SP-150
As many of you already know Mars Hydro has exploded onto the scene with some new LED grow lights for all growing situations. LED grow lights now seriously compete with HID systems while saving on electrical costs so for many it may be time to change over. We recently had the opportunity to check out the Mars Hydro SP-150 LED grow light.
The SP-150 is not dimmable like the SP-250 as it wouldn’t make much sense for this unit, however the SP-150 only pulls 128 watts at the outlet so no worries there.
We really liked the natural daylight color spectrum of this LED falling in at a hair below 4000 kelvin (thermodynamic temperature). This color temperature promotes strong cellular walls in leaf tissue helping to avoid problems with fungal diseases. At 16 inches dead center we were getting a PAR value of 403 µmol, this is good for a 2×2 grow tent. Check out the Mars Hydro 2×2 grow tent review. At 12 inches above the canopy we were recording a par of 608 µmol.
As for heat management the SP-150 has a heat sink that runs the full length of the light helping to cool the LED panel without the need for extra cooling fans, a nice touch at this price point. The temperature of the canopy at 12 inches was 80F/26C. We utilized both an intake and exhaust inline duct fans with the intake angled down at the canopy providing cooler temperatures.
The SP-150 is a nice LED light for seed starting, seedlings, clones, as well as for smaller 2×2 grow areas. Ideally you will want to add a 2nd SP-150 to a 2×2 grow space for the late vegetative and flowering cycle. The nice thing about adding multiple units in a smaller grow space is that should anything go wrong with a light you still have one functioning while waiting for a replacement. Using a single higher powered LED grow light is nice but if it malfunctions your garden is in trouble. For grow setups 4×4 and larger the SP-150 is a great LED for the initial growing stage and then you would want to add 1 or 2 more units or move to one of their higher power grow lights for vegetative and flowering.
If you are using a 2×2 tent and managing a SOG (Sea of Green) setup or just keeping a mother plant isolated then the SP-150 gets the job done but 2 units would be ideal.