LEDs

What's up y'all. I just switched my light on my mothers from a fluorescent to an led, Ive never used one before and am wondering if they will work as well as my fluorescent tubes did for cloning? Already in day 3 I'm noticing super short node spacing. I think I've got a 300 watt led.

I have use a BLACKSTAR LED i think it was like 240 watts, worked pretty damn good

What led? What is actual draw? 3 Watt chip or five? Wat spectrum?

A good led is the best light source available IMO....n I don't own any yet...but have three friends who grow small in closets n the end results are as good as any hid I have ever seen.

Oh n if put light closer than 12 inches 99% of time it will bleach tops.

Corso312 said:

Oh n if put light closer than 12 inches 99% of time it will bleach tops.

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I'm not sure what it is as the box was ruined and unreadable when my house flooded. I did notice bleaching already so it's raised. The actual draw is 300 watts and other than that I'd have to go check it out to answer your questions. We were given it as a gift and it sat unused for months until 3 days ago.

I'm building 300W panels right now. 10W Cree. They have "white" LEDs now. Some with a red shift, some with blue shift and some neutral white. A real game changer in LED. Enough for me to jump in.

How you like that led mammoth?


@ rrog ...I plan on buying a couple leds in November, if you build a couple I be interested in purchasing one..more if I like its production...

Hey Corso. Building one for a buddy, then 5 for me after I move to my new grow digs.

This thing has a 20 pound heat sink!

I loved it, only problem was my plants are to tall in the tent and I couldn't raise it high enough. I got some funky growth and bleaching so I had to take it out until I get my taller tent set up. I usually try and keep my moms short and bushy but they kinda got huge on me. I have 4 other plants in a room with unlimited ceiling and they love that led. Super short distance between the nodes. Going to produce some huge buds when flowered. LEDs are great to veg if you keep them at least a foot over canopy,like you said. I will at some point switch all my veg rooms to LEDs.

Corso312 said:

Oh n if put light closer than 12 inches 99% of time it will bleach tops.

Click to expand...

I was under the impression that you could put LED's closer to the canopy because they don't give off as much heat as a HID.

Is that wrong?

The LEDs run cooler and don't put out IR that heats (think restaurant heating lamps) so things are in fact much cooler. You can still get light bleaching.

Also I have read where specific wavelength LEDs can cause weird things and burn more easily than the newer all white LEDs that I'm using.

Yea I must have an older model. It's super red in color and makes the plants look purple. I also thought I could keep it super close but def not. It wasn't the heat that was the issue it had to be the wavelength or something. They are thriving with the led about 16 inches above the canopy, I started at 7 inches above and had crazy shit going on with the tops closest to the led. Raised it up and no problems.

I've heard this before as I said. Cool that you dealt with it.

These new whites have a broad spectrum. Blue and white. Want more blue for veg? Use the Cool Whites. Want more red for flower? Use the Warm Whites. I used 50% Neutral Whites and the rest as Warm Whites. They both put out blue, and I'm not a huge fanatic about blue anyway.

@ stowngrow ...I am no expert, but I believe heat is never the issue ..the lights are strong now n powerful enough to bleach with strong output of light.. I remember my friends crappy LED 6/7 years ago n they sucked...could put plants 2 inches away...now these less are like spotlights much stronger.

What kind of money do you spend to build your lights rrog? I mean like 75 cents per watt? Less?
Is the heatsink the most expensive part?

Well... Heat sink was like ~ $120.

50 of the big 10W Cree LEDs were ~ $8 each

5 of the LED Drivers (to power them) were $50 each.

So all told, this is ~$750. Not cheap, but I'll save energy costs as I go and I'll avoid the need for a mini-split