A mate of mine is looking to upgrade lights and was saying he wants to buy a digital ballast and 600w hps/MH light for his 2x2x1.8m tent which had a 400w hps but I have been trying to pursuade him to go led like I am and I think it's worked, so what would be the best option for the money? I was thinking making a ballast with say 4x vero 29 3000k and 2x 5000k at about 70w each would this do the job?
Swaying someone to the light side
- Thread starter pedrovski
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Mechmike
Well-Known Member
420 watts covering 4 square feet is a bit of overkill. You could easily run them at 50w each and still have more light than needed for 2x2. It would also run cooler and produce more lumens/watt. All 3500k would work just as well as mixing 3000k and 5000k.
That's 2m x 2m not feet and I was going to go for vero for the cheapest initial cost and would be easier to mount. I was under the impression from reading a lot about the cobs that the vero leds are more efficient in the red side of the spectrum and the cree on the blue side. Looking at the specs maybe I should just go for the 3500k over the 3000k and maybe get say 20 of the 660nm photo red cree leds and mount them along the ballast to give more of the much desired deep red, should work well with the cobs and compliment there spectrum
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Mechmike
Well-Known Member
Sorry, I didn't read your original post thoroughly. 420 watts may not be enough for that size of space. Adding the Cree 660 reds would work well. It's best to have them switched separately so as to avoid excessive stretch in early flower.
How much wattage would you suggest? The 400w hps he had in the tent did struggle to get decent coverage of the tent in the grow he has just done got just over 6 Oz of 6 plants from bag seed but the temps were consistently over 30 degrees c with not having very good venting in the room the tent is in so would think that would have adverse affects on yield. 1 of the reasons I suggested led shouldn't have a much of an issue with the heat and Was thinking having the 660nm leds on a separate switch would be best then can just turn on when I switch them to flower it's only really in flower they are going to be of much benefit.
SnapsProvolone
Well-Known Member
"Light side" = light yields. Hope your friendship is strong enough to survive. 
skunkd0c
Well-Known Member
"dark side" would be more appropriate"Light side" = light yields. Hope your friendship is strong enough to survive.
when one buys a led grow light in order to fit in with other led growers you will need to work on your pretentious petulant attitude
imagine you are a proud BMW owner/driver "king of the road" and you should be good to go
failure to meet these standards may leave you ostracized by the LED community
good luck
reasonevangelist
Well-Known Member
If you only knew the power...
Mechmike
Well-Known Member
~80w of led is a rough equivalent of 100w of hid as a rule of thumb. Some better, some worse but it's close. The 420w led light you are suggesting would definitely outperform a 400w hid. To get more light you could either add more emitters at the same or lower amperage (best choice for efficiency) or drive the 6 emitters at a higher amperage.
skunkd0c
Well-Known Member
well i did not tell anyone not to switch over ?
Mechmike
Well-Known Member
If I were building a light for 2mx2m coverage using 6 Vero29s, I would use 6 separate 100w or higher rated cpu coolers, drive them at 100w which is about 2.5a. One driver per emitter. Those 6 lights would make about 72000 lumens of choice par light for around 600 watts consumption. With independently adjustable lights you can get excellent coverage.
gk skunky
Well-Known Member
Hmmmm interesting. I come from a long time hps background was skeptical about LEDs. Couldn't be haappier. Each of my a51 lights can match a 400w. pulled over 6oz with the xgs 190. With the xgs and rw150 for a total 345W I'm looking at 14-16oz. So let the nay sayers make up their bullshit when they have no experience. And like driving a bmw? I'd say a better comparison is cars to motorcycles. Just like a car driver(hps) who had never ridden a motorcycle(led) a day in their life they simply can't understand the efficiency and just base their opinions on what they think instead of what they know having been on both sides of the situation. I've even got a good number of guys on my frequent form growkind either coverting over or at least talking about. They were all skeptical as well even said I'd be wasting time. 6-8 months later they are checking or hand already started using them and converted.
So don't be discouraged by the misinformed and those with no experience. You can definitely build a quality light and as mentioned the CXAs may be a better option. Kinda funny They compare us to pretentious snobs and driving BMWs but really every side had its angle and if your on our side and see the results in your face they seem like the honda civic driver bashing the BMW because it's not a realistic option for them and so they're jealousy comes out as negative remarks. LOL
So don't be discouraged by the misinformed and those with no experience. You can definitely build a quality light and as mentioned the CXAs may be a better option. Kinda funny They compare us to pretentious snobs and driving BMWs but really every side had its angle and if your on our side and see the results in your face they seem like the honda civic driver bashing the BMW because it's not a realistic option for them and so they're jealousy comes out as negative remarks. LOL
purplegrower02
Well-Known Member
Imo i would go with the new cree 670nm. Then use cxa3070 6 3000k since these already have ahigh blue output. And if you really want 1 4000k and 1 5000k.
if you need all top bin cxa's and the 670nm just let me know.
if you need all top bin cxa's and the 670nm just let me know.
Mechmike
Well-Known Member
That would work just fine. The 670nm Cree photo red has the edge. I bought my deep reds before they were available so I use Luxeon ES 660nm deep reds from Steves Leds.
hyroot
Well-Known Member
that's a horrible analogy. Bmw's are piece of shit money pits. I had one, my mom still has one. One of my best friends had one. They cost about $1500-$3000 in maintenance every two months. They are worse than range rovers. Even brand new BMWs constantly break down more than fords. Only German car I would ever buy is a Mercedes."dark side" would be more appropriate
when one buys a led grow light in order to fit in with other led growers you will need to work on your pretentious petulant attitude
imagine you are a proud BMW owner/driver "king of the road" and you should be good to go
failure to meet these standards may leave you ostracized by the LED community
good luck
now hps was never designed for horticulture. Only street lights. Hasn't been improved on since the 90's. Still falls short. CMH kicks the shit out of hps at a1/3 less wattsm the Cree cobs are killing everything. So grow with some quality leds before making another asinine ignorant comment m
This is what I always thought, and time and time again you have people who use hps going on about how led doesn't have the penetrative power hps does, with Chinese leds I can see this but with the cxas and veros this is utter bull. The guy in my local hydro shop also goes as far as to say is not even worth trying to grow anything with led and is adamant led had no place in the grow room, i find his narrow mindedness a little frustrating but he won't have a leg to stand on when i prove him wrong with my higher yielding higher quality bud.
ballist
Well-Known Member
This comment is a little misleading hps bulbs have been modified for agriculture and have more blue than a street rated globe. Cmh works better because of spectrum imho and is probably more efficient than cheap leds. Also learning to grow under an hps takes some of the guess work out of it. I run leds and hps in flower, separate tents.
600 watts of hps verses 600 real watts of led.