Led Users Unite!

claude hopper said:

My 180w Blackstar keeps the small cab between 3 and 5 degrees above ambient temps. I've been testing it for the last several days.

View attachment 1441520View attachment 1441521View attachment 1441522

Ive sunk the leds vents just below the top of the cab and sealed any gaps. To prevent vibration noises I have suspended the light on dowels resting on foam.

This has been a trial period. I'll be increasing the size of the vent to try and bring the cab temps closer to ambient.

I need to get some shades to wear when I open the door!

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Love your set up. Seriously that's a wicked idea. Wouldn't suspect a thing. Keeping the LED vents out of the grow space is a great idea. If your temp is 80-85 I wouldn't change a thing. Thats a great range for optimal growth.

Thanks for the interest. I will put up a journal in a couple of weeks. I'm logging my actions now and waiting for the green to show (seeds popping today).

I found the cabinet mounted to my basement wall when I moved in. Its an old steel cupboard. The shelf is adjustable up and down in about 40mm increments.

This is my first run with LED. Its going to be pretty much a Keep It Simple, Stupid run: The cab holds exactly 6 square one gallon pots. I mixed up Jiffy seed starting mix, Miracle Grow seed starting mix and perlite in equal proportions. In a few weeks I'll start with Maxibloom as my sole fertilizer.

I'm off to get carbon for the scrubber I'm building.


The sad little plant in the back is "overwintering" from an Early Sativa seed run I did using only sunlight this last winter LOL! I ended up with about 40 seeds and maybe two grams of surprisingly good smoke.

This LED is my first real indoor light apart from the cfl's and shoplights I used to use for starting my outside plants.

claude hopper said:

Thanks for the interest. I will put up a journal in a couple of weeks. I'm logging my actions now and waiting for the green to show (seeds popping today).

I found the cabinet mounted to my basement wall when I moved in. Its an old steel cupboard. The shelf is adjustable up and down in about 40mm increments.

This is my first run with LED. Its going to be pretty much a Keep It Simple, Stupid run: The cab holds exactly 6 square one gallon pots. I mixed up Jiffy seed starting mix, Miracle Grow seed starting mix and perlite in equal proportions. In a few weeks I'll start with Maxibloom as my sole fertilizer.

I'm off to get carbon for the scrubber I'm building.
View attachment 1441767

The sad little plant in the back is "overwintering" from an Early Sativa seed run I did using only sunlight this last winterView attachment 1441777 LOL! I ended up with about 40 seeds and maybe two grams of surprisingly good smoke.View attachment 1441777

This LED is my first real indoor light apart from the cfl's and shoplights I used to use for starting my outside plants.

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Quaker Carbon Filter?

just wanted to post a pic of a BRANCH on my ladies...... This is not hairs its resin and seriously my whole plant is COVERED
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can you guys please help me. my grow space is 4.5' x 5' x 7(WxLxH). can you guys tell me what lights would be decent from this in a price range of 800? i see that spectra, 357 mag and others are decent. i read that blackstar is decent, then i hear it isnt.. im confused... i have 800 to spend and want invest it the best that i can, please give me opinions on what i could get. thanks!

Heres the Rundown, you have roughly 25 sqft of grow area.

Spectra has the 280W that covers 16 sqft for $640
357 Magnum (180W Actualy draw) has a coverage area that is probably close to 12 Sqft - that is $699.
ISIS has several options, I would say you would be better going with several 170W (120W actual draw) models. Those probably cover 6-8 sqft each and cost 379 bucks.
Blackstar has a 500W (285W draw) model that covers 12 sqft for 549 bucks.
Kessil (currently drawing some concern on this thread) has 35W lights that cover about 4 sqft for 240 bucks.

Mix, match, stretch, what ever it takes.

