Regarding first grow and LED lights

[henheman]

So I have myself a good tent for 'tomatoes' that's about 2 metre tall by 1 metre wide. I've been looking at lights that

a) arent those 225 things from China that reak of 'great build quality'

reasonably priced

 

I've come across some lights, however need a bit of advice on the wattage/price and the type of light,

 

To my general understanding, more wattage= more coverage/ slightly better yield

 

However I must take into account the size and coverage of the light and costing.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2013-240W-LED-Grow-Light-10-Spectrums-IR-Indoor-Hydroponic-System-Plant-Ufo-Hot-/261216390610?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&hash=item3cd1b5cdd2  is a 240w full spectrum UFO.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LED-300-Watts-UFO-Full-Spectrum-Hydroponic-Red-Blue-White-Plant-Lamp-Grow-Light-/181216660859?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&hash=item2a315acd7b 300 W Non UFO Rectangular light

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300W-120W-600W-UFO-LED-Grow-Light-Panel-Hydroponic-For-Plant-Flower-Red-Lamp-/161424661518?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&var=&hash=item2595a8dc0e UFO light.

 

Sorry for the few links here, im just NOT too sure of the specific build quality/ advantages / if it's just about price at this point.

 

Will be growing just a couple of plants.

[Knarfman]

There is not many of us LED folk around so I'll try and help.

 

Glad to see you have recognised the bad out there (225 red and blue) but you need to know a couple things before you decide, otherwise you will have a bad experience and might be put off LED in future.

 

LED's are directional:  by this I mean they get there best light performance directly out the top of the LED so they act a bit like a torch, good light in middle but drops off quickly. You will see the opposite effect in CFL where 80% of the light comes out the sides. To get as good a spread of light possible the LED's should be as strong as possible, therefore increasing the required light levels further out from the centre or another way is to mount them into lenses so that the light is reflected to give a better coverage.

 

So knowing this small amount you can see that the round lights (first link) are not going to suit your needs of growing in a square room. The light will leave very definite dark spots in the corners and the plant in full veg or flower will not get light penetration to the outer branches and yield will suffer. If you ScRoG then your just moving the top of the plant further out of the light.

 

So if you look at your second link you will see now that the shape is better suited BUT if you look at the LED's you will see there are lots of them this tells you that the POWER of the LED's is fairly low. Most probably 3watts and you know now that you want the most power we can get for the size, so this one wouldn't make my list either. There is one thing I like about the second that i'll mention in a sec.

 

The third link shows another thing about all three, the LED's are just flush mounted against the heat sink so even the small amount of light that is coming out the side of the LED's is wasted just shining on its neighbour LED.

 

So if this has made sense then you now should know what your looking for,

1. Square or rectangular

2. Minimum 5w LED's

3. Look for the LED's to be recessed into the light, like inside little cups of chrome.

 

I cant gareentee that its the cheapest but this should be the minimum you go for.

 

Now about that second one, it states its full spectrum with UVB, this is great as we all know THC is a by-product of the plant protecting itself from UVB rays, that's why strains from dry desert areas  are usually more resinous. So if your choice of light comes with UVB as well then that's a bonus. Most only use reptile lights to heavily boost UVB during the last couple weeks of flower to help higher THC production.

 

Hope this has bin of some help and if I can answer any more of your questions just ask.

 

 

 

[Knarfman]

Sorry forgot to cover wattage and power.

 

The wattages are the same as the wattage for HID and such they are just measured closer the light. So you will get 400 watts from an LED exactly the same as others but you need to run your lights closer to the plant. They always say "you can run them close and they wont burn your plant" so people run them at the same height as HID and are safe in the knowledge they could go closer and not burn the plant....

 

WHAT they should say is "RUN THEM CLOSE, THEY WILL NOT BURN YOUR PLANT"  so run the same wattage as suggested by the calculator in the Cannaversity but run them closer.

 

Here's the other counter intuitive thing about wattage, because your going to run them closer  2 small ones might be better than one large. Remember LED's are directional so the closer you get the smaller the light coverage so if you had 2 x 200w lights right up close it would be better than 1 x 400w that has to be further away to cover whole area. And as LED inverter technology means that a 400w led only requires 240w to run to can spend a bit more on your lights knowing you will save money on electricity costs.

