Hello all, I was a member here years ago but find myself in a situation where I am in the market for new indoor lighting. I've been using 2 600 watt dimmable HPS/MH system for several years now but my new situation calls for fidelity control on my heat (wattage and price really are of no consideration, but lowered energy bill would be welcome). I've been looking at the current generation of LED's and it really seems like there is a lot of conflicting views, which has lead me to ask good people here their opinions. Again I want to say, heat is my paramount concern, but obviously a decent approximation to a 600 watt system is what I am expecting yield wise. My typical grow is 2 or 3 plants and no more, usually bush or trees with up to 2-3 months of veg with some controlled horizontal control. I've mainlined and done el'natural. I just wanted to give my experience so that anyone here can answer my questions fully. 1. What is the best (better) led lights out there as far as LED goes from experience? (I've looked at them all online from mars to advanced to spyder, blackdog, spectrumking, im asking what have you used) 2. given your choice is should horizontal growth be used because of penetration limitations? (I have 100 watt led floods that work great, but almost no penetration) 3. If your answer to 1 is a DYI method, could you point me to a halfway decent schematic? Money is no issue on this. Thanks all! : )
I don't think I would preclude doing a setup with 2 small bars for vertical and one large horizontal bar with something from blackdog...but at the same time I could go horizontal with the BML spyder....grrr, decisions...
I tried the SolarFlare 200W and loved it, and I have made my own LEDs with Vero18s from bridgelux and love it even more! My suggestion would be DIY, using Vero18s or 29s, you will be able to get twice the power for the same price as a premade LED light. You will need to do a bit of reading to understand correctly how to match up the parts, but once you understand the logic it becomes really easy to do and is really fun to build. There's a couple of good write ups on this forum, and RIU has a lot of good threads on it too. Since you say money is no issue, you could even go with CREE CXB3590 and meanwell drivers and heatsinks from heatsinkusa.com. Go have a look at REALSTYLES DIY lamps, they are very good quality and very efficient.
I have grown with household leds/ led tubes, BML SPYDR 600, various Amare Technologies LED panels and am starting a new grow using both Amare SE 220 and Transcendent Lighting D 200 See my thread Separating the Wheat from the Chaff
400 to 500 watts of Vero29 3000K/4000K 80cri or CXB3590 3000K/4000K 80cri Next week there are new production fixtures being released CXB3590 and Vero29. First of the Gen2 COB so to speak. Multiple lower wattage fixtures are best approach for the control of light output over a single high wattage fixture.IMO 5th wk flower with Vero29
Thanks all, likes sent. So DIY with the Vero29 3000K/4000K 80cri or CXB3590 looks good, I think I will start doing my homework. I agree LEDgrowman about using multiples, I remember one person I knew had a saying that you can have all the lumens you want but if the light isn't getting where it needs to go it dosn't matter. As a side note, I think thats what happens to people that have a bad time with LED's (disregarding snake oil equipment), they get a mucho expensive massive "single" LED thinking they are just going to swap it out and grow like they did with HID. LED might be less powerful as HID head to head, but LED has the advantage of using the light where you need it where you could never go with any of the old bulbs because of heat. Case in point, my last grow I bought 5 100w LED floodlights using 9k spectrum for supplemental lighting, nothing crazy, just led floods from home depot that where like 20 bucks a piece. I put them under the plants and even a few tucked in the middle, just to see how the plants would like them, they had crazy great growth clusters all around the LED's where otherwise would have been have dead suckers that usually just wilt from lack of light. These formed almost as dense clustered areas as the tops right against the floods. I guess thats my point, its not better as far as spread or sheer amount of light goes compared to one HID (yet, seems like its getting there though), its just a different grow style, you can have lots smaller lights where they need to be. Which to me sounds like a more winning strategy when your using artificial lighting. ....anyway (yea I'm high ) thanks everyone.
So looking at mouser, I noticed that with the cree cxb3590's there are two forward voltage types. One is rated at 36v and the other at 72v. Is a lower voltage better for efficiency and the higher voltage brighter but less efficient, or just a more efficient draw with the lower v? All the other values for flux and color temp seem to be the exact same. I looked at the MEAN WELL driver HLG-185H-C700A and the HLG-185H-C1050A for the power supply but I think im still trying to wrap my mind around what driver goes with what LED wattage. Do these drivers sound like they would do the trick?
The Osram Zelion 3 x 2 has been very impressive. The oil production is off the charts and expecting yield # to be the same with 125watts used. MoxieSeeds LemonOg 5th week flower. Best full cycle mono based unit Ive used to date! Most fixtures use 200 - 250 watts to cover the same area
Very nice! I just had a look at those, they are backed by sylvan which is a known established company (looks like they are marketing them for turf and commercial argiculture, which looks promising). The info says its blue and red spectrum, would you prefer if there was a bit of green spectrum added?
Cree rec running CXB3590 between 80 to 120 watts to each emitter at 1.2 for the 72 volt option and 36volt option at 2.4. There are bunch different Meanwells to power these and it all comes down to your preference and what your looking for in a fixture.
Yes Osram/Sylavania are one now and they were built for the Vertical farms in the coming years. Blue/Red are the only Colors of the spectrum needed for high performance growth/flowering.IMO. They are a little more $ due to the fact of the wet location rating and the componets used for the build. Osram did there homework and testing for the zelions. Coverage area vs wattage used cannot be beat. flowers an area 2x3 very easy at only 125watt. The optics are impressive with no light spillage outside the footprint. Now for my opinion on the green light? IMO. Not needed. Looks pretty ,but just wasted plant energy in the end. I am in week 5 almost wk 6 with the Zelion/Lemonog and the yield # will be North 150g ,probably 175? The oilproduction/buddensity is very good. LemonOg pheno I an running is medium yield 50/50. Heavy Indica #s will def be little higher with the Osram. Zelion is the best watt for watt high quality fixture on the market. period... Most use 200 - 400 watts to cover an area Zelion 3 x 2 does w/125. Osram OSLON SSL80 451/Blue # LDCQ7P2U3U-W5-1-K Osram OSLON SSL80 660/Reds # LHCP7P-2T3T-1
I would highly recommend the Advanced LED XTE series... I have now run these panels for 3 full grows, no issues at all with the lights or operation. The run extremely quiet, virtually no fan noise. I also like how they have 2 spectrum pots (potentiometers) that allow you to dim either the blue/white channel or the red channel which is nice for when foliar feeding to dim the lights, if you travel like I do you can dim the lights to conserve water use when gone, and allows for tuning the blue/red balance. the panels are made with Cree and Osram chips... and use CREE XTE blue and white, Cree XPE red 620, Osram SSL 660 Hyper red, and dual chip IR (not sure what brand buy by looks they seem to be epistar) If you chose to not go the DIY route, the Advanced XTE panels are an excellent "pre built" choice.
Thanks All! I think I will be going with DIY. Here is my shopping cart: cree cxb3590 X 6 = $512 HLG-120H-C350A x 2 = $118 Fan/Passive CUP Heatsinks = $76 2 1/2 foot Aluminum Board heat sink = $20 Electrical Misc (solderless attachments, magnifier enclosure, wire, power cord, dimmable switch) = $60 Total: $725 And that should be, as far as I can tell a long lasting LED 600 watt equivalent replacement, maybe could do a few side bars for the same amount, and I would still be cheaper than pre-fabbed unit. How does this list sound to you guys? I haven't pulled the trigger yet, and I know that they have the new controller board COBs out comming soon, but I need to get under way here shortly (the jars are half full!!!).