I am in the process of planning a new grow rack, and I don't want to use lights that draw a lot of power. I have done a little research into LEDs, originally for my reef tank, but now I have started to wonder if LEDs could be used for growing CPs?
Yes, you can use LEDs for growing plants. But there are pros and cons.
Knowing that 5000K to 5500K is a good range for plants to grow under, would it be possible to replicate this with LEDs?
It is possible to replicate any color temperature with LEDs, but this is not what you want with LEDs. The "good range for plants" you know is a rule of thumb for fluorescent lamps only.
It'd be really nice to have much less heat transfer to my grow space as well as use less power. Any thoughts?
Do not purchase anything that is sold under the name of an "LED grow panel" or they sell you crap!
If you just want to save heat dissipation and energy, use sodium high pressure lamps of 400 or 600 Watts in a greenhouse and fluorescent T5 lamps with the best available clip-on reflectors in tanks. Optimized reflectors can double the light under the lamp, such as this German construction "Dennerle Trocal reflector" that you best use with T5 lamps:
http://www.dennerle.eu/global/index...category&layout=blog&id=57&Itemid=102&lang=en
LEDs are only good for use in small and very small setups, like propagator boxes, single pot lighting or perhaps a small tank. And you need to build them yourself to be cost effective.
My recommendation is: Purchase white high-power LEDs of the best reputed brands and with the highest efficiency, glue them to an aluminium cooling plate, solder them together with your soldering iron and power them with a constant current driver.
I cannot recommend LED lighting for anyone who cannot use a soldering iron as all of the "grow panels" sold are either crap or overprized until now (August 2011).
And be aware: LED growing is fully experimental! Only very few people in the world are using LED lights for growing carnivorous plants and you will have to do a lot of experimenting yourself!
Here are three pictures of my LED growing experiments which were successful:
Drosera schizandra:
Cephalotus leaf cuttings growing to little plants:
Drosera rotundifolia emerging from leaf cuttings:
These photos were taken in daylight lighting as the color rendering of LED lighting is not good, but the plants and plantlets were grown in pure LED lighting only.