boatrowe
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the input
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tinkywinky
Member
Hi, I am new to the forum and am looking for a bit of advice on LED's.
I have read as much as I can of this thread but in honesty I am a tad confused I brought a marshydro 300w as it was very cheap so is not really a major loss cost wise. There is a grow diary here http://rollitup.org/t/marshydro-led-grow.839368/page-10 that I have been reading through and the contributors on there seem to be having some pretty good results.
However I have been reading this thread and some people have said they are no good so hence my confusion as in the grow thread I am seeing results but here seeing people warning others away from them.
I have done a fair ammount of research into LED lights so far and thought I was getting a reasonable understanding untill I saw someone recomending a 17w bulb in this thread over a much higher wattage device that I would have though would have had a better light footprint.
So to that end I am seeking some advice, my space is 4' x 2' with plenty of head space. I am not looking to do anything more than 1/2 girls at once and the rest of the space would be for veg/salad, I was (untill I started reading this thread) toying with the idea of the 300w I already have (for the girls) and two ufo's as I will probably have different heights within the tent.
Any recomendations welcome I dont realy fancy the idea of making one, however after further reading that may change and my budget is not super high I would like to be around the £50-70 mark for each light (pleasse advise if you think I am being unrealistic with this price).
I also have another 4 spaces that are 4' x 4' that are currently used for aquaponics systems so will look to be upgrading those to LED in the near future also.
Any help or recomendations greatly appriciated, thanks.
I have read as much as I can of this thread but in honesty I am a tad confused I brought a marshydro 300w as it was very cheap so is not really a major loss cost wise. There is a grow diary here http://rollitup.org/t/marshydro-led-grow.839368/page-10 that I have been reading through and the contributors on there seem to be having some pretty good results.
However I have been reading this thread and some people have said they are no good so hence my confusion as in the grow thread I am seeing results but here seeing people warning others away from them.
I have done a fair ammount of research into LED lights so far and thought I was getting a reasonable understanding untill I saw someone recomending a 17w bulb in this thread over a much higher wattage device that I would have though would have had a better light footprint.
So to that end I am seeking some advice, my space is 4' x 2' with plenty of head space. I am not looking to do anything more than 1/2 girls at once and the rest of the space would be for veg/salad, I was (untill I started reading this thread) toying with the idea of the 300w I already have (for the girls) and two ufo's as I will probably have different heights within the tent.
Any recomendations welcome I dont realy fancy the idea of making one, however after further reading that may change and my budget is not super high I would like to be around the £50-70 mark for each light (pleasse advise if you think I am being unrealistic with this price).
I also have another 4 spaces that are 4' x 4' that are currently used for aquaponics systems so will look to be upgrading those to LED in the near future also.
Any help or recomendations greatly appriciated, thanks.
BM9AGS
Well-Known Member
There are others that can articulate better than I can. But for a basis don't judge a LED light by its power requirements.....unless it's same led vs same led.
Generally speaking, light is light so yeah you'll be fine off some of the cheap LEDs but personally I think you'd get
More results from multiple 250w Hid lights over the cheap LEDs
What drew me to getting my LEDs are the efficiency. I'm running 2 Osram zelion 2x2s and for veg of a 4'x2' area I'm seeing my plants look better than they did under my 1k MH; while I'm only drawing about 88 watts from the wall with 2 fans running. So for me I like knowing my light is rated for 100,000 hours and my electricity bill won't make me regret it. But then again it was about 1,200$ for my lights, but I'll happily pay more upfront. Check out jimmyindica and PSUAGROs grow logs with their 3x2 Osram zelion lights.
In my area it's legal to grow so I just go on Craigslist and there's multitudes of people off loading full 1k watt light ballast hood kits for cheap. That was good for me for a while but to me it's not worth it when I see my electricity bill.....but I don't smoke I just give my stuff away.....it's a hobby for me.
If I was strapped for cash I'd probably get some of the cookie cutter ones off eBay like Mars hydro and the other more of the same lights And would do alright. But in the end their electrical draw is horrible so you're not differentiating from HID much.
The 17watt light uses the same model diodes as the zelion fixtures; doesn't mean they're as good but it's a damn good efficient grow light and if you got plenty you'd likely have a light same as the zelion HL but with more colors or spectrum. But if you only wanna pay so much then you must realize you get what you pay for as in all things in life and will eather pay for it in electricity over time or in marginal results.
Also final note, understand every thing you read online can be faked. Look at a lot of the feedback on led companies web pages. If you see flawless grammar and all great reviews then you must self debate the reality of it.
