Deciding on which light to buy.. Sorta of a drag

Rottedroots

Rottedroots

Well-Known Member
Talk about a run around. I bought the stock to put together my new grow room. The space will end up with height of 5 feet and a width of 4 feet. Not sure how long it'll be but for conversation sake let's say 8 feet. I'm looking for one last series of imput.and recommendations b4 I pull the trigger. Im willing to spend but is it possible to get good coverage and penetration without breaking the bank. I definitely don't want something that's going to have a short life span. I'd also prefer buying the equipment just once. It looks like I'll be buying two lights to cover a 8x4 foot print but what two lights. I'm under some time constraints because I'm using " found" money and the longer I have it the more likely it is to go to bills. Thanks and I apologize if this is a repeat of another thread with just a different name.
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
Rottedroots said:
Im willing to spend but is it possible to get good coverage and penetration without breaking the bank.
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yes but penetration is not your concern. all light penetrates the same regardless of source and 'penetration' is achieved by how much light you put in a room and at what height from canopy. the higher the fixtures from the canopy the deeper they will 'penetrate' (i.e give you acceptable umol readings of 400 or above) to the lower branches without heat/light stressing the top of the canopy (>1200 umol)

Rottedroots said:
I definitely don't want something that's going to have a short life span.
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led is a wise choice then

Rottedroots said:
It looks like I'll be buying two lights to cover a 8x4 foot print but what two lights.
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why two? more smaller fixtures cover better
 
MeJuana

MeJuana

Well-Known Member
You can start out small with l.e.d. to get your feet wet such as building an l.e.d. cloner light or some surprisingly low cost veg lights. supraspl has a thread explaining different setups precisely, he recommends some low cost solutions and really make sense.
His thread is on another forum so you need to Google search the following sentence to see it
supraspl DIY LED with COBs - small medium and large grows
 
HydoDan

HydoDan

Well-Known Member
Been using 5x3590 50 watt cobs for the last 2 weeks to flower 2 plants I vegged outside this summer. I am already amazed at how cool they run ( 72 top of canopy) and the growth is phenomenal. Good investment!!
 
Rottedroots

Rottedroots

Well-Known Member
I don't want to just get my feet wet. I want a set up that will do its job now and into the future. I was thinking two 800 watt cob arrays each covering a solid 4x4 foot print regardless of whether I'm vegging or flowering. Would it be beneficial to go with four 400 watt arrays or another configuration. Any particular recommendations? There are almost as many producers of LED grow lights as there are seed breeders. If there was a top ten list of brands and manufacturers of LED COB units what lights and companies would get your vote?
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
Rottedroots said:
I don't want to just get my feet wet. I want a set up that will do its job now and into the future. I was thinking two 800 watt cob arrays each covering a solid 4x4 foot print regardless of whether I'm vegging or flowering. Would it be beneficial to go with four 400 watt arrays or another configuration. Any particular recommendations? There are almost as many producers of LED grow lights as there are seed breeders. If there was a top ten list of brands and manufacturers of LED COB units what lights and companies would get your vote?
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i would build my own using 1 cob per sq foot.but if i had to go with premade panels these would be my first choice http://www.pacificlightconcepts.com/product/cxp-420/
or his bar style fixtures if you really wanna go pro http://www.pacificlightconcepts.com/product/cx-bar/
im pretty sure both of those ^^ come with a pretty decent discount if you buy 3 or more also (:
 
MeGaKiLlErMaN

MeGaKiLlErMaN

Well-Known Member
Rottedroots said:
I don't want to just get my feet wet. I want a set up that will do its job now and into the future. I was thinking two 800 watt cob arrays each covering a solid 4x4 foot print regardless of whether I'm vegging or flowering. Would it be beneficial to go with four 400 watt arrays or another configuration. Any particular recommendations? There are almost as many producers of LED grow lights as there are seed breeders. If there was a top ten list of brands and manufacturers of LED COB units what lights and companies would get your vote?
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If you insist on buying a fixture rather than making it(and it's easy) then I would suggest the photon at
northerngrowlights.com
It's a bit more than a DIY light but still will put out, it even has a calculator to get the desired PPFD you want for your area
 
CallmeTex

CallmeTex

Well-Known Member
You could go with something like this http://timbergrowlights.com/200-watt-cree-cxb3590-4-cob-meanwell-hlg-kit-meanwell-hlg-power-supply/#ProductReviews
You would have to build a frame, but otherwise ready to roll. You would need 6 of these kits to cover the 4x8'. Check out some of the other kits too. Several good options.

With the PLC cxp 250 you would also need 6, but they are almost double the price. Totally worth it if you have the money and don't have time to build frames. With the cxp 420 in such a height restricted grow will end up with two hot spots above each light with poor growth around the edges of the grow.

Tasty Led is another option, looks like they don't have much in stock though.
 
MeGaKiLlErMaN

MeGaKiLlErMaN

Well-Known Member
Rottedroots said:
Talk about a run around. I bought the stock to put together my new grow room. The space will end up with height of 5 feet and a width of 4 feet. Not sure how long it'll be but for conversation sake let's say 8 feet. I'm looking for one last series of imput.and recommendations b4 I pull the trigger. Im willing to spend but is it possible to get good coverage and penetration without breaking the bank. I definitely don't want something that's going to have a short life span. I'd also prefer buying the equipment just once. It looks like I'll be buying two lights to cover a 8x4 foot print but what two lights. I'm under some time constraints because I'm using " found" money and the longer I have it the more likely it is to go to bills. Thanks and I apologize if this is a repeat of another thread with just a different name.
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If you really want to cover the area efficiently go with a bunch of 1212s its the cheapest option for good coverage.
 
PSUAGRO.

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
I would put the Nextlight mega on your pre-built short list IMO......2 to cover 4x8. 5yr US warranty, ul listed, passive cooled, uniform spread out coverage with reliable and efficient Samsung baby cobs:), confirmed 2.1 ppf/w output (gavita DE new @1.75ppf/w), riu discount given.........

don't need to tell you that an even canopy is essential with these large fixtures....


good luck
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
"NextLight has been specifically designed to match the HPS 1000 spectrum, providing the same sun-like qualities plants love without the negatives of high energy requirements and high heat."


They follow that same shady way of selling led that gave led a bad name to begin with. Borderline spam posting promoting their product on other media outlets :sleep:
 
puffenuff

puffenuff

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
"NextLight has been specifically designed to match the HPS 1000 spectrum, providing the same sun-like qualities plants love without the negatives of high energy requirements and high heat."


They follow that same shady way of selling led that gave led a bad name to begin with. Borderline spam posting promoting their product on other media outlets :sleep:
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I disagree with your opinion. Pretty much all the info they provide has been accurate as far as I can tell from actually using their lights
 
MeGaKiLlErMaN

MeGaKiLlErMaN

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
"NextLight has been specifically designed to match the HPS 1000 spectrum, providing the same sun-like qualities plants love without the negatives of high energy requirements and high heat."


They follow that same shady way of selling led that gave led a bad name to begin with. Borderline spam posting promoting their product on other media outlets :sleep:
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A PPF of 650 is eh. And since its matching a 1000W DE I would say no thanks, I would rather out preform it for cheaper. Take the 1212 and run them around 1000W at the wall. Almost 70% efficient and the cobs cost something like $430 total. Then you just need some drivers and a few plates of aluminum.

Outperforms everything.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
puffenuff said:
I disagree with your opinion. Pretty much all the info they provide has been accurate as far as I can tell from actually using their lights
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I think NextLights are pretty neat, but they were not designed to be HPS-like, and neither HPS or LED is anything like the sun. It's completely inaccurate.
 
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