I can understand what you're saying here Chris, but the problem with LED's has always been one of poor penetration into the canopy of the plants. I have yet to see an LED grow that has produced a decent-sized plant that isn't a rather spindly version of what it should look like. Not that I've seen many LED-only grows, but the few I have have turned out as above.
I'd be fascinated to see what you can do with them though. I'm always willing to learn. :)
Yeah I'm pretty certain, having looked around, that one of the that the currently available LED growlights have is one of correct LED choice... THe efficiency in lumen-per-watt range of LED's is incredible. I can go down to Maplin and buy an LED to use as an indicator on a panel and it's fine and seems bright, but turn it on in a dark space and it provides no illumination... then I go to work and see the strobes we build out of high-efficiency/brightness LED's and it's painful to be in a room with one, and it's only really pulling 10 or 12 watts total into the entire array.... 250W of CFL is always going to be nice and bright, and the bulbs last well, but that's a kilowatt-hour of electricity every four hours.... 250W of high-efficiency LED's would be painfully bright lighting through an entire house and probably most of the garden....
Ijust wish the market wasn't dominated by stoners , it would be so much easier to deal with.... the other problem with the "good" LED's is they cost a fair bit more than the standard ones, so everywhere that's trying to shave costs to provide a low-price solution doesn't use them....
Oh well, gotta dash, need to finish off the shed modifications to allow me to get power to the greenhouse to power these things....
chrisc
