PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
I guess I'll lurk since I'm using r/b not cobs
All COB Users - Lettuce Grow Challenge!!
- Thread starter OneHitDone
- Start date
I would be interested in your results with r/b LEDs. Most of the recent studies I have seen seem to favor wider spectrums.
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Ok, can you help me design a comparison test somehow?
What if i do t5ho sunblasters against the r/b leds. How would I make a fair comparison?
Evil-Mobo
Well-Known Member
Grow a plant under each that is the same strain.............
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Cool, nothing to it but to do it, this would be fun. I can setup two different levels. I have a whole bunch of seeds so I can grow different varieties.
Edit. I'm not too keen on blocking off the light between levels since it'll mess with ventilation, but I'll try to figure that out. I just bought a big strip of panda film I can tape to the shelving unit
muleface
Well-Known Member
4 foot, integrated t5, 22 watt, 6500k led. looks like there are 120 leds on the strip. comes with a clear light cover and a "milky" one too.
They seem ok quality. There is a cheapo driver tucked inside the aluminum housing.
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Do you have a link?
I'm thinking of buying something from Independance LED in the USA. I talked with their lead engineer for a couple weeks years ago. Nice guy. They make commercial lights and also dabbled in grow lights. They look sweet and they are all made in USA with lumileds.
They say their new high bay LED fixtures are >130lm/w. They look like t5 fixtures. Their claim is 1000w mh equivalent for under $600, and their lower output fixture for under 300$.
They sell a DR/B/W fixture for vegetative growth buti don't think those are their new design. I'm going to ask for prices and might buy myself two lights for my Christmas present to myself. If I do that I'd probably try one of their DR/B/W blurples and one of their new high bay lights. That would be a really fair test of white vs blurple.
OLD MOTHER SATIVA
Well-Known Member
quote:They say their new high bay LED fixtures are >130lm/w. They look like t5 fixtures. Their claim is 1000w mh equivalent for under $600, and their lower output fixture for under 300$.
>how many actual watts[ for both]?
>how many actual watts[ for both]?
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Details from their website below
I emailed them this morning asking for some more information. I want to try something out on my 2'x4' shelf
Q2 2016: New Agriculture Grow Lights – We have completed the engineering for our latest series that will yield over 130 lumens per watt. The fixtures will replace common 400 watt metal halides with under 170 watts and cost under $300. The higher output model will replace 1,000 metal halides with under 330 watts and cost under $600. This ground-breaking new generation of fixtures has our Made in America quality, 10 year warranty, and category leading efficiency, as well as price points below the Chinese imports! Plus, DesignLights Consortium (DLC) listing on our full-spectrum white light fixture series (High Bay Spec Sheets) will give indoor farmers the ability to earn utility rebates that reduce the cost even further.
muleface
Well-Known Member
they are just low end Alibaba crap. I paid 6 bucks a light for them
https://chinaproled.en.alibaba.com/product/60239316535-801555255/0_6_M_LED_Tube_Integrated_9W_2_Years_warranty.html
OLD MOTHER SATIVA
Well-Known Member
thats what i had to do Muleface..
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
I bought something very similar. It's not as bright as my other lights but it's not bad for the price I guess.
I'm worried it doesn't have adequate thermal dissipation though so I don't know how long it will last.
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Good news 
Independence LED is building anew batch of grow lights in the new year and will send me prices on some smaller configurations which will hopefully be good for lettuce.
There's a lot of specific data yet to come and I'll confirm once I get his data sheet for the new grow lights in the new year, but it looks like this.
Around 2 umol/j single LED bars @ 54w per bar. Ppfd I don't think is linear but I'm presuming it may be around 80-120 per bar and he estimates around 130$usd including drivers. I think that's a little more than double light output of the Philips for just a little more $. It appears the price per w for these is around half that of the Philips.
The difference though is since the light is more intense from these bars they need more headroom and instead of having 4 bars there will be two, so light distribution won't be as good but I'm excited to try it anyway.
They will come in configuration of Deep Red/Blue/White
There are many other configurations available but those are the most popular for vegetative. They've been working on their grow lights for a couple years at least and hope to settle on two spectrums (veg and flower). Currently you can contact them to make you a custom configuration or a solid bar of one colour.
They are proud of the fact that they do all of their own manufacturing within the United States and say their quality control is a lot better as a result. I am pretty sure I will purchase at least two single bar veg fixtures for testing.
Independence LED is building anew batch of grow lights in the new year and will send me prices on some smaller configurations which will hopefully be good for lettuce.
There's a lot of specific data yet to come and I'll confirm once I get his data sheet for the new grow lights in the new year, but it looks like this.
Around 2 umol/j single LED bars @ 54w per bar. Ppfd I don't think is linear but I'm presuming it may be around 80-120 per bar and he estimates around 130$usd including drivers. I think that's a little more than double light output of the Philips for just a little more $. It appears the price per w for these is around half that of the Philips.
The difference though is since the light is more intense from these bars they need more headroom and instead of having 4 bars there will be two, so light distribution won't be as good but I'm excited to try it anyway.
They will come in configuration of Deep Red/Blue/White
There are many other configurations available but those are the most popular for vegetative. They've been working on their grow lights for a couple years at least and hope to settle on two spectrums (veg and flower). Currently you can contact them to make you a custom configuration or a solid bar of one colour.
They are proud of the fact that they do all of their own manufacturing within the United States and say their quality control is a lot better as a result. I am pretty sure I will purchase at least two single bar veg fixtures for testing.
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
Just to throw some numbers off their old spec sheets from their high powered 8 bar fixtures
Flowering fixture: 634ppfd @ 425w
Vegetative fixture: 545ppfd @ 380w
I don't know if those numbers are good compared to what you guys see here on rui with diy - but the numbers look good compared to what I am working with.
Flowering fixture: 634ppfd @ 425w
Vegetative fixture: 545ppfd @ 380w
I don't know if those numbers are good compared to what you guys see here on rui with diy - but the numbers look good compared to what I am working with.
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
When are you lighting it up and starting to grow?
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
It's probably too soon to say with my limited knowledge, but these might be what I'm looking for: quality light by a good company that aren't too overpriced. These guys specialize in commercial lighting so I like that. Just like Philips, lumitek or BML
OneHitDone
Well-Known Member
Those #'s are meaningless. They are not specifying at what distance and where in relation to the light source those #'s would be seen on a par meter.
See if they have the total ppf output for their fixtures not "ppfd" #'s
PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
That's at 12" from canopy
there's more info on the pdfs. You can contact them and ask for specific information - the engineer has a lot of info and is super smart.
You can look up their websiste or give them a call or email. Really nice (busy) engineer guy is who they will probably connect you with. He's always been willing to provide me info And has explained a lot of stuff to me. I've literally talked with the guy for hours. Did I say he was super smart? Like a light scientist whatever those are called. He engineers all of their lights and is getting involved in learning more about growing as it's a big market for them.
They have new spec sheets coming he said in the new year, these pdfs are old and he said they are their prototype lite which he thinks is too high powered for most applications like lettuce or basil.
Their growing customers are using their stuff in all different ways and testing all different co figurations for all different purposes, so he gets a lot of feedback from the lights they send out. If you want to learn about what they're figuring out I think he would be happy to answer any question you have.
http://www.independenceled.com/pdfs/Independence-LED-Grow-Light-Vegetation-Datasheet.pdf
http://www.independenceled.com/pdfs/Independence-LED-Grow-Light-Flowering-Datasheet.pdf
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PicklesRus
Well-Known Member
I think their grow lights are around or above 2 umol/s/w of par light if I got that right. Which is pretty good right?
muleface
Well-Known Member
these would probably work for lettuce. The 4 pack works out to 288 watts at the wall (so they say)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-108W-LED-Grow-Light-Bar-Strip-Fixture-Full-Spectrum-Red-Blue-For-Hydro-Plant-/131779851104?hash=item1eaeb0f360:g:bc4AAOSw4shX4jCn
I know this challenge is suppose to be growing lettuce under cobs, but I think it could be viewed as the most cost effective way to grow it. I think inexpensive light arrays in larger quantities might be a worth looking at, akin to a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks). something like 20 - 22 watt lights at $6 dollars a light($120), vs 8 - 54 watt lights at $120 each ($960). if you scaled this up, you could get 160 cheap lights for the same price as 8 expensive lights. Basically making them disposable, like rockwool. I suppose, one could argue that better lights make for better lettuce, while probably true, is it a big differnce, or just a slight difference, and does it really matter when you toss it in ranch dressing?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-108W-LED-Grow-Light-Bar-Strip-Fixture-Full-Spectrum-Red-Blue-For-Hydro-Plant-/131779851104?hash=item1eaeb0f360:g:bc4AAOSw4shX4jCn
I know this challenge is suppose to be growing lettuce under cobs, but I think it could be viewed as the most cost effective way to grow it. I think inexpensive light arrays in larger quantities might be a worth looking at, akin to a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks). something like 20 - 22 watt lights at $6 dollars a light($120), vs 8 - 54 watt lights at $120 each ($960). if you scaled this up, you could get 160 cheap lights for the same price as 8 expensive lights. Basically making them disposable, like rockwool. I suppose, one could argue that better lights make for better lettuce, while probably true, is it a big differnce, or just a slight difference, and does it really matter when you toss it in ranch dressing?