Hey all, I am about to purchase my lighting configuration but want a third and fourth opinion if possible. Forgive me if this is posted somewhere else but I talked to a guy at the grow store and was telling him I had a 4x4 space and was looking for 600w HID and he started selling me on 1000w cuz they don't sell 600w anymore due to LED. I was surprised but went and looked at my book and it does say a 1000w for a 4x4. Anyways after talking to him I started reading about LED and have decided to go with that because of stuff I have read on here and my little book. Thing is, in a discussion that I found on LED lighting, but can't find again to link it, someone said that there should be 30w per sq. This would mean that my 4x4 only gets 480w of LED power. I guess I am just wondering if this is right and I should get substantially less wattage per sq with LED? Is this why LED bulbs often say they are equivalent to a higher wattage HID?
You are correct. 30 watts per sq ft is what you need with good LEDs. LEDs are more efficient, meaning more light gets produced with fewer watts.
Yep, you got it! What watt led to use Just a question about PAR in my grow tent Those links might be helpful (or may just confuse you lol) but as you and @bkarnaze have stated, 30W/ft2 is a pretty good target for white light LED.
Minimum 480w of QB style leds for a 4x4. Its kind of expensive to start up but well worth it. Amazon is starting to sell quantum board style of lights like crazy. I actually ordered a QB from Amazon that came from HLG itself. Authentic HLG qb straight from amazon. 100w for $150 Thats for name brand. The first 2 lights I got are maxisun knock of QBs. Work very well. Theyre actually on sale for $90 for a 100w board. Spectrum is a little blue for my liking in flower but I supplemented the more blue QBs with a 3000k QB
These two lights are the maxisun from amazon. 100w boards on sale for $89 right now i believe. Little blue for my flowering likings like I said but I will say having the slightly blue spectrum the first few weeks of flower has helped limit the stretch. I just got a HLG 100v2 yesterday I added with 3000k spectrum to help provide a little warmer spectrum for flower. If you have the budget go with the HLG name brand boards. If not. The maxisun has grown the plant in the pic alone from seed
Geeze really? Thats 41.5w per sqft. I've been running the 200w of maxisun boards in my 2x4. Just added the 3rd 100w board last night for 300w in my 2x4 or ~37.5w per sqft. Why haven't you been able to max it out yet?
They use whatever san'an leds are. Efficiency may not be the same as the Samsung but im speaking from growing experience. Node spacing. Etc. For a startup light it does the job. Especially kitting out a 4x4 for $300 less just on lights... Again like I said, if you can afford the HLG boards get them. Im a name brand kind of guy. But at the same time I understand budgets and ease of use.
Yea I was actually looking at those and the new Viparspectra models, but went with knock off QB-Style lights. Couldnt be happier, except made in China, but they all are
I would go HLG in the US. Invisible Sun LED or Lumatek in Europe. Jobs a good un. Sent from my SM-G9650 using Tapatalk
This is my first grow in a long time so I am trying to make sure I am off to a good start, but yeah I am on a budget. I was looking at these to start with. The said these would be good for a 3x3 in the comments somewhere but they also say the also run 100w. So, if I am reading you correctly, you would say that I could use about five of these in a 4x4? Thanks for helping me navigate this. It's confusing because by its description, as a beginner I would assume it is equivalent to a 1000w HID.
I'd go with these over the SF if you are spending the additional ~$50 per light. This is what i recently got in the mail 2 days ago Even comes in a horticulture lightning group box
Dope thanks. Yeah first I was looking at Marshydro then someone suggested SF and now these which from this discussion seem to be the top choice. I'm planning on making the purchase tonight, so I'll update what I do, but the Marshydro seems out of the equation right now. I'm not sure about dropping down on 5 off the bat though, so I may cut down my space a little bit, which shouldn't be too much work, and get two to start.
I needed 3. Started with 2 and just got the other 2 months later and week 2 of flower Start with 3, get the other two later down the road
I guess its all about finding the sweet spot. I fortunately don't have heat issues of the moment. Just added the 3rd board and I was sitting at 79-80° should be able to turn my exhaust fan up a notch or two and get it down a couple degrees
Good point. Could be these Sativa strains I've been growing and the fact that I get 15f temperature swings with the weather and anything over 10f difference lights on lights off they show signs of stress. Got the distances on the lights down now though.
I wouldn't go over 35W/ft2 if using high efficiency LED (~2.6μmol/J). 35W/ft2 = ~42.5mol/day, or ~983PPFD. And I'd reccomend closer to 30W/ft2 (36.25 DLI), or ~840PPFD, for a more efficient grow/yield. Outdoor DLI... CO2 assimilation... Difference in yield weight per intensity...
I have 10 runs in now with these QB I was one of the first to try them around here and my setup is about 600w + QB120 for side lighting. With a good defoliate I have rock solid colas. 4 plants = min 1 pound. I think Tbone told me on here 32w/per sq is about right. 700w-ish in my 4x4 is good for me. If anything maybe add some deep reds to mine but i been very happy. I normally always run 4 but this was an experiment and I got one plant huge in this 4 x 4 Tent that normally took up 4 plants this was 1 lemon OG. Same lights. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum