I am currently planning a 3'dx5'w grow closet for autoflower plants. I have a 2k-3k budget for lights so I am trying to do a kick ass led system. I have never grown with LED so I am looking for suggestions on lights. I don't just want to go out and buy the most expensive ones I can buy, if I can spend less then my budget and still get a huge bang with my lights that would e great.
Ive been doing a little research on LED lights and have came up with three possiable lighting packages. let me know what one you guys think is best or if there is other lights i should use. Again it is a 3'Dx5'W closet hydro grow for autoflowers 1st: Platinum LED Lights (1) Platinum LED p1200 $1,299 (2) Platinum LED p300 $369 Total: $1670 1500 Watts of Light 2nd:California Light Works (1) 880 watt $1800 (1) 110 watts bloom Booster $280 Total : $2,080 990 watts 3rd: Trulite (1) Trulite 225 Watt $949 (1) Trulite 150 watt $549 Total: $1498
I'm using a hydrohut silver 2x4 which measures actually about 2.5'x5'x7' so very similar to what you are looking to do. I am having very very good luck with the new Intelligent Gro LED's. Feel free to check out my journal. My link is in my signature below. I am using 3 of the 270w models (which they just renamed to 180w which is the actual draw) Each one sells for $450. Much less than your budget..
Hi Bourque827, I'm obviously representing PlatinumLED, but if I may, let me shed some light (heh) on this-- First of all, let's compare apples to apples and consider the actual wattage draw vs. the theoretical max draw, then consider the prices. For option #1: Our P1200 has bloom power at 758w, with veg power at 379w, for $1,299, with the forum discount, that's $1,169 per unit. Our P300 has has bloom draw at 185w, with veg at 93w, for $369, with the forum discount that's $332 per unit. We also give grasscity forum members 5% off with a coupon code on our website (GRASSCITY)! That brings the cost for the P1200 down to $1,234 and the P300 down to $351. We've got an 11-band spectrum, well above the other two. With option 1, your price per watt comes out to $1.68 For option #2: The max veg draw of the Solar Storm 800 is 680w. On their website, they list for $2099. You said $1800 so let's calculate that. The max draw of the 110 bloom boster is 85w. Again, on their website they list for $329 but you've listed $280. CGW lights have a narrower 6 band spectrum. Total price for this option would be $2,080, or $2.71 per watt draw. For option #3: 225w for $949 and 150w for $549 comes out to almost $4 per watt. By all means, do the research to make the right decision, but just make sure you're comparing the actual draw of the lights vs. the theoretical max. If we tuned our drivers to actually delivery all the light the hardware was capable of, the lights wouldn't get 50,000+ hours of lifespan. Let us know if you have any questions!
In fact, to take this reply just a step further, we also need to talk about coverage and dropoff. For a 3'x5' space, here's what I recommend for the ultimate coverage: 2x of our P1200 lights ($1,234 each with a multi-light discount, then take an additional 5% off for the forum discount) come out to $2,344 for the set. This would have you set for a long while, and give you some room to expand in the future if you're looking to do so. If, instead, you're not looking to expand and you still want full coverage in the entire area you could go with 2 of the P900 lights, which come out to $1,622 for the pair ($854 with a multi-light discount, and the additional 5% off for forum members). This would give you great full coverage for the 3x5 area, and would be less costly than the bigger P1200 lights.
Platinum thank. You for all the info it has been extremely helpfull. I am not looking to expand past 5'wx3'd, do you think one p1200 and one p900 instead of the (2) p900 would be worth the couple hundred extra dollars or just overkill?
Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you -- I think that the more power you can afford to throw at it, the better your grow will go! With that size space, I think the two P900's would absolutely be sufficient, but replacing one with a P1200 would give you some better coverage in between the two lights. Keep in mind, both the P900 and the P1200 are 36" long, so they'll give you 100% coverage on the 3' span, and you'll have a slight intensity drop off in between where the two lights are hanging. Basically -- either way you go, you'll have plenty of light, but with one 1200 you'll have slightly better coverage. And remember, the coupon code GRASSCITY gets you 5% off when you check out!
I had an excellent result (see pics) using a BML SPYDR 600, which consists of 6 @ 3ft bars on a 3ft spine. Bars can be collapsed to ~ 2ft x 3ft or opened up to a full 3 x 3 with ~ 3 x 4 coverage. The grower can choose their own spectrums. It uses Osram 3w diodes. I chose predominantly white diodes with a few 450/625s, neither of which probably made much of a difference Also, I will be receiving a new comer's panels (Solar Spec) within 2 weeks. Designed by an mj grower, everything I am told makes perfect sense to me, though runs contrary to the RB panel crowd I think they will be fairly priced. WWW under development, should be live soon DDP is doing a thread in GC using them now. Worth checking out before making a decision Note the Cube. Each dowel is 15". Lots of dense bud below first dowel 222 gms is from the biggest of 2 plants under the S600