Can 700 watts of LED strips grow trees???

[InTheValley]

Hey BGT, Yeah, looks like that might be it. Going to get 20 strips, and this driver, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IU8QAUC?psc=1 or should i get the 360w and not fear blowing strips?

says 64,000 lumens, but id imagine that would only be obtainable in series?

I would also get something to control the output amperage, calls for 300W, I'll have 500W.

This will be in a 2x2. If i even get half the lumens, it has to be better then what i have now. Im skeptical on how its doing right now in flower. Vegs like a SOB, flower, ahhhhh IDK,

Im In the Valley

 

[InTheValley]

Man, you believe these are better then COBs?

Honest opinion.

I mean, I know we gain more, just thru heat/Watts gained, but do we expect the same size fruits if everything is the same?

 

[Big Green Thumb]

That looks like a very nice power supply. You won't need anything to control amperage. That p/s has a little grey screw that adjusts voltage which also adjusts amperage. It super simple and confused me when I heard it.

All you do is connect the strips to the p/s and turn the adjustment all the way down (counter clockwise) then plug in the p/s to 110v using a kill-a-watt if possible. The strips will not be lit at this point. Gradually turn up the adjustment until you are pulling the amount of watts from the wall that you desire. That's it. At this point you can verify your DC voltage and amps if you want with a multimeter. Or better yet get that voltage / amperage/ watts display I linked earlier to monitor in real time as you adjust the p/s screw.

You will be able to adjust so the LEDs barely glow at like 5 watts clear up to 500 or more watts that will be brighter than sunlight.

Oh, that display I linked will not work for you since it is only rated for 20 amps. They have one just like it rated for like 100 amps on amazon for less than $20, just make sure it is DC not AC.

 

[Big Green Thumb]

Are strip lights better than cobs? That's a tough one. I think both are great but the $20 price of each heat sink turned me off.
When I built my cob setup, I didn't use passive heatsinks. Instead I used square aluminum tubing and water cooled it using a bucket, some vinyl tubing, and a fountain pump. That's cheaper than 2 pin heat sinks and I can add more cobs to the tubing if I want without needing more heatsinks or cooling. If I was still doing cob builds, I would do it that way again using a buttload of the cheap 1212 cobs at 500 mah or so. 16 citizen cobs at $