Generally speaking, light is light so yeah you'll be fine off some of the cheap LEDs but personally I think you'd get
More results from multiple 250w Hid lights over the cheap LEDs
What drew me to getting my LEDs are the efficiency. I'm running 2 Osram zelion 2x2s and for veg of a 4'x2' area I'm seeing my plants look better than they did under my 1k MH; while I'm only drawing about 88 watts from the wall with 2 fans running. So for me I like knowing my light is rated for 100,000 hours and my electricity bill won't make me regret it. But then again it was about 1,200$ for my lights, but I'll happily pay more upfront. Check out jimmyindica and PSUAGROs grow logs with their 3x2 Osram zelion lights.
In my area it's legal to grow so I just go on Craigslist and there's multitudes of people off loading full 1k watt light ballast hood kits for cheap. That was good for me for a while but to me it's not worth it when I see my electricity bill.....but I don't smoke I just give my stuff away.....it's a hobby for me.
If I was strapped for cash I'd probably get some of the cookie cutter ones off eBay like Mars hydro and the other more of the same lights And would do alright. But in the end their electrical draw is horrible so you're not differentiating from HID much.
The 17watt light uses the same model diodes as the zelion fixtures; doesn't mean they're as good but it's a damn good efficient grow light and if you got plenty you'd likely have a light same as the zelion HL but with more colors or spectrum. But if you only wanna pay so much then you must realize you get what you pay for as in all things in life and will eather pay for it in electricity over time or in marginal results.
Also final note, understand every thing you read online can be faked. Look at a lot of the feedback on led companies web pages. If you see flawless grammar and all great reviews then you must self debate the reality of it.
CoralMafia
Well-Known Member
Anyone have any experience with the Kind K5 1000 LEDs. I have the Kind K 5 myself but am just starting out it I have never used led before. I seen them side by side with the California light works and a few others and it seemed like it had a lot better penetration but like I said I am new to LEDs so I really don't know,lol.
testiclees
Well-Known Member
good luck with your light.
Did you check the search function ? Kind gets mentioned pretty frequently.
disengaged
Member
how close are you getting to the plants with the Osram listed above? I ask because I had something similar looking from China which seems to have some magical property of killing plants even at one meter. I had thought of trying some diffuser lens but at some point should just call it a loss.
Why not mix 3K and 4K in same tent? Mixing 2x HPS with 1x MH worked great back in the last century.
I see different schools of thought on light and many stick to either blue + red combo's (modern ones in the grow shop has white mixed in) or those going for the CREE / Vero / etc COB at 3.5K / 4K.
Have seem some blurbs stating (sales pitch?) these blue / red work because of the exclusive spectrum.
From a DIY perspective:
What about mixes for these white COB's and... have only seen Chinese ones advertising "pink" - but either other high output COB in either mixed colors or something else to enhance the red / blue as needed? There is a commercial design I ran across in an industry sales publication which has three dials. One each for blue / red / white. Sounds nice - a little gimmicky, don't know but it does address the spectrum hesitation I have. LED strips could go in the spaces described below.
I found my free cabinet which may be used to start veggies or make medicine some day. They are three very well made shelving units, the one for grow has 38" x 24" internal footprint. Each shelf is 17" apart. Total internal space to work with is just over 80". At this point the middle two shelves were cut out using a jig saw, leaving 2" of shelf still intact in along the 38" dimension and 3-4" intact on the 24" dimension. I could put lower output LED's under these shelf "parts" and use the openings for training / tying back plants if needed. It's about 45" of height. The top shelf is where one could keep wiring and filter / fan. The bottom shelf is where a reservoir could go, or I could make another cut out the next to bottom shelf and make templates for whatever container I'm using to grow with. I could have one that drops in if I want to use 5 gallon buckets, or another one that would drop in for an improvised flood and drain tray.
This shelf will be converted to a cabinet with doors for each section. Bottom doors, plant doors electric / fan area doors.
The other two shelving units I'm going to install one door on each to cover the bottom 17" shelf. One will go on each end of the "important" cabinet. Keep nutrients, etc in one and have the option of a reservoir in the other. Normal laundry room stuff on the other shelves, detergent, fabric softener and other domestic stuff.
Whatever I'm doing for lighting I don't want it to be half arsed but don't have money to waste. I have no intention on expanding the size unless I run into a high CBD / low THC strain which needs to be kept as a mother but honestly can't do that because of needing to check in on aging relatives. Definitely looking for same quality of light, or better... as if one were using big vented HPS / MH, only a very small scale.
