Optimizing light configuration: Should I add or upgrade?

Looking for thoughts on upgrading my current light configuration. I have a basic understanding of what's at play, but by no means comprehensive: I'm pretty overwhelmed when I look at options for LEDs (I understand concepts like PAR and actual draw, and spectrum) and I haven't exhaustively considered every option on the market. What I'm hoping for is input potentially from people who know way more then I do and can help me reach some conclusions more quickly.

Here's what I currently have:

A 4x4x6 "main" tent. Currently runs a 400w air-cooled HPS in flower, and MH in veg (Hortilux Blue) on half the tent. On the other half of the tent, I have a Kind L300 lamp (manufactured late 2013).

I cultivate 6-10 plants at a time in that main tent, usually with different heights because of genetics (eg, it's not a uniform/flat canopy). I'm not particularly unhappy with my setup, but, I'm thinking about ways to optimize. Heat is an issue in the warmer months, where I have to run an ac to keep the temperature under 84f. I would love to avoid this additional power draw in summer (temps are otherwise just about perfect most of the year). Other motivation would be improving penetration and overall quality/density. I would like to avoid significant additional power draw or heat generation (eg, I'm not considering moving to a 1k HID).

Additionally, I run a smaller tent where I clone/veg, 2x2x4 and I recently installed a Viparspectra v300. This doesn't really matter beyond it's a light I own that I could relocate.

So, I have the three lights to work with, and I have a budget of about $450 to consider adding or replacing one. I was originally thinking to swap the HID with a higher-powered LED (keep my overall draw the same, but boost output considerably). I had thought about the Viparspectra 1200, but then reading around I'm increasingly reluctant to omit combustion light entirely in terms of spectrum (but I would given the right argument/persuasion).

Another option is to replace the Kind L300, which was great at the time... but... am I doing myself a disservice by clinging to what is in my mind a relatively high-end (albeit modest model) light, because I do know that LED technology has come so far in 6 years? Will today's cheap LEDs significantly outperform yesterday's higher-end?

Have also considered eliminating the 400w HPS/MH an going 315CMH instead. Keep and potentially even improve the "organic"light spectrum, will reducing draw and hopefully heat.

So I've got an itch to do something... but it also occurs to me that maybe I'm wasting my money to optimize something given what I have and have to spend (eg, maybe this budget only improves on my configuration marginally), and perhaps I could get better ROI in an area other then lighting.

I welcome and am very grateful for the thoughts of anyone who likes to thinking about lights...

rhino_roll said:

Looking for thoughts on upgrading my current light configuration. I have a basic understanding of what's at play, but by no means comprehensive: I'm pretty overwhelmed when I look at options for LEDs (I understand concepts like PAR and actual draw, and spectrum) and I haven't exhaustively considered every option on the market. What I'm hoping for is input potentially from people who know way more then I do and can help me reach some conclusions more quickly.

Here's what I currently have:

A 4x4x6 "main" tent. Currently runs a 400w air-cooled HPS in flower, and MH in veg (Hortilux Blue) on half the tent. On the other half of the tent, I have a Kind L300 lamp (manufactured late 2013).

I cultivate 6-10 plants at a time in that main tent, usually with different heights because of genetics (eg, it's not a uniform/flat canopy). I'm not particularly unhappy with my setup, but, I'm thinking about ways to optimize. Heat is an issue in the warmer months, where I have to run an ac to keep the temperature under 84f. I would love to avoid this additional power draw in summer (temps are otherwise just about perfect most of the year). Other motivation would be improving penetration and overall quality/density. I would like to avoid significant additional power draw or heat generation (eg, I'm not considering moving to a 1k HID).

Additionally, I run a smaller tent where I clone/veg, 2x2x4 and I recently installed a Viparspectra v300. This doesn't really matter beyond it's a light I own that I could relocate.

So, I have the three lights to work with, and I have a budget of about $450 to consider adding or replacing one. I was originally thinking to swap the HID with a higher-powered LED (keep my overall draw the same, but boost output considerably). I had thought about the Viparspectra 1200, but then reading around I'm increasingly reluctant to omit combustion light entirely in terms of spectrum (but I would given the right argument/persuasion).

Another option is to replace the Kind L300, which was great at the time... but... am I doing myself a disservice by clinging to what is in my mind a relatively high-end (albeit modest model) light, because I do know that LED technology has come so far in 6 years? Will today's cheap LEDs significantly outperform yesterday's higher-end?

Have also considered eliminating the 400w HPS/MH an going 315CMH instead. Keep and potentially even improve the "organic"light spectrum, will reducing draw and hopefully heat.

So I've got an itch to do something... but it also occurs to me that maybe I'm wasting my money to optimize something given what I have and have to spend (eg, maybe this budget only improves on my configuration marginally), and perhaps I could get better ROI in an area other then lighting.

I welcome and am very grateful for the thoughts of anyone who likes to thinking about lights...

Click to expand...

Are you open to DIY, or are you only looking for plug-and-play?

Humple said:

Are you open to DIY, or are you only looking for plug-and-play?

Click to expand...

I'm open to DIY and I am fairly handy with hardware hacking, but I am partial to plug-and-play based on my experience level with LEDs.

You could go for a cmh LED combo or go with full LED

A 315 cmh with 4x Quantum board V1s in the corners and one meanwell XLG 240-h-a driver.

Or the same amount of Quantum Boards with two of those drivers to do full LED.

Or use the LEDs on their own in summer and add the CMH in winter and dim down the boards.


With single heatsinks

Drivers

You could go for any cmh bulb, but if you got the 4200k bulb you could veg the whole 4x4 with just the cmh and then flip on the Boards in flower (using the 3000k option)

That's just one idea, you could also do the same with Samsung strips instead of Quantum Boards or many other options .

DIY or kit form is the best way to go with your budget. But its very simple and quick to knock up these days with the boards and strips we have available.

Any of these should smash your current set up.