I have 24 sqft as well. I Mixed an HID and a 500W blackstar. I love it. Fucking love it. So thats my personal recommendation. Cop a 500W blackstar and burn 250 bucks on an nice 600W-1000W HID. If you want to go crazy, get 2 240W panels from blackstar and put one on each side of the HID reflector.

If you want to get even more nuts, get an LED and a metal halide. Mix them and see what happens. Thats what I got planned starting next week.

IDrinkCoffee said:

can you guys please help me. my grow space is 4.5' x 5' x 7(WxLxH). can you guys tell me what lights would be decent from this in a price range of 800? i see that spectra, 357 mag and others are decent. i read that blackstar is decent, then i hear it isnt.. im confused... i have 800 to spend and want invest it the best that i can, please give me opinions on what i could get. thanks!

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hudson,

thanks for the input. i want to stay away from MH/HPS, though. im new to the game and wish to keep it nice and simple

that spectra 280 sounds nice. do you think it would be a good idea if i set up the 280 in the center and maybe 1 90w UFO on the sides? if so, any ideas on what brands i should look at?

and to anyone else, im still open on opinions on what would be best (both cost wise and efficiency wise).

Hudsonvalley82 said:

For adults in full flower I get about 2 giant plants under the 240W, and the 4-5 under the 500W, they seem to be just fine like that, you could probably add more, but im in the school of thought of having fewer but bigger plants then more plants that are smaller. (mandatory LED Users UNITE! clause: the 240's draw 140, the 500's draw about 285)

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Yeah I prefer larger, fewer plants and have no need to rush veg or any stage of my expansion. I'm just wondering, if I went with all 240's how far apart would I want to place them to cover 24-30 flowering ladies?? That's about 12-15 240's, In your opinion could I get by with 9 laid out in a 3 x 3 blackstar panel grid with a kessil on each corner of the grid aimed in? That would leave me with all my previous LED units +1 kessil in the veg room which has to this point been sufficient for 12-18 vegging plants without the kessil. Originally I imagined a total12-16 kessils all spread out but now I'm facing the reality that there's just no way that would have worked out anyways. Too small of a footprint to cover large areas. Even if I LOVED my experience with Kessil I would still need panels to cover such a large area.

ColoradoLove said:

Anyone have any experience with HTG LEDs? HTG is a pretty legitimate company so I'd like to give them a shot. It's either those or Blackstars. Which should I do?

Planning on getting 2 panels and hanging them angled with some large vertical CFLs in the middle.
\ = led
x = plant
l = cfl

/xlx\

Whatcha think?

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How many plants?? Just one? It seems a bit overkill for one plant. Hudsonvalley82 reports1 blackstar per 2 plants and that's about the ratio I've experienced with other panels (not blackstar). I'd say just be sure if you angle it to keep the panels a safe distance from your canopy. If angled the lower side of the panel could be too close to your canopy. I've seen people successfully use cheap blue veg panels angled this way and super close to avoid stretching and to overcome the lack of canopy penetration. I am looking at the Blackstar 240's as my next purchases and from what I've heard Blackstars are a quality enough panel that you could hang them flat with a cfl in between for xtra coverage.

Hudsonvalley82 said:

ISIS has several options, I would say you would be better going with several 170W (120W actual draw) models. Those probably cover 6-8 sqft each and cost 379 bucks.
Blackstar has a 500W (285W draw) model that covers 12 sqft for 549 bucks.
Kessil (currently drawing some concern on this thread) has 35W lights that cover about 4 sqft for 240 bucks.