I have been steered in the direction of Vero 29's without having seen how the spectrum looks. It does start to get expensive to fill it with light but may see if I can do something expandable where I start with 3 of those or CXA3070. I don't consider the $5 per COB difference to be an obstacle, only coming up with that much at once. Start with three, when I can afford another pair add them and so on until the cabinet has what it needs. There are always florescent fixtures being recycled to temporarily fill in the gaps.
Rambling on...
Why not mix 3K and 4K in same tent? Mixing 2x HPS with 1x MH worked great back in the last century.
I see different schools of thought on light and many stick to either blue + red combo's (modern ones in the grow shop has white mixed in) or those going for the CREE / Vero / etc COB at 3.5K / 4K.
Have seem some blurbs stating (sales pitch?) these blue / red work because of the exclusive spectrum.
From a DIY perspective:
What about mixes for these white COB's and... have only seen Chinese ones advertising "pink" - but either other high output COB in either mixed colors or something else to enhance the red / blue as needed? There is a commercial design I ran across in an industry sales publication which has three dials. One each for blue / red / white. Sounds nice - a little gimmicky, don't know but it does address the spectrum hesitation I have. LED strips could go in the spaces described below.
I found my free cabinet which may be used to start veggies or make medicine some day. They are three very well made shelving units, the one for grow has 38" x 24" internal footprint. Each shelf is 17" apart. Total internal space to work with is just over 80". At this point the middle two shelves were cut out using a jig saw, leaving 2" of shelf still intact in along the 38" dimension and 3-4" intact on the 24" dimension. I could put lower output LED's under these shelf "parts" and use the openings for training / tying back plants if needed. It's about 45" of height. The top shelf is where one could keep wiring and filter / fan. The bottom shelf is where a reservoir could go, or I could make another cut out the next to bottom shelf and make templates for whatever container I'm using to grow with. I could have one that drops in if I want to use 5 gallon buckets, or another one that would drop in for an improvised flood and drain tray.
This shelf will be converted to a cabinet with doors for each section. Bottom doors, plant doors electric / fan area doors.
The other two shelving units I'm going to install one door on each to cover the bottom 17" shelf. One will go on each end of the "important" cabinet. Keep nutrients, etc in one and have the option of a reservoir in the other. Normal laundry room stuff on the other shelves, detergent, fabric softener and other domestic stuff.
Whatever I'm doing for lighting I don't want it to be half arsed but don't have money to waste. I have no intention on expanding the size unless I run into a high CBD / low THC strain which needs to be kept as a mother but honestly can't do that because of needing to check in on aging relatives. Definitely looking for same quality of light, or better... as if one were using big vented HPS / MH, only a very small scale.
I have been steered in the direction of Vero 29's without having seen how the spectrum looks. It does start to get expensive to fill it with light but may see if I can do something expandable where I start with 3 of those or CXA3070. I don't consider the $5 per COB difference to be an obstacle, only coming up with that much at once. Start with three, when I can afford another pair add them and so on until the cabinet has what it needs. There are always florescent fixtures being recycled to temporarily fill in the gaps.
Rambling on...
Tim Fox
Well-Known Member
i am using cxa3070 ,, I have 2 of them in my 2 x 3 cab flowring, its doing so very well too, mine are 3000k cobs, and you can put together a cxa3070 for around 70 dollars now,, for all the parts,
i have my cobs 10 inches over the tops, with no problems after 2 days at that height, I have a mars hydro light with differant colors , but I cant run it because the temps get to high, so I am taking it out of the box today so the cobs can spread thier light better.
your idea of putting some cobs in and then adding more later is a good idea,, its exactly what I am doing at the moment, I will try and have 4 cobs in my cab for the next run, if not 6 total, just money prevents me from doing it all at once, seems like 4000k is a good middle of the road spectrum, but My plants were vegging just fine under the 3k's
i have my cobs 10 inches over the tops, with no problems after 2 days at that height, I have a mars hydro light with differant colors , but I cant run it because the temps get to high, so I am taking it out of the box today so the cobs can spread thier light better.
your idea of putting some cobs in and then adding more later is a good idea,, its exactly what I am doing at the moment, I will try and have 4 cobs in my cab for the next run, if not 6 total, just money prevents me from doing it all at once, seems like 4000k is a good middle of the road spectrum, but My plants were vegging just fine under the 3k's
ZenOne
Well-Known Member
Looking for a led or a cupple for a 3x3x6ft grow tent flower room. Will be doing sog style grow and just looking for the best bang for my buck. Was using a 600w hps last set up and I liked the results but if I can improve while saving g done cash on the hydro bill I'd be more then happy.