 

I think that's it..  I'm am a little wacked

[Sixty-Eight]

i was using two of the Mars Hydro 300w retangle lights in a 4x4 foot tent i would have needed around 3 of those lights to cover the whole tent, thats around 90o LED watts or 550 actuall watts to its roughly the same as a 600w HID u just have a lot less heat but u need to keep in mind the LED lights are not silent the exhaust fans put out a bit of noise

 

i didnt give my LED's a fair run so im going to be running them again in the next week or so will put up pics in my grow diary

[henheman]

Hey guys thank you SO much for the replies, absolute legends, seriously.

 

Considering my budget and situation, I got this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281210188793?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648 for the size wattage, and power it was the best 'non cheaply made' product I could find. It looks to be in a sort of chrome cup? I dunno guys il let you know how it goes

 

What distance should the light be from the plants?

Edited January 14, 2015 by henheman

[billygoat]

non cheaply made ?  good luck with that.

[Sixty-Eight]

Hey guys thank you SO much for the replies, absolute legends, seriously.

 

Considering my budget and situation, I got this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281210188793?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648 for the size wattage, and power it was the best 'non cheaply made' product I could find. It looks to be in a sort of chrome cup? I dunno guys il let you know how it goes

 

What distance should the light be from the plants?

 

i have been looking at that sellers other models i was considering buying the 600w light from this seller, being 5watt diodes

 

the amercians believe any LED light can grow a plant infact one guy wanted me to ship my two lights to him so he could test them in a grow all expenses paid for including the lights!! i aint that dumb leaving a paper trail... but as mentioned im giving mine another go so if they do atlease veg the plant i will post the results

 

the light u bought seems to be the latest design out of china, the ones i bought from Mars Hydro i was just told are old stock

 

let us know how quiet your LED light is when it arrives ill be interested in your testing because this light uses a so called quiet fan

[Knarfman]

I am using the same style of light only using 5w LED's so less lights for same result but of the "affordable" range I think you have done ok.

 

I run mine at about 12 to 17 inches away. I set mine up then used a light meter to check Lumens and this distance gave me the best compromise on light versus distance.

 

Have them set up on YoYo hangers so as the plant gets near the light I just lift it up another notch.

 

I am currently researching the "reflectability" of LED's and UVB rays in the hope I can design some sort of light weight reflective housing that can also be used to direct the hot air from the heat sink to help warm the room a bit more in winter and use the fans to also blow onto the plants for air flow. We will see how it works

 

The fans are a little noisy to start with but now I barely hear them.

 

looking forward to grow diary

[Sixty-Eight]

I am using the same style of light only using 5w LED's so less lights for same result but of the "affordable" range I think you have done ok.

 

I run mine at about 12 to 17 inches away. I set mine up then used a light meter to check Lumens and this distance gave me the best compromise on light versus distance.

 

Have them set up on YoYo hangers so as the plant gets near the light I just lift it up another notch.

 

I am currently researching the "reflectability" of LED's and UVB rays in the hope I can design some sort of light weight reflective housing that can also be used to direct the hot air from the heat sink to help warm the room a bit more in winter and use the fans to also blow onto the plants for air flow. We will see how it works

 

The fans are a little noisy to start with but now I barely hear them.

 

looking forward to grow diary

 

whats your optimum light lumens distance from the light for the 5w?

[Knarfman]

Cant find ALL the original 3D data from setup (chicken scratch on a bit of paper somewhere)  but here is the main data.

 

My lights are 5w LEDS and rated at 400w so should be approx. 50,000 Lumens if equivalent to 400w HPS chart in Cannaversity.

 

at 2 inches away 64,000 Lux (Illuminance) or if converted to Lumens (Luminous Flux) 76,800 so easiest way is to give you numbers

calculated using an area of 1.2 meters and a viewing angle of 90 degrees so

 

distance : Lux : Lumens

2 : 64000 : 76800

5 : 48000 : 57600

7 : 64000 : 76800

9 : 54000 : 64800

11: 48000 : 57600

15: 41000 : 49000 

 

so the lights are performing the same only lights are closer than HPS due to heat differences.

The strange drop at 5 inch (on closer inspection when originally installing) was from the technique used to mount the LEDS in their sockets.