests. (period)

I have heard that police have made raids based on infrared detection from helicopters and high electric bills but I don't know how common it is. But, I do know that, in these days of news sensationalism, many things that shouldn't be news worthy make the 6:00 news. The police typically exaggerate the street value of seized drugs and the reporters go along with it because they are payed to sensationalize the news.

What's the word for the extreme opposite of paranoid?

Here's an entertaining story:

http://www.mpp.org/states/mississippi/news/ruling-upheld-in-case-of.html

You can't make this stuff up! This post is cracking me up! Nice stories. Hey Mike, do you have any pics of your LED plants?

Unfortunately, lots of Sheriff Deputies have little knowledge. I dug up that plant and exhibited it at the county fair (Cincinnati). I showed a couple of people, who are law enforcement officials a leaf and they were aghast that I was growing "pot." It was the Tainug 2 variety - the Everglades 41 looks nothing at all like pot.

I was surprised that during the fair, no one questioned the plant and, acting innocently, one evening said something to a deputy that it appeared someone had a pot plant on display. He said he wouldn't know a pot plant if he saw one.

The next night, as the fair was closing, three deputies were headed to the area. I am the official photographer for the fair so I asked them what they were checking out - they said a pot plant. Two of them thought it was but one guy knew it wasn't - wrong cluster of the leaves. He was a cool guy - he also likes super hot peppers and I took him some.

UGF,

I don't have any plants except for a couple of bananas under LEDs, at least not until a few moments ago. I took the tomato that was under the CFL and put it under a 54 watt LED that, alas, has half the lights not working. My experiences with them so far, and it is limited to 14-watt red, blue and red/blue panels and the one 54-watt panel that use to work fine, is that they are great for seedlings and even mid-size plants but not powerful enough to set and develop fruit. That's why I am anxious to find out more - and hopefully get a good deal so I can afford to experiment with the 120-watt panel.

Mike

Back on the topic of LEDs and solar panels, do people think there is any prospect for use of solar panel and led setups to grow plants and vegetables - or will the open sun always prove to be the best option?

Huh? Use the sun to provide power to lights that cannot duplicate the sunlight but pay for the system to convert the power as well as the lights?

Unless you are talking about a space mission, which is where I first heard about LEDs. Then, yes, solar panels are being considered to replace sunlight.

My son (not sun!) keeps telling me I ought to look into photovoltaic cells as apparently they capture some solar radiation so "sunshine" is not as imperative. I might buy into the idea if one can only live in a cave and venture outside in protective suits to install or adjust the panels, but the cost is not worth it, unless one wants to talk in terms of more than a decade.

Mike

Oh I agree the cost is definitely not worth it, but my understanding is that plants themselves aren't that efficient at capturing the energy of sunlight (they only capture a couple of percent) where as solar panels capture many time more, but lose a lot of that energy converting it into electricity...

Yes, its effective but not compared to sun yes ,its safe and consume less energy sources than other energy consumable products. I didn�t use LED in my solar panel but now reading about your efficiency I will give it a try.

Nice Review

https://www.google.com/patents/US20130188340

The vast majority of patents don't work and the vast majority of patents that do work are obvious ideas, e.g., using a laser pointer to exercise a cat. Furthermore, it is impossible to do an exhaustive literature search to determine whether the idea behind a patent is original and the government provides no formal method whereby a good Samaritan, without any financial interest in a patent, can freely alert the patent office of prior literature that proves that the idea behind a patent is not original, i.e., you must pay money to communicate with the patent office. Thus, the patent office is a farce run by the government.

This is an extremely old thread. It's hard to imagine that people were considering this idea 14 years ago. Today, it may be possible and cost effective. Solar panels and LEDs have improved dramatically. Hybrid and pure off-grid inverters are a thing and make up to 3% cleaner (sine wave) A/C power than the grid. With FDA and many other regulators learning that profit can be made from turning their eyes away from very harmful actions, I prefer to collect my own water from my solar carport. New grow lights are so well tuned for fruit and bud production that it takes very little power to mimic the results of standard greenhouse growing with natural light. I'm so sure that we can use our residual power production to grow all of our needs that this is exactly what I'm working on. I hope you find this and find it enlightening.