Does dimming hurt the quality of light?

steveydvee

Well-Known Member
Debating on getting either an 800 watt or 1000 TRUE watts of LED for a 4 x 4 space. The price difference is negligible as I'm getting it off Alibaba. It's similar to the Spyder models with 10 rows of LM301B diodes and some reds for the "Full Spectrum". The only issue I'd probably run into with the 1000's is heat but I figured, if I can't handle the heat I could just dim the lights and use less power. I'm running CO2 sealed so I'm really trying to push my plants with anywhere from 1000-1500 ppf at the canopy. Thoughts?
 

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
I don't know much about led,s but some brands use the same diodes with a different driver running them with more power so in theory no dimming a led shouldn't make a difference, with hps I'd expect, a colour change because the bulb isn't reaching its operating temperature but idk for sure?
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Debating on getting either an 800 watt or 1000 TRUE watts of LED for a 4 x 4 space. The price difference is negligible as I'm getting it off Alibaba. It's similar to the Spyder models with 10 rows of LM301B diodes and some reds for the "Full Spectrum". The only issue I'd probably run into with the 1000's is heat but I figured, if I can't handle the heat I could just dim the lights and use less power. I'm running CO2 sealed so I'm really trying to push my plants with anywhere from 1000-1500 ppf at the canopy. Thoughts?
They will run more efficiently and last longer dimmed. But they will need to be a little closer.
 

Northwood

Well-Known Member
I'm running CO2 sealed so I'm really trying to push my plants with anywhere from 1000-1500 ppf at the canopy. Thoughts?
My thought is that if you want up to 1500 even to the edges of your tent without "cold" spots, you'll achieve that goal much better going for the 1000w dimmed if it means better coverage with a more spread-out form factor. I've been under the impression that LED does not significantly change the balance of frequency output of their light when dimmed. I could be wrong, but my plants don't seem to notice any difference, nor do I.
 

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
480w-640w is all you need for a 4x4 with quality LED’s. Anything over that won’t be all that beneficial. You may as well get a 5x5 or 4x8 if you want to use that much wattage.
 
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