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@ IDrinkCoffee

I am an unsatisfied Kessil owner due to multiple defective units and poor costumer service. When the lights work they are awesome but out of 5 I only received 40% working units which is pretty scary since they only have a year warranty. In the future I will be going with Blackstar or ISIS. I'm still pretty new to this thread(not LED) even though I've followed it since November and Hudsonvalley seems to be the most knowledgeable user on here. Good luck!!

okay guys i have a ? about power consumption i was thinking of getting two of the blue kessils for my veg room one for each tote in the stinkbud veg system but then i was told for the money it would be better to get some t5s my question is one 46 inch vho t5 bulb uses around 100 watts and a four light fixture is around 300$ where two kessils should cover a 18 inch x 48 inch area for around 72 watts used for about 450$ cost it would seem the kessils are the way to go.spend an extra 150$ up front and use 25% of the power. what am i missing here should i add another kessil i know they are only supposed to cover 2 sq feet each so they should cover an 18 gallon tote each right? or are the reccomended coverage areas of the kessils overestimated? as seems is usual for any grow light. i am not planning on vegging for more than 3 weeks @ any time
anyone w/some advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanx in advance
joe

IDrinkCoffee said:

can you guys please help me. my grow space is 4.5' x 5' x 7(WxLxH). can you guys tell me what lights would be decent from this in a price range of 800? i see that spectra, 357 mag and others are decent. i read that blackstar is decent, then i hear it isnt.. im confused... i have 800 to spend and want invest it the best that i can, please give me opinions on what i could get. thanks!

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I'm running lights from www.357led.com which is the 357 Magnum by the same guys who make the ISIS. I'm posting the website link because I got a PM from someone who claims to have bought the same panel from another site for $499 which is $200 cheaper than my lights and when I phoned the Magnum guys they tell me there is just no way and even their wholesale is no where near that cheap so is an imposter. Like this wasn't hard enough to figure out now we possibly have fakes I took a good look at Spectra before I bought my lights and think they are definately one of the better panels out there and I almost bought them and still might pick one up depending on how my grams per watt is with the 357's. I know what Irishboy pulls with Spectras so that will be a good benchmark.

The whole power consumption thing just keeps getting more confusing. Spectra claim to be 280W actual draw but yet according to their own web page they say

"At 12 pounds and measuring 19" x 13" x 2.5", this 110 volt dynamo draws a mere 0.65 to 1.25 amps yet delivers 180 watts of light......."

So they say they draw 280 watts. They say they deliver 180 watts of light but according to their volts/amps they draw a maximum of 137.5 watts so which one is the real number????

Not sure which one to believe at this point.

I know they work so it's just bang for the buck and grams per watt.

jdizzle22 said:

High power LED lights do put out heat, less overall than an HID of similar wattage. The difference here is you can no longer vent away that heat with an LED the way your could with venting and the reflector hood and a fan just for the light. Now that heat goes into the growing space and the only way you are getting rid of it now is through your Exhaust/filter for the whole growing chamber. I suppose you could somewhat easily craft something around the light so the heat gets more trapped above. But I'm pretty darn happy with the temps I'm getting with my 395w spectra in a 2.5ft x2.5ft x 6ft tent with a not so great exhaust fan.

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what are your temps out of curiosity? should i build a glass thermal reflector so it all directs towards the cfm fan? im thinking of at least 3x3x5-6? might make or buy lots of choices.

Hudsonvalley82 said:

It depends on your grow room. The exhaust air for mine is about 85 degrees, the surface of the heat sink is (at its highest) 94 degrees. The surface of the LED lens is (at its highest) 95 degrees. If you have a small grow tent with no exhaust, (which is a bad idea no matter what) then yeah, it is possible to heat up a tent over enough time to the upper nineties (perhaps into the 100s if the ambient air gets hot enough). Lets not forget that there is also IR leds on that model (which also emit a good amount of heat, although they are not found in any sizable quantity). What I gather from that story is that someone needs to ventilate their grow tent better. LED's do give off a small amount of heat. Small amounts of heat, when not moved, will gradually pile up into larger amounts of heat.

Some people aren't in the best situation to start a grow, and take the word "stealth" a bit too far and try to have practically air tight grow tents/rooms, that is probably the case in the story you heard. I have the 500W (285ish watt actual draw before someone jams that down my throat) and the measurements were taken from it. I love it. I can't see having a proper grow setup and having an LED increase the temp to 100 degrees.

