I was looking for anyone on this forum that may have experience using the Lumigrow Pro 650. I am considering this light in the near future. I was just wanting to get some feedback from a person who has used either the Lumigrow Pro 650 or the Lumigrow Pro 325. I have already looked into the California Light Works led lights which are sold by my local grow store. I live in the Southern region of the United States and my spring and summer temperatures reach upwards of 110 degrees outside making the ambient temps inside my house between 75f and 80f degrees. My 600 watt hps light in a six inch cool tube will warm up my 2x4 grow tent about ten degrees more than the ambient temps inside my house. I use an 8 inch Activeair inline fan on the cool tube, and a 4 inch Activeair inline fan for the 4x12 Phresh filter. Inside the tent is a 6 inch clip on fan and a 12 inch Vornado 630B. The Vornado 630B sits near one of the passive intakes on the bottom floor of the tent to bring in fresh air from outside the tent. This setup works well for the Fall & Winter seasons, but with Spring & Summer this setup will not work unless a I dial the 600 watt Lumatek dimmable ballast down to it's lowest setting. The California Light Works lights seem to put out a little more heat than I was expecting. I was just curious to know if the Lumigrow lights put out as much heat as any of the CLW lights. It seems to me that the Lumigrow lights should put out an equivalent amount of heat as compared to a CLW of similar watt or size since the Lumi's also use 5 watt diodes. I'm just doing my research to make sure that I get a product that I will be happy with. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions that any of you may be able to bring forth to these questions.
I don't think we've had any journals using that light so far, if you buy one you might be the first. I checked Nate's review site and he hadn't reviewed that light either so I went straight to the manufacturer to get details and I'm not impressed with the propaganda on their website and they don't say what size diodes they use either. I assume they use 3w diodes but they could be 5w but it doesn't say on their site nor their spec sheet.
Allow me to try to address your heat concerns regarding your current grow system and I'll also touch on some LED myths that seem to be so common.
Your air-cooled 600w HID in a 2x4 tent equals 75w/sqft which is a lot but you should get excellent results from that. However, 75w/sqft in a small tent needs help when the ambient temp rises. Unfortunately, extra cooling can be expensive. Portable AC and ice-boxes cost money to buy and run. While many high powered LED lights claim to not put out heat; that is a myth and I use the word "myth" to be nice. 600-ish watts is 600-ish watts and you won't see a big difference in the temps of your tent using either the air-cooled HID nor the LED. No matter which 600-ish watt light you use (in that tent), you'll still need better cooling than you have now. No matter which LED light you pick you'll want to grow small/short plants because LED has less penetration power.
Now, on to my opinion regarding what I saw on their site. 1) Too much PAR propaganda, their claims are suspect and in some cases wrong or maybe dishonest. I don't think that I need to go into detail again since we've debated PAR in other threads but we can do it again if you want. 2) Individual adjustment knobs for red/blue/white is a gimmick, imho. 3) Energy savings compared to a 1000w light are obvious but misleading at best, they're implying (I use that word to be nice too) that the smaller lights will yield the same as the larger HID based on PAR and that's a myth too.
So, in conclusion, the lights should be similar to the CLW SolarStorm series in terms of heat and it won't be a lot less than your current air-cooled HID...if any.
Hope that helps...
SME
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
SisterMaryElephant thank you so much for the thorough and informative reply. This will help me very much as I move forward in future grows. I have already been thinking about adding a mini split ac system in the grow area. All I would need would be a 9,000 btu unit which cools 350 sq feet would be more than enough I would think. This way I could keep using the HPS setup. However, I am just very curious to try LED lighting. I think I will be looking at getting one of the 400 watt Solar Storm lights by CLW or maybe two 200 watt Solar Flares (haven't decided yet). Just one in a 2x4 tent should be ok with proper ventilation and cooling in place. I was originally thinking of two inside of a 2x4 but I guess that would be a little much maybe for four plants. I just want to give the CLW's a go to see what happens. If I don't like the light maybe I will sell it to a fellow grower friend of mine who is also interested in the possibilities of LED lighting systems. I'm also curious about the UVB bulbs that are attached to the sides of the fixture. I am going to do some more research into UVB lighting to see exactly what it does. Thanks again for the excellent information.
9k btu in a small tent is certainly *more* than enough, maybe even enough for the room the tent is in.
We have another grower here using two SS400 lights in a 2x4 tent. 1 wouldn't be enough (for flowering), due to the shape, 2 is a lot of light...like the 600w HID. 2 x SF200w isn't enough for that tent, 3 might be.
UVB is said to help with trichome production and maybe potency because of that. I'm sure there have been studies done on UVB supplementation but no comparison grows here, both with and without, to double check.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
I have never used Lumigrow lights but am currently using two SS400 in a 2x4 tent, which put together output about the same amount of light as a single 600HPS.
You will find that LED will output quite a bit of heat but the management of that heat is made easier because LED allow for an even heat distribution across the entire grow room. Whereas with HPS/HID, the temperature just above canopy will usually be 7-10F higher than the ambient grow room temperatures. This lets you push ambient temperatures higher (up to 90F under CO2) which reduces stress on your cooling equipment.
I run a sealed 2x4 tent that is airconditionned by a DIY watercooled AC system. You can check the first three posts of my journal here, it shows in pictures and explains in details why I went that route and how it works and how to set it up, should you be interested: double-ss400w-grow-journal-t282.html
I can only suggest you do your homework before buying any LED fixture. Before my SS400 I purchased a light from an unreliable and unprofessional "company" that has no business ethics. When I shared my negative buying experience in my journal on another forum, that manufacturer harassed me there. Such behavior would be completely shunned and regarded as unacceptable in any other business , but somehow in the cannabis world, some companies think it's OK to have shitty business standards. Maybe they figure because it's related to drugs people are less likely to exercise their consumer rights and complain to the proper channels if things go wrong. LED fixtures are extremely expensive purchases and you want to make sure the company that sold you these lights is reliable and will come through for you if there is a problem.