ebay sale on Chinese leds or DIY? LOW BUDGET

Hello I am gardening some legal flower leaf vegtables in a 4x8 area, ebay has 300w, 140w actual leds for 426$ for 6 of them, I am on a cell phone and arthritis kicking in due to all the research, is there an alternative of say 3000k preferably diy led lights for double the price or less , any links to previous threads? I keep reading they put out to much heat (ebay leds ) and are not practical. I don't have a lot of money so it would be a month or 2 till I can order the parts/leds. Thoughts , ideas, aspirations, anything? Experienced advise needed. Thanks!

Ideally I would like the layouts supra spl is laying out but I don't have a lot of money, will the Chinese leds not burn down my place till I could get enough money to spend the thousands of dollars on building the cree bulbs?

most people say stay away from the chinese leds.
i would agree, look anything you pay low price for usually craps out shortly if not right away its just wasting money

I would run 2 of each of these - 1 setup over each 4x4

http://growershouse.com/daystar-reflector

http://growershouse.com/eye-hortilux-blue-daylight-enhanced-perf-mh-lamp-600w

http://growershouse.com/xtrasun-e-ballast-600w-dimmable-120-240v-gently-used

That looks like a smokin deal on some electronic ballasts

Thanks sunni, from what I am gathering in other threads slowly, it may be best to go with 2 600w hps with large reflectors off eBay until I can dyi the cree layouts supra spl is giving out. Might be smarter to ride my time out and save up for them slowly slowly. My laptop is down and browsing on phone is so cumbersome , and dangerous for my joints. I appreciate the reply.

That is the best deal on a ballast I have seen, used or not. Mainly posting because I saw a YouTube video by growmau5 listing XLamp XM-L2 by cress but the cxb3590 is all over the forum I assume it is the best. Looks like will have to go with it since it is so popular amongst those gathering data and crunching numbers.

I applaud all the led work going on here on this site and am watching closely myself.
Budget wise it just does not make sense for everyone yet.
I would have suggested a couple inda-gro 420's but being budget conscious I don't think you could go wrong with Hortilux Blue MH's
Here's a 100W inda-gro doing it's thing over legal greens

best bang for the buck is hid to 1000's in 4x 8 area

Less electricity for higher yields seems like a good idea, less coal being burnt. The led movement is great and unlike anywhere else here. Big think tank.

We need a low light strain.

Why not build some cree cob based units for most of your tent (what ever the budget allows) and add more as the money becomes available. Maybe start with two or four cxb 3590 and under utilize the tent.

Seems to be what I am thinking towards grouch

Darth Vapour said:

best bang for the buck is hid to 1000's in 4x 8 area

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Why do you insist on coming into the LED forums and talking like HPS is your only option? It's tiresome.

As for OP: I'd steer clear of those, not a fan of monochromatic panels. You could probably go with some of the older tech like the 3070s that have come down significantly in price depending on your budget and what you're trying to cover.

i do not insist on coming into the led forum and talking hps but the best bang for the buck for someone coming into growing is HID plain and simple everyone talks like Cob is the end all be all of grow lights fuck no it isn;t its just another fucking light at the end of the day right ??
look at it at this perspective whats the cost of a 1000 watt hid in a cob diy unit ?? how much ??
Remember the average american is living paycheck to paycheck with not much money to spend on anything let alone how much for a 1000 watt equivalant Cob unit ???? how much
so what really is the best alternative common sense tells me Hid did you know for only 150.00 bucks i can purchase a brand new 1000 mg ballast bulb and reflector
and that 150 bucks will in fact make 2.5 - 3 pounds of yield
curious how much is a pound going for in your neck of the woods ???
So with that said that is most likely the best option a smart grower would do start hid after getting couple grows in then possibly look at efficiency and cob diy units ..
When i purchased my first house 35 years ago i paid 65,000 for it and today my house i live in is 2.2 million meaning i slowly progressed from house to house reno's what ever built up my equity to what i have today vERY VERY few people are going to jump into a 2 million dollar home @ 20 years old
same logic applies for growing or life in general
Don't bite off more then you can chew.. plain n simple
We always here the chinese junk leds etc etc and i find it funny i mean only in Merica they say chinese junk things but every house hold is full of it hahaha ironic isn't it
you know mercia doesn't make much of anything anymore other then trouble lets face it the truth i know it hurts i bit now doesn't it ,,,
whats the chances that PC your typing on or I phone is made in the US ??? most electronics today or anything electronic sure the fuck does not come from usa but you got it Japan . china tawian korea so is chinese electronic junk ??
When it comes to cruise missile technology , or electronics sorry other countries are leap years ahead of goo ole MERICA

