Whether these are good or not or worth the money depends on what you want to use them for. After viewing a couple LED grow lamps in action, they definitely have their applications. Most of the higher power models put off less heat than comparable powered MH/HPS bulbs and are more compact, allowing them to be placed closer to the plants. They focus most of their energy into the PA regions of the spectrum, making them more efficient for the amount of power being consumed. That being said, the next question is, in what application you want to do use them? If you compare the transmission of the LED light through multiple layers of foliage, you'll notice that most of the energy is stopped within one or two sets of leaves, where as with a comparable HID light, there will still be some light shining through after several layers. So if you're planning to grow herbs or lettuce/vegetative plants in a small footprint, the LED grow lights are great. Fruiting plants will grow and eventually produce fruit to some extent in almost any lighting condition; however, the quality will not be optimum if sufficient light is not provided. That is where using LEDs to supplement other light sources would be useful. Also, if you're relying on HID lights to augment the temperature in a colder area, the LEDs will not perform this function, requiring additional energy to be spent on heating. Not a concern for most people, but its something to consider when totalling the energy costs. Bottom line: The LED Grow Lights have their advantages in certain applications, but are far from being a cure-all alternative to HID. As for buying lights on eBay or other bargain vendors, if the deal seems too good to be true, 9x out of 10 it is...

Light sources have a spectrum. In some cases it is narrow, and in others wider. The sun, for example, emits through the entire visual spectral band, as well as UV and IR. tungsten and tungsten halogen are hot emitters with various spectral bands generally characterized by their apparent color temperature. The sun's spectrum is close to that of a 6000K (degrees kelvin) black body, whereas tungsten lights may be 2700K and tungsten halogens up to 3300K. The latter color temperatures are considered lower than the sun color temperatures, but are called warmer. Arc lamps that are spectrally broad may fall into the same color temperature range as the sun, but depending on line structure from the gasses used and the pressure that they are running at, may appear redder or bluer than the sun. Note that as these thermal sources are turned down with a dimmer, they become redder (warmer color) even though they are getting colder, physically. Now, getting to light emitting diodes, there are two types that I'm aware of being used for illumination (excluding variants). One type emits mainly at a single color, but because they are not true laser sources, this color band may be somewhat wide. Combinations of these sources may be used to try to match the tristimulus diagram of human eye response and look like a black body emitter at some color temperature. High color temperatures are considered colder because they have more blue; lower temperatures are considered warmer because they have more red. Note that this is referring to color temperature, and not LED physical temperature. The Cree LR4s had a scheme for re-balancing the color temperature as the LEDs aged. As I recall they were available in two different color temperatures for different applications. A clothing store, for example, might want a higher (colder) color temperature for interior illumination, whereas a kitchen might prefer something warmer (lower color temperature). (No one should be embarrassed if confused by this contradictory nomenclature.) Cree provided me a (proprietary) spectral chart that showed that their color spectrum was broad, but not particularly close to matching a black body spectral diagram. To avoid any post construction complaints I bought a single lamp and tested it against my soapstone and granite to ensure that the green highlights in each were being properly illuminated to provide a pleasing color balance when illuminated with the warmer LR4 option. The second type of LED source uses a deep blue or UV LED (or array of LEDs) to illuminate a phosphor or a combination of phosphors intended to emit a particular "whitish" color temperature. These phosphors tend to look yellow when viewed with the lamp off. By choosing the phosphor chemistry, and possibly over coating with filters, different color temperature sources are created. The goal is to know what color temperature one wants before specifying the particular lights to be used. If you want a tungsten halogen color temperature, specify 3200K - 3300K. For regular tungsten, 2700K - 2800K is good. Higher values toward 4000K will be bluer and more blue sky matching. As an aside, LG was able to cut the cost of organic LED (OLED) TVs by using all white (phosphor) blue-emitting OLEDs with red/green*/blue filters rather than the more difficult to manufacture sets of red/green/blue single color LEDs. kas *maybe yellow, I'm to lazy to go look

I live in Chicago where we have a wonderful appliance store called ABT which has national recognition for its stellar customer service. I am fairly certain that they would not bat an eyelash if someone returned something just because they don't like how it looks in their kitchen. However, if it was already installed, (not just plugged in) that might be a different story. Our hood has signs everywhere on it that say "CHECK before installation - hoods are not returnable once installed." Which makes sense. I would ask about the return / exchange policy. I guess this is one of those millions of little details that we are supposed to miraculously know about before embarking on a kitchen project. You may not even notice it down the road. I totally know how you feel because everyone knows i have had problem after problem in my K remodel, (3 months and counting for a 2 week job!) I am not trying to minimize your disappointment, but just try to take your mind off of it by taking a walk in this lovely fall weather, or stuffing yourself with decadent baked goods, or reading up on the latest in Darfur. Usually works for me. good wishes, LC

While looking at the above government link, I notice San Jose, CA, has high sodium (Na) in their tap. My sister there has high blood pressure, while my blood pressure is low. But my risk of heart attack is higher than her, see below excerpt from WebMD "Higher doses of calcium increase the chance of having serious side effects. Some recent research also suggests that doses over the recommended daily requirement of 1000-1300 mg daily for most adults might increase the chance of heart attack. " http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-781-CALCIUM.aspx?activeIngredientId=781&activeIngredientName=CALCIUM Also see http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/256791.php "The finding came from a new study by a team of experts led by Qian Xiao, from the National Institutes of Health, and supports prior research from last year which indicated that calcium supplements are linked to a higher risk of heart attack." UPDATE: Bought 3 different brands of cherry juice to see if they help with sleep. Trader's Joe cherry juice is too sour & bitter. Indian Summer cherry juice is too watery. Neither of these help with my sleep. The cherry juice that helped was one from nearby Wisconsin (1 hour away) ... its FRESHNESS was what worked. In my experience, FRESH grapefruit works better than STALE cherry juice that was cooked (pasteurized), which destroyed the enzymes. Here's an excerpt from below link: http://bembu.com/foods-to-help-you-sleep 2. Grapefruit Eating grapefruit before bed has been an old wives’ tale for years, but as it turns out there’s a reason why this has been known to help sleep. It contains lycopene, an antioxidant in the body that has been shown to improve the way you sleep. Grapefruit can also help you lose weight if needed." I also notice that fish oil is very effective for good sleep. I took NOW fish oil, since it's the cheapest & best rated on Amazon, only 14 cents. I'm switching to NOW liquid fish oil, lemon flavor, since I get more Omega-3 per price-unit. Fish oil works when magnesium and cherry juice failed. There's days that I could not sleep, and fish oil did the job when nothing worked. I'm going to try cod-liver oil, to see if that helps with sleep & better skin & my vitamin D deficiency. Will report the result later. Both vitamin A and D is known to help with hormonal imbalance.