Are LED's practical for a grow room? (24 ft x 12 ft)

Greengenes707 · May 19, 2015

TheHeat said:
Or is the HPS route the way to go when dealing with this size? (Im looking to avoid potential heat problems and high electric bills)

A top led will cost you ~1000$ to produce/DIY your self. And will give you the absolute best led performance available.

A production panel that would keep up will cost 1500-2000$.

With either option, the most you could save is 40-50% on electricity and cooling combined. That value is going to be different person to person, location to location. If that is enough to warrant the extra cost by the time you are done...then they are viable. But if you will not make your investment back within your growing time...then it's not worth it for a production facility.

churchhaze · May 19, 2015

My bubble encompasses all of your bubbles. I know chmod.

bicit · May 19, 2015

Rrog said:
I'm missing why they can't be scaled up?

Still much less heat than the HPS

It can be scaled up. I never said itccouldn't. However the question in the op is wether or not it will be PRACTICAL to do so.

A diy led on this scale is going to have a huge up front cost. Plus tooling and time. Imagine drilling and tapping almost 300 holes, 150 squares of thermal paste, plus wire, mounting, hanging. That's a considerable amount of man hours just to assemble.

Compared to installing 6 hps lamps and running a mini split (which may or may not have to be done anyhow)

As to what's considered practical has yet to be defined by the op.

bicit · May 19, 2015

churchhaze said:
My bubble encompasses all of your bubbles. I know chmod.

My bubble is tiny...

Rrog · May 19, 2015

Greengenes' math above is the deal. It's a matter of amortizing the up front cost. Will you operate long enough to re-coup the savings.

Rrog · May 19, 2015

bicit said:
... the question in the op is wether or not it will be PRACTICAL to do so.

...As to what's considered practical has yet to be defined by the op.

I totally get that and agree. Up front project list is big for a new DIY-er. But I wonder if @SupraSPL could build them?

bicit · May 19, 2015

Rrog said:
I totally get that and agree. Up front project list is big for a new DIY-er. But I wonder if @SupraSPL could build them?

There are many people who could assemble them. Myself included or rahz and a few others. But no one is going to drill and tap 300 holes for free. Labor is going to be another expensive fee.

Then you have to consider that you're effectively doubling the price of shipping.

Im all for it. I'd love to build something on that scale. But I don't work for free.

OneHitDone · May 19, 2015

Ok, hopefully this makes sense and someone has the real answer on it -
Lets say a situation similar to that DE vs Spider vid

DE hung at 36" to get a specific intensity reading
LED set at height with same reading (18")?

Now, move the light meter down in 6" increments and what is the reality of the readings on each as they increase distance from the source?
Would the LED drop off faster or the same from an already established intensity point?

Rrog · May 19, 2015

bicit- for sure anyone doing this would have to make $$. Absolutely.

churchhaze · May 19, 2015

The DIY units also still need to be built. That means a large delay in startup (unless you just happened to time it so it's done when everything else is ready). We're talking enough DIY panels to light up 18x the area of a 4'x4' tent.

How long will it take you to personally get the order through? A month? That's about half a season's worth of production delay which is likely worth way more than the difference in price between HPS and DIY cxb, and the electricity saved over any reasonable length of time growing.

Rrog · May 19, 2015

Crispies! I didn't gather this was an emergency room build!

harris hawk · May 19, 2015

TheHeat said:
Or is the HPS route the way to go when dealing with this size? (Im looking to avoid potential heat problems and high electric bills)[/QUOTE
Your yields will be bigger use HM's

TheHeat said:

Or is the HPS route the way to go when dealing with this size? (Im looking to avoid potential heat problems and high electric bills)

Click to expand...

If you have the money to spend - why not give it a try -after all isn't that what we do after each grow? After every grow we learn something new !!

harris hawk · May 19, 2015

trevronious said:
Some interesting results.

Great set yp !!!

707humboldt · May 19, 2015

bicit said:
How tall are the ceilings though? De hps need to be 36-48" above the canopy.

The gavita 750w de could be a better fit?

Buy 1000w ac/de's. I keep mine 24" no problem.

707humboldt · May 19, 2015

Rrog said:
I bet everyone running Gavita inside for Canna is simply lowering them to get the same light levels. That video, as fun as it was, is not accurate, maybe.

Not sure how close you could safely get the Gavita to the canopy

He has them way too high in that video, you can get them a lot closer. I run DE's. If he had the closer it would have made al the difference and crushed the LED. I can get mine 24"

Darth Vapour · May 19, 2015

OneHitDone said:
Ok, hopefully this makes sense and someone has the real answer on it -
Lets say a situation similar to that DE vs Spider vid

DE hung at 36" to get a specific intensity reading
LED set at height with same reading (18")?

Now, move the light meter down in 6" increments and what is the reality of the readings on each as they increase distance from the source?
Would the LED drop off faster or the same from an already established intensity point?

Of course it would drop dramatically there is no need to run Gavita lower then 35 - 30 " from canopy reason is it will penetrate the canopy there comes a point of dimishing returns...
Meaning if you runa Gavita 20 - 30 " its producing the same effciency ..
Place a cob one at 20 inches over a plant and one at 30 " and look for the stretch difference there will be significant difference between both plants ..
Look at heat as horse power Top fuel engines are painted black to hold on to the heat longer creating more horse power

Rrog · May 19, 2015

707humboldt said:
If he had the closer it would have made al the difference and crushed the LED.

How is that? Both scenarios essentially max what the plant is capable of using. You'll light bleach either one at this point, so how is one going to crush another? Better spectrum?

707humboldt · May 19, 2015

Rrog said:
How is that? Both scenarios essentially max what the plant is capable of using. You'll light bleach either one at this point, so how is one going to crush another? Better spectrum?

I keep my DE's at 24 inches with no light bleach, so its not maxing what they can use by keeping them at that height.

Rrog · May 19, 2015

I guess my point is that either system is providing all the plant can photosynthesize. So how is one at an advantage with respect to plant growth?

707humboldt · May 19, 2015

Gavita is also designed for supplemental lighting in green houses so they put off a large footprint. The ac/de like what I use, has a more concentrated light thats meant for smaller footprints, like 4x4-5x5. I use 4x4. He's wasting a lot of the light by having them up that high. He even says a lot of the light is going to the walls. If the hoods were designed differently like the ac/de it wouldn't do that as much and get higher par readings

Are LED's practical for a grow room? (24 ft x 12 ft)

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