so with that said i even ordered some Mars reflectors 192 x 5 watters figured 3 of them should be comparible to 1000 watt hid down all @ 320 a piece 960 dollars we will see
also i would really like to know how much for the 1000 watt Cob unit more or less ?
anyways figured i try led for the hell of it i anything they will be good suplimental lighting inbetween HIDS

Comment was removed I think you need a breather ^^^^^^^ lol

I assume they are chinese, the ebay listing had a woman who was oriental and holding her hands in a heart shape. HIDs do cast out a lot of heat and is what interested me in LEDs, now i find out that the latests leds put out more light energy compared to heat then HIDs so it fascinates me , at the end of the day I can't afford them yet though, as it is like 1500+ just for 40 led cob cxb3590, which is a lot of money, none the less it would save a lot of electricity in the long run, also for the record, I am switching to ornamental flowers and not vegetables since I saw a youtube video of gardening your greens I think it was saying he was getting searched for vegetables inside. So anyway, does anyone some how know if the leds for 426$ for 6 300w on ebay are more energy efficient then HIDs , then again the idea of blurple simple isnt appealing. Also with such an even canopy and penetration of 3 feet I think the 600 watts would be best in this situation though I have seen 1000w under 6x6 area and still thought to myself look at all that wasted light, nonetheless

cheap "300 watt" LED growlights all use Epiled chips, low end junk really. they work, but are not anywhere near as efficient as brand name chips, such as Bridgelux ,Cree, or Osram. for $426 you could build a light that would far exceed what those cheapies can do.

merkabah said:

I assume they are chinese, the ebay listing had a woman who was oriental and holding her hands in a heart shape. HIDs do cast out a lot of heat and is what interested me in LEDs, now i find out that the latests leds put out more light energy compared to heat then HIDs so it fascinates me , at the end of the day I can't afford them yet though, as it is like 1500+ just for 40 led cob cxb3590, which is a lot of money, none the less it would save a lot of electricity in the long run, also for the record, I am switching to ornamental flowers and not vegetables since I saw a youtube video of gardening your greens I think it was saying he was getting searched for vegetables inside. So anyway, does anyone some how know if the leds for 426$ for 6 300w on ebay are more energy efficient then HIDs , then again the idea of blurple simple isnt appealing. Also with such an even canopy and penetration of 3 feet I think the 600 watts would be best in this situation though I have seen 1000w under 6x6 area and still thought to myself look at all that wasted light, nonetheless

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I am not sure , as of now probably just 2 600w hps, but eventually to 49w x 32 cxb3590 to cover the 4x 8 area. 2 fixtures, each 42" in diameter roughly. Built similarly to the spyder like growmau5 did, wondering if i should use 32 fans though or just 8 , money is tight right now and initial cost of 2 600s should get me going till i can build the light.

Funniest thing is most people in the thread talking bad about the chinese LED are either speaking from years ago experience or haven't even used an LED to grow weed in their life. I bought a couple chinese panels 600 watts from Vipar and they work superbly. Could there be improvement? Always, a grow room is never 100% perfect in my experience. Does it grow dank weed is the question that really matters and the facts are that it does indeed grow weed.

So you can either take advice from people who are scared to spend 200 bucks on a panel (which has lasted me 2 years) or you can pull your balls in your hand and grab a couple VIPAR LEDS (they work, another member Indica Angel has plenty of proof. I will also post more pictures as I feel but I don't like leaving a trail)

Also, I know the shit storm is about to come through saying "those blue red panels are shit blah blah blah" funny thing is the newer panels incorporate more white light which balances the spectrum pretty good. You could probably do better with cobs or maybe even an hps but whats the fun in using a light that emits 80% unusable to the plant as heat.