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i was looking on their site. how much do you think the 600 pulles? im not buying the 600 cause its not on amazon and it makes me feel wierd that its on one site and not the other. also it looks exactly like the 500 lol. just wondering if youve heard of this. And yeah proper ventilation is soo crucial. its funny when ppl talk about cabinets. and you ask where is the vent fan? but seriously some ppl can pull it of if its the right season. some times its a closet in the basement in summer and it works.

gods gift to potheads?

the 240s cover 4 to 6 sq ft but w 3 w chips and 60 degrees they get pretty deep into the canopy

anyone heard of rtg cel? they dont flicker? do regular leds flicker or a ploy. most bodybuilding companies do this because its not a controlled market much like this. anyone can say anything, and what will ya do if your unhappy. This is black market shit. The anator p70 look that shit up. it cost 50 bucks for 2 and a half weeks. it say it activates genes. lol. its just partially digested whey peptides and modified dextrose. just go with blackstar. cause products work period. Fuckin creatine ethyl ester is awesome but for some reasons companies sell for twice for what you can buy from china just my 2 cents.

joe macclennan said:

okay guys i have a ? about power consumption i was thinking of getting two of the blue kessils for my veg room one for each tote in the stinkbud veg system but then i was told for the money it would be better to get some t5s my question is one 46 inch vho t5 bulb uses around 100 watts and a four light fixture is around 300$ where two kessils should cover a 18 inch x 48 inch area for around 72 watts used for about 450$ cost it would seem the kessils are the way to go.spend an extra 150$ up front and use 25% of the power. what am i missing here should i add another kessil i know they are only supposed to cover 2 sq feet each so they should cover an 18 gallon tote each right? or are the reccomended coverage areas of the kessils overestimated? as seems is usual for any grow light. i am not planning on vegging for more than 3 weeks @ any time
anyone w/some advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanx in advance
joe

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All I know is that I would not buy Kessil again! I purchased full cycle lights and have had nothing but trouble. It might be different with their solid colors since my problem stemmed from the blues being absent from the spectrum so they were not coming out purple or magenta but solid red. If all you are looking for is veg lights skip any of the expensive ones. For the veg I have had a lot of luck with just cheap 15w blue PAR 38 bulbs that run about 30-40 bucks a piece on LED wholesalers. It's the flower chamber that needs the more extensive units. For that size of veg chamber I would go with 4 of these Par 38 or 3 and a cheap blue veg panel from the same website. It would be about 60w for 4 or 75w at most. Last time I ordered some 2 ran me roughly $85 and I swear by them especially if you don't plan on vegging for 7 weeks or I'd recommend adding side lighting as they get larger. I've used them as supplemental lighting in my veg with some luck and currently testing them on a batch of clones and in a short time they've already rooted nicely. If you have some time I'll keep you posted on my results http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=286

IDrinkCoffee said:

can you guys please help me. my grow space is 4.5' x 5' x 7(WxLxH). can you guys tell me what lights would be decent from this in a price range of 800? i see that spectra, 357 mag and others are decent. i read that blackstar is decent, then i hear it isnt.. im confused... i have 800 to spend and want invest it the best that i can, please give me opinions on what i could get. thanks!

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Just to give you an idea, in his latest grow Irishboy has two Spectra 300's (claim 360 watt draw) over his grow area which I'm pretty sure is 4 x 4 so that was about $2K of lights

Really is difficult to figure out how to set up a room properly. In the end probably just go with your gut and pick something and put it over plants and adjust as you go.

never seen the par 38's b4 they look interesting i might just get a few
so sorry 2 hear about your kessils that is very disheartening i had my heart set on purchacing 10 or so 4 my flower rm. glad i didn't now.looks like either blackstar or maybe isis for me then but until then i think ill get a few of the par 38s to try on my babies.
thanks again

4 par 38s on the way