Hi, I've been working on a new setup with a tent inside my wardrobe.. I've done a couple big indoor grows already and used 2x 600w's but I'm looking to use LED's this time. I have a budget of about £100 hit or miss, maybe a bit more for the right product. What do you guys recommend? Something that can be used for veg and flowering? I also have a few questions, how much heat do LED's generate? My 600w's generated a lot of heat, I'm thinking of using LED's as I assume they will generate less heat, is this true? Do LED's use more or less electricity than a 600w set up? What are the most important things I need to know about LED's, are there must difference to 600w mh's/hps's? Thanks for any info, and sorry for noob question but I literally know nothing about using LED's !
LED is more efficient, meaning that to get similar results as a 600 watt HID you would need about 420 watts of LED. Keeping the drivers outside of the grow area makes a big difference in temps too, you are not likely to see that option in retail lights. Most guys are DIY with the LED rigs as the quality is much higher and the price much lower than retail. Your budget however isn't going to buy you anything but crap.
100 pounds really isnt enough, even not for super budget do it yourself build, certainly not to replace 2x600w hps. For comparison i myself am collecting parts for a budget led build and only leds and drivers already set me back 250usd, thats for 500 watts total.
If LED's are going to be so expensive, what low electricity / minimum heat lighting can I use? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Im not sure whats the question. But in terms of how strong you want to drive the leds, its up to you. For example cxa2520 @ 550ma is 2420 lumens at 19 watts, so you will need 20 to get to ~400 watts. cxa2530 @ 1250ma is 5000 lumens at 50 watts, so you will need 8 for ~400 watts. As you can see, driven at 50% of its max power, the chip is more efficient, and can be cooled with a smaller heatsink, and the chip will live much longer. Im only using the cxa2520 as example because i am also just starting to build my first led light, im not suggesting you to get cxa2520's yourself, but i dont think for that price of them there is better options, price/performance wise that is. 4x CXB3590'S you can run at 100watts each, but these led lights cost 40-50 usd a piece, i bought 10 CXA2520's for that money.
When you say a chip/strip how much space does one take up? And would it be more efficient to just use a 400w mh/hps? The main thing is noise and heat, I need a quite light with minimum heat.. Right now I'm using 6 30w daylight CFL's, they've heated the wardrobe up to 35 degrees on their own. I was thinking 12 CFL's but that would generate a lot of heat and I doubt I'd get as good of a yield as I would with a MH. I just want good yields with minimum heat.. More heat usually means more noise extracting it. Thanks for all the info so far
COB leds will give you more lumens/watt then HPS, IF you drive the cobs at a soft current. And if you drive them soft ( lets say 700ma) they will have the highest efficiancy, so the least heat output per lumen. The thing is if you drive them at 700ma, you will need a lot to replace a 400W hps, about 10. ( 10x25watts= 250 watts at high efficiancy). Also you can cool these without any noise, you can cool them with passsive heatsinks, but this would cost you even more money since passive heatsinks need to be about 4x bigger then heatsinks with a fan on them. I think you are looking for about the same setup as i am looking for, hps makes my growarea way to hott, thats why i also looked into leds. You could go with cheap chinese drivers, but they have a low voltage with high amperage, so then you have to connect the leds parralel to the driver wich isnt ideal, but it works. CXA2520 costs 5 usd, 50 watt cheap driver costs 10usd, heatsink about 5 usd, fan about 5 usd. This 50 watt driver will run 2 of these cobs at 25 watts each: LED Driver 10 W 20 W 30 W 50 W 70 W AC 85 265 V DC 22 38 V MB Verlichting Voor Schijnwerper Schijnwerper Geen Flicker in LED Driver 10 W 20 W 30 W 50 W 70 W AC 85-265 V DC 22-38 V MB Verlichting Voor Schijnwerper Schijnwerper Geen Flicker van Verlichting Transformers op AliExpress.com | Alibaba Groep So if you buy 5 of these drivers, thats 50usd, 10 CXA2530´S thats 50 usd, 10 heatsinks is 50 usd. This is total of 150usd and then you still need some fans, wireing, thermalpaste, screws. Lets say 180 usd total package, but remember this is a very budget build, i wouldnt recommend getting cheap drivers and run the cobs in paralel, but it could work, you could get 7 or 8 of those cheap power supplies so if one break you have spare, since they are so cheap anyways. I think for about 200 usd this is about as much as you can get, 10x25 watts= 250 watts. Im also just learning but i have read a lot the past week and learned a lot from other people that helped me so far.
I think I may just go to a 250w with a cool tube or fool shade.. I just want to maximise yields but suppose I have to work with the most appropriate set up for the time being.
Look into meihzi led I got 2 600 watt led they pull 277 from wall yields are great Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum