Hi,

This is day one of my grow report. First, I do not work for California Lightworks, I have no relatives that work at CLW and first heard about the company when looking through a January 2012 MAXIMUM YIELD. I own and operate an Ayurvedic medicine website out of Oregon.

I'm going to be reporting on the flowering cycle of the Solar Storm [w/UVB]. I received my 800w SS LED light 1 week into flowering 6 - NL#5 x Haze clones, so what better time to test it? I'm sure I'll run another test from Veg through Flower on my next run.

The SS LED arrived beautifully packaged. I took it out of the box, made sure it worked, it did, and will install it this Saturday.

Three of the plants will be flowered under the 800w SS and the other 3 plants will be flowering under my 1000w HID lights. The 1000w HID is a mix of 1 - 600w Hortilux Super HPS & 1 - 400w Hortilux MH Blue. If you're not familiar with the Hortilux Blue, it actually has a large amount of the red and deep red spectrum as well as a good amount of the blue... nice lamp.

After I get the SS 800w light installed I'll download some pics. Then at least once a week I'll post reports on any and all changes. All clones are the same size, from the same mother and the same age.

My grow-room is approx 8' x 8' x 8'. I utilize Co2 enrichment via the GEN-1e at an average ppm of 1500. Temp of the room is 80-90 degrees, rh is 45%.

I'm stoked to be part of this offer by CLW

T

Excited to read it!!!! Let the grow begin.

I just set up the SolarStorm 800W LED in a four foot by four foot grow tent growing six "Jack Herer" in soil. I'm am extremely happy with this lighting device compared to the more traditional 1000W HPS that I have used in the past. I have a small area to grow my six plants, and am concerned about power usage and heat produced by my lighting unit. So far, beyond the low power usage and virtually no heat produced by SolarStorm, I am very happy with the solid constuction with the unit and the ease of use, and being able to plug directly into the electrical outlet. During the germination phaze, I have the unit on veg. and not utalizing the UVB bulbs. Along with the light I'm am using a germination heat pad to aid in the germination process. At this point I am very happy with the SolarStorm unit and am excited and confident that using this lighting unit I will produce world class herbs, with maxium effictiantcy.

Powerwiz wrote:Excited to read it!!!! Let the grow begin.

Thank you! I'm pretty stoked too. As I get a better understanding of the forum and how to upload pics and videos, I'll be adding tons of content.

T

Okay,

So, day 1 in the can. The project of changing out an HID set-up with the SolarStorm took about 2 hours. Mostly because I went to Home Depot to buy better [bigger] eye screws for hanging the SS. The SS weighs in at 35 pounds and I don't think I could sleep at night knowing that the smaller eye screws might pull out and end in disaster Also built reflective walls and dividers.

But everything worked out great. Don't judge my plants by the pic, they are in need of watering. Tomorrow they'll get a drink and they'll perk back up. I don't know what it is about NL#5xHaze but if you water them before they're totally wilted, the leaves do a weird roll-under and they stay that way. I guess they just like to dry out before a drink. Reminds me of my uncle

Getting used to the geranium lake color of this light is going to take a while. As most of us are, I'm so used to seeing things in a 5000 to 6500k color temp. Seeing everything in a purple veil looks really neat but will take some time to get used to it. Also, I bought a good pair of UVA and UVB blocking sunglasses to wear in my grow room.

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Cost comparison - LED and HID

LED: 50,000 to 80,000 hours. 1 grow cycle [3 wk veg + 10wk flower] is roughly 1215 hours. We get between 41 and 65 grow cycles when using the info from CLW Spec page. Let's say an average of 53 grow cycles for your $2000 - 800w LED SolarStorm set-up, Not counting electricity, fert, etc...
$37.73 per grow cycle. This does not include the cost of a reflector, ballast, power cord, lamp cord, and any equipment needed for cooling the HID such as, ducting, inline fans or in the case of an Enclosed Grow Room, an air conditioner.

HID: I will have to buy new HID lamps 13.25 times in the same time-period as the life-span of the SolarStorm. Using HID lamps will cost us roughly $166.00 [1ea 600w hps and 1 400w mh] per 4 grow cycles - 1 year. Total is $2208 for lamps. Not counting electricity, fert, etc... The HPS and MH lamps I've priced here are at wholesale cost for high quality lamps [eye hortilux].
$41.66 per grow cycle. Add 30% to that cost for retail pricing of lamps. [$54.15 p/gc retail]

So far the CLW SolarStorm leads the way in savings by 10 to 30%

Electricity Usage: The difference in cost to operate LEDs as compared to HIDs is rather obvious. LEDs come out a clear winner here. Because the cost of electricity varies as to the geographic location, I'm not going to bother doing the math. 800w LED SolarStorm uses 650w vs my 1000w of HID using 1000 to 1100w.
The LEDs use at least 20% less electricity when compared to a 800w HID system and more like 35% less vs the 1,000w system in HID. If CLW comes up with a 240v version of their SolarStorm, the saving would double, and commercial growers would most likely jump on them. Remember you're paying for amps and 240v uses half the amperage that 120v uses... The EU has it right on this one. I truly believe that the harvest from under the 800w SolarStorm will be as good as the harvest from under my 1000w HIDs. But time will tell, 3 months to be exact.

CLW SolarStorm costs 20 to 35% less to operate.

So, the problem facing high-quality LED systems like CLW SS is the same issue facing all high quality products. Psychologically, people would rather spend smaller amounts of money, over time, rather than spending a greater 'up-front' cost, even if the total cost ends up being higher when paying smaller amounts over the same time-period. I mean, just look at the credit card industry. Why on earth would anyone give 15 to 24% to someone to borrow money, short term? Cuz it feels like they're spending less??!!?? The mafia has been doing that for a long time too and who comes out the winner? NOT the borrower And the Fed... don't get me started!!

Also, the jury seems to still be out [??!!??] as to whether or not LEDs can grow high quality plants and flowers. I've seen entire commercial grow-ops using nothing but LEDs [I won't mention the competitor's name] with stunning results! I think the myth [LEDs don't work] still lives because people are buying crummy Chinese-made LEDs because they are inexpensive, and getting sub-par results either because the light breaks-down or because the light contains 1w LEDs and even then, not enough of them, and just doesn't do the job well enough.

If this grow goes well, I'm switching to all LEDs. I think I talked myself into it by actually doing the math. Remember to protect those peepers when in yer grow room.

ttys

Welcome to the forums, I'm not sure about your cost/benefit analysis but I'm looking forward to your results!

SisterMaryElephant wrote:Welcome to the forums, I'm not sure about your cost/benefit analysis but I'm looking forward to your results!

Not sure about it? Math doesn't lie. Pretty easy cost analysis actually.

Math may not lie (people do) but that doesn't make the given solution accurate. We've debated cost/benefit in other threads, it's more complicated than you think, feel free to read them and join in the discussion. A lot of people predict magical numbers, just wait until you see your results.

tonebone wrote:

SisterMaryElephant wrote:Welcome to the forums, I'm not sure about your cost/benefit analysis but I'm looking forward to your results!

Not sure about it? Math doesn't lie. Pretty easy cost analysis actually.

Best to wait and see the results. Im a LED supporter but its a never ending in every single forum LED vs HID. Theres no reason for it. I use all Apple products...its a choice its not inherently better or worse. The world is big enough for LED and HID to be used. Even if LED was cheaper in the long run some people simply do not have the money to pony up right off the bat. Thats a bigger factor then anything actually.