@Tony
I hear you, in a large complex grow, it can get very expensive fast. It has been said that suicide is the sincerest form of self criticism, I think I've contributed to the well being of the Earth in the most sincere way by choosing to not breed. I'm also vegetarian and I ride a motorcycle, so there ;¬)
Regarding the heat, you know I'm going to have to check this out with a physics professor and get back to you because, my instinct tells me there's something wrong with your reasoning. And my direct perception tells me that there's much less heat produced from an LED contraption. You are of course referencing the laws of thermodynamics which are colloquially known as
1. You can't win.
2. You break even.
3. You can't get out of the game.
If we have a room that is completely closed off so that no energy can enter or leave apart from a power point. Then what you say would be true, whatever energy enters through that socket will raise the heat of the room, no matter how it's used. This is where my gut reaction leads me to believe my senses are speaking the truth when they tell me that LED's produce less heat, the grow room is not a closed system. But there are two separate heat issues, there's the slow build up of heat which you have to spend money on to eliminate, and there's the second issue which is how much head is being produced that is directly beamed to the plant. Then there are further complications regarding say a cool tube which can direct the heat straight to the outside. And as you have pointed out, there's a big difference between a tiny single unexhausted grow space like I'm using and your more complex set up. And there are more variables.
Regarding the quality of the spectrum and what is best, there's only one way to get an answer to that, and the inter webs is not that place. You'd have to do a completely controlled test yourself using clones. There's no other way. Unless someone else you trust has done that. Much like the aeration test that I posted earlier, I'm satisfied that enough variables were controlled for, including phenotypes, that the massively overwhelming effect of aerated water cannot be denied unless the tester was lying and tricking us. However that does not mean that it will make a difference in my set up because I do not know if because of my highly agitated shallow water culture is in fact injecting enough air in anyway. And no matter if I see an explosion of roots I'll still not know if it was the airstone I'm going to add to the reservoir or if it would have done that anyway. Again I'd have to do a side by side. But of course I'm not interested in doing that much work for a single plant, I may as well put the air stone in because it can't hurt.
