high output led strips

Been talking to a US company, Redbird Led. They make high bay lights and troffer retrofit LED kits. They have one that is 155 lumen per watt. We just received a couple samples to play with at Emerald City Gardens. They sent us 2 of there 22 watt 2 foot strips. It comes with 2 heavy duty (for 22 watts and not easily bent) aluminum strips, a 44 watt dimmable driver and simple push in wire connections. So far I have only had time to wire them and do a couple quick light tests with a lux meter. I didn't even write the #'s down. 12" away from a T5 shows the same output at over 30" with the strip. Each 2' strip can handle 22 watts max. The 4' strips can handle 44 watts and are around $2.00 per watt. 6 4' strips over a 2'x4' is 33 watts per square foot for around $500 in 4100K. Sorry no pictures yet, but I will get them up later. This may be an option for those that are afraid to jump into a full diy setup. And the most important thing, they come with a 10 YEAR WARRANTY. You will be able to buy your weed in Safeway by the time you need to replace one.

Had some time to play with the light some more. I do wish I had a better par meter. I am using a Sunlight Supply meter, the cheapest of the cheap. With both 2 foot sticks side by side I got 1000 @ 3" and 500 @ 7". Under a single 2' I got 1000 @ 2" and 500 @ 4".

Just made one more measurement for comparison. The highest # I could hit with the meter against a T5 HO bulb was 630. The led maxes out the meter (3000) at 1".

check the 33 watt Samsung 560mm strip PPF output in the link below
your strip length is almost same. Just increase all values by 25% since your strip 44w and the chart is for 33w. May be a little bit more as Redbird claim higher lm/w
https://www.rollitup.org/t/how-to-plot-ppf-chart-with-quantum-sensors-for-led-light-comparison.881113/#post-11844367

So far the most efficient strips i saw was LUXEON XF-3535L. I wonder what LED Redbird uses. They claim155 lumen per watt nominal but for what power 22,36,44W and what spectrum 3000k or 5000k. I assume you talking about this model

nevergoodenuf said:

The 4' strips can handle 44 watts and are around $2.00 per watt

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Assuming $88 for 44 watts 4' strips. Does it include cost of driver ?

With strips the plants can come closer to light.Light from so many angles sounds cool.
COB has better penetration but more headroom needed. Also with COB reflectors work great.

That model is the same thing with cover and end caps and adds $20 to $30 to the price of the strip. The strips also comes with a clip in diffuser that attaches to the heat sink and comes with shown dimmable driver. If you want the complete 264 watt dimmable fixture, you are around $900. There fixture are meant to be mounted 30+ feet in the air and is about 2'x4' with 6 strips. I was told they use blue Epistar leds and have their own phosphorous cover.

I really wanted to do a full test, but due to low funds I will be testing 44 watts over about 20" by 20". I had a scrog kit, I got at the Max Yield show, laying around and a Green Crack that was 12". It is only sitting in a DWC bucket as a simple drain to waste setup.

Quick update- from edge to edge they are getting 61,000 to 76,000 lux. Don't know what that means, but I thought I would put it out there. Already happy and going up.

The last couple weeks have been frustrating. My last 3 runs have been OK to laughable. I had bought a blue lab trucheon PPM meter after my pen went out. I was thinking 5 year warranty and no need to calibrate, great. My friends have been running cutting edge at full strength and not had a problem, so that's how I started running it. Around the same time my meter started screwing up, I started cutting edges. The meter was always between 600 to 850 ppm's. So for the last 3 runs I have been cooking my plants some where around 2000ppm. I had a friend check my tap water with 2 different meter and I am at 700ppm out of the tap on city water. I just went down and bought a bunch of 1 gallon jugs to get me through the week. I am glad I found this before I ruined this test.

Just bought another 10 gallons of bottled water and flushed all my plants with a couple gallons each. The run off maxed out my ppm meter. I gotta say this Greencrack can take some abuse. I am now at 900 ppm, but it is a little late for this run. It should be done around the 9th. Well for one week in they are doing great. I wish the screen was a bit bigger, but I have an even 4" thick canopy right now.

I've always wanted to try one of those screens out. They seem like they would be a bit more handy with smaller plants than home made PVC screens.

The lower screen I cut a hole in to fit the cube in, but that is where the one to maybe three gallon pot sits. And the 2 piece vertical supports have a bunch of holes to snap into. Would be great for scrog in a perpetual grow.

Day-11 She is looking really good. Not sure if I should lower the light or leave it.

The stalk coming of the rockwool is twice the size of the rest of the stalk.

Day 14- Everything is looking good. I counted over 20 tops coming thru the net and bud development is tight.

Are the Red Bird strips available from a retailer (online), or do you have to contact them directly to order? I'd be interested in a couple of 2' strips for an indoor lettuce/spinach/spice garden I'm thinking of setting up during the winter. Is there a price list for the different setups somewhere?

The best price for the 2 footers is 2 two footers and one 44 watt driver @ about $80. One 4 footer with 44 watts is the same price. Talk to Steve at Redbird directly and tell him you saw them here. Planning on getting them into a friends store once the test is over.

I just emailed Redbird for a quote with shipping on 2 of the 2' strips at 44 watts and 4100k. If it's around $80 I'll probably order them, since it's cheaper than the COB/driver/heatsink options I was looking at, and the LEDs look pretty decent at 139 lm/w. I do find it curious though that on their spec page for the strip lights that the lm/w always works out to 139, whether you power them at 9 watts or 44 watts. Usually if you drive an LED strip harder at higher wattages the lm/w number goes down.
No matter, if you can grow mj with it, I should have no trouble with lettuce, spinach and some cilantro.

Update day 20- My canopy in now almost 20"x28" with the light about 4" to 6" away from the top. Very happy with the progress so far. Once I have run both of these lights and my Vero setup threw a good full run I should have a better idea of how I can use these lights.

This is the happiest of my 3 flowering right now. The light is just barely covering the whole canopy at 8".

Day 35- having some issues, but still doing OK.