Hello Everyone, I am Diesel from Vancouver island. I am new here and hopefully posting my question in the right place. I currently have a gorilla grow tent 5x5 set up to 6ft 11inches. (I'm not using the 1ft extension) for lights I am using two 600watt "Vipra Spectra Reflector Series" led panels. I really like these lights for a few reasons. Low heat, low power usage and I've had great results in the past using a Vipar Spectra 450w Reflector series. Anyway there are a few down sides to using these LED panels. Or any led panels for that matter. But the down sides I'm expieriencing is there's not much canopy penetration as compaired to a HPS. which isn't a big deal anyway since I'm planning on doing fast veg cycles (4-6 weeks) and I'm using the see of green method. The other down side I'm facing is coverage area. While trying to keep the led panel 18-24 inches away from the top of the canopy I am not getting much coverage. I have twelve #3 pots arranged in 4x3 rows. Pots are full of soil and there are touching edge to edge. But the outside edge of the outer row is now getting much light. Now I know most of you will say forget the LED pannles and go with HPS or MH. And if it is electric usage & heat I'm concernaed out then use T5's. The reason I started with LED's is because previously I converted four double wide steel lockers into Grow lockers. They were 18" length 30" wide and 68" tall. Not a lot of space so keeping heat under control was my main concern. Two plants paired with a 450w led panel was perfect. Heat was only 2 degree C above room temp. And the results were good. 18 hours of light for 6 week veg and 8 weeks flowering with lights on for 12hrs. Produced 83 grams dried weight of sour diesel. Plants were about 30 inches tall at harvest. My problem now with the gorilla grow tent is I am not getting enough coverage from two panels. I currently own one Vipar Spectra 600 watt reflector series, One Vipar Spectra 450 watt reflector series. And I'm currently borrowing from a friend: one Vipar Spectra 600 watt reflector series. I'm using both 600's inside the 5x5 tent (1200 watt equilivant). And the 450 was being used for clones/veg in a separate area. The options I am considering are: 1) Buying 2 additional Vipar Spectra 600's at $289 each. And in the future buy a 3rd one when I have to return the one I am borrowing. And use four 600w panels in my 5x5 tent (2400 watt equilivant) 2) Buy three more 450's so I own a total of 4. And use all 4 in the tent for a total of 1800 watt equilivant. 3) Third option is I just raise my two 600's to a height above 24 inches to gain more coverage area but at a lesser intensity.
only if most of the people here are fucking idiots lol First off , how many HPS watts did you previously have? 1000? Using 1000 as an example and being that LED is about 30% more efficient you would need 700 watts ACTUAL of LED to compete. The 2 x 600 Vipars are actually 552 watts. Forget the bullshit equivalencies. Best case scenario is about 1000 micromoles at the canopy and scroggin works best with LED. Penetration probably not a problem with a proper COB based LED grow light that meet the wattage requirements of your grow. However unlike point source HID lighting, LED comes in all shapes sizes and applications making it a breeze to add side lighting with something like Bridgelux EB series light strips. Google, cobkits, timber grow lights, horticultural lighting group and quantum boards. On youtube check out Smart Grow Systems too, that will blow yer mind. This channel has all the info you need. growmau5 Your lights are a bit outdated, but still usable and if you added in another 200-300 watts of white COB you will be banging out pounds.
also, buying multiple smaller panels is a better idea if redundancy is concern. As for heat 1000 watts of LED = 1000 watt of HID. The heat savings typically come from needing less wattage and or by placing the drivers outside of the grow.
Those Quantum Boards from Horiticultire lighting group are pretty nice. Looks like I would want to get the HLG 550. Says it can do up to a 4.5 ft x 4.5 ft area. However they don't come cheap. Looks like they're about $1049 US. With today's exchange rate and import fees into Canada that's probably close to $1500 or more. One of the reason I went with vipar spectra is because of the price. I bought the reflector series Model: 450V for $219 Canadian taxes & shipped to my door. The model 600v was $289 Canadian. These retail is USA for $139 and $189. If I could buy 4 Vipar Spectra's at $189 each that's still less expensive. But it would use more power. Those quantum boards are really nice. I would be a little concerned about light burn on the leaves. Even with my Vipar Spectra 450 anything closer than 18 inches would get burnt. And it's not like the temperature is hot it's sort of like radiation burn. When I did another Grow using the Vipar Spectra 600 I really noticed how sensitive the plants are to the light. I think Vipar Spectra is a Korean company that also does aquarium led lighting. Anyway compaired to other led lights in a similar price range I think what I have is pretty good. But thank you for showing me the Horiticulture lighting group. I will carry on with my current Grow and just stick with my Two Vipar Spectra 600's for now. I did notice that the Vipar Spectra 900 is actually very similar to the HLG 550 in PPF light measurements. The HLG Is still better but at almost half the price the Id really like to see a side by side comparison. Also I noticed that the light spectrum is more intense on the HLG. Anyways I'm just trying to say for the price I paid I'm pretty happy with my Vipar Spectra. Although I can clearly see the HLG is a better light. Thanks again, I'll let you guys know how things go with my twin 600 Vipar Spectra's. Maybe another 2-3 weeks and I'll flip the lights to 12 hours on, 12 off.
Hey here's an interesting question.... You know how the frequency of electricity is 60 hertz... have you ever use a slow motion camera to look at the light in slow motion? The blink 60 times a second as the ac/dc current is alternating the current. Well my question is does this bother the plants at all? And my second question is do HPS or MH or anything with a ballast/driver eliminate that problem? Do any of these lights use a ballast to provide direct current? I'm no electrician and I only think I know the basic concept.