Darth Vapour said:

i do not insist on coming into the led forum and talking hps but the best bang for the buck for someone coming into growing is HID plain and simple everyone talks like Cob is the end all be all of grow lights fuck no it isn;t its just another fucking light at the end of the day right ??
look at it at this perspective whats the cost of a 1000 watt hid in a cob diy unit ?? how much ??
Remember the average american is living paycheck to paycheck with not much money to spend on anything let alone how much for a 1000 watt equivalant Cob unit ???? how much
so what really is the best alternative common sense tells me Hid did you know for only 150.00 bucks i can purchase a brand new 1000 mg ballast bulb and reflector
and that 150 bucks will in fact make 2.5 - 3 pounds of yield
curious how much is a pound going for in your neck of the woods ???
So with that said that is most likely the best option a smart grower would do start hid after getting couple grows in then possibly look at efficiency and cob diy units ..
When i purchased my first house 35 years ago i paid 65,000 for it and today my house i live in is 2.2 million meaning i slowly progressed from house to house reno's what ever built up my equity to what i have today vERY VERY few people are going to jump into a 2 million dollar home @ 20 years old
same logic applies for growing or life in general
Don't bite off more then you can chew.. plain n simple
We always here the chinese junk leds etc etc and i find it funny i mean only in Merica they say chinese junk things but every house hold is full of it hahaha ironic isn't it
you know mercia doesn't make much of anything anymore other then trouble lets face it the truth i know it hurts i bit now doesn't it ,,,
whats the chances that PC your typing on or I phone is made in the US ??? most electronics today or anything electronic sure the fuck does not come from usa but you got it Japan . china tawian korea so is chinese electronic junk ??
When it comes to cruise missile technology , or electronics sorry other countries are leap years ahead of goo ole MERICA

so with that said i even ordered some Mars reflectors 192 x 5 watters figured 3 of them should be comparible to 1000 watt hid down all @ 320 a piece 960 dollars we will see
also i would really like to know how much for the 1000 watt Cob unit more or less ?
anyways figured i try led for the hell of it i anything they will be good suplimental lighting inbetween HIDS

Click to expand...

Well, where to begin... You're in an LED and Other Lighting forum, advocating HPS. He came here to talk LED. Everyone who knows someone who grows, or has been to a grow store, knows that they can use HPS/MH. You coming to this thread to tell him that was akin to telling him that when the sun goes down, it will be dark.

You're not pulling 3lbs a light, I call bullshit. If you hit 2lbs a light, you're not only crushing it, but you're a very experienced grower. Don't sit here and talk like any farmer can just throw a thouie in a room and pull 3lbs. What strain are you running? What nutes are you running? Hydro? Soil? Coco?

You conveniently leave out the cost of the dehumidifier and AC as well in your estimates. I don't disagree that, as a new grower, it might not be a bad idea to use something tested and true. There, we can agree.

The reason why people are bashing the chinese LED is because you don't know the true specs of the panel, a lot of information is misrepresented by those companies, you don't know the part numbers, you don't know what's in the panel. If something breaks, good luck filling that warranty. I'm not a fan of monochromatic panels, they're not very efficient.

Just because you can't grasp the value of such information, and you don't have a background in electronics (I just so happen to), doesn't make you more of an authority than someone who does. I'm not even claiming to be an authority, but guess what, even I can tell you that the less parts to replace, the better. You FIGURE? Do you have any PPFD numbers to back that up? You're just assuming things from a very shaky footing of what you THINK something SHOULD be. The reason people are recommending COB builds is because you get 1) the most reliable driver on the market 2) THE BEST, MOST EFFICIENT LED 3) A full spectrum light that is comparable to your precious and proven HPS (just a little cooler white) 3) Less parts to fail!!!

Did you know that when China, the world's largest LED manufacturer, had the Olympics, most of the LED lightwork was provided by CREE (Phillips) an American company? You know why? Reliability.

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2007/10/cree-xlamp-leds-to-make-a-splash-at-beijing-olympics.html