Any one give me a hand?
Any one give me a hand?
littlejacob
Well-Known Member
Bonjour
Have a great day ★
Cree 3590 3500k 36V CD X 9 @1400mA will do the job pretty fine
Have a great day ★
BM9AGS
Well-Known Member
I have mine at about 22" right now and no problems. I know with PSUAGROs grow he got burn somewhere under 24". So I haven't tested the limits and with how they're blowing up i don't want to touch anything. They all look better and are growing faster than with my 1k MH..... But I can't rule out other factors that could contribute to my opinion......but I haven't changed anything other than the lights and now the temps are 70-74 instead 86 with the 1000w and of course watering schedule as they require more now with their extreme growth.....
Last edited:
disengaged
Member
Just a note which may or many not pertain to the osram screw in fixture:
Yesterday I removed the lens from one of those $3 (ok, can't remember, but I got what I paid for) screw in socket Chinese blurple's which have about 5 LED's, probably 3 or 4 red and 1 or two blue. My experience with this light is it burns plants. My basil cuttings have been without proper light for a week while I work on my cabinet so they are too fragile to risk testing the light on them. From what I can tell the light has fewer hot spots with the lens removed.
Just passing the info along in case someone else can use the information about removing the lens as an experiment.
Yesterday I removed the lens from one of those $3 (ok, can't remember, but I got what I paid for) screw in socket Chinese blurple's which have about 5 LED's, probably 3 or 4 red and 1 or two blue. My experience with this light is it burns plants. My basil cuttings have been without proper light for a week while I work on my cabinet so they are too fragile to risk testing the light on them. From what I can tell the light has fewer hot spots with the lens removed.
Just passing the info along in case someone else can use the information about removing the lens as an experiment.
disengaged
Member
Maybe I'm making the mistake of associating the lighting color (3K, 4K, 5K, etc) with old fluorescent T12's from the last century but what people chose back then was colors closer to 6K for cuttings and I assumed the 3K range would have been for those that had to flower under them.
Are CXA3070's out there for low volume purchase in 3.5K, 4K? have been looking but now considering going back to the Vero suggestion because of color.
Are those growing in cabinets avoiding lenses with COB's?
Does anyone here know if Mouser does any kind of discounts/specials? I m dropping about a grand on LED's, drivers, holders, etc and Shenzen Kingbright is nearly the same price but they have 3070AD's while Mouser has AB's. If mouser is going to have some sort of sale for this upcoming Labor Day I will wait to see how much I can save. If I am ordering from a Chinese supplier I would rather order ASAP.
REALSTYLES
Well-Known Member
No not on the cobs.
REALSTYLES
Well-Known Member
Neither just make a panel like I did here's a pics of my 4x4 tent with only 4 plants running at 372watts dimmed
It cost me $1400 to make 2 panels that can be turned up to 413watts each running them super soft to beat the heat I live in California and I forgot to mention I'm not running any AC.
@REALSTYLES thanks for the response, I guess I will go with Shenzen KB. Now that I have my LED's, holders,reflectors, drivers and heatsink all chosen what are the other things I am going to need (18 gauge?) wire, shrink tubing, American plug ends, a connector for the driver power to connect to the my led bars(3 cobs @ 50watts on a huge passive heatsink), dimmer switches, solder, flux and some sort of hanging wires(no idea what my options are here). Is there any place to buy all of this stuff under one roof?
Also when mounting the cob holders to the heatsink, what are my options, should I just tap and screw or drill and nut/bolt. Thanks all.
Also when mounting the cob holders to the heatsink, what are my options, should I just tap and screw or drill and nut/bolt. Thanks all.
REALSTYLES
Well-Known Member
yes 18ga but make sure it's solid wire for the cob holders and I use a 1/8" drill bit with #8x1/2" self tapping screws and as for one stop place to go that question I can't answer
CoralMafia
Well-Known Member
Real I am about to setup my Gorilla 8x8 and was gonna use 4 Kind k51000s cause I already have one on my 4x4 but I am new to this LED lighting subject. I have seen a lot of people dont like the Kind so after watching your videos and reading your threads I think I would like to try the cob setups like yours. I have experience with making DIY fixtures as I used to own a saltwater store and made plenty of lights using rapidleds kits so I am confident in my skills as far as that. Only thing is what is your opinion on what I would need as far as quantity ? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thx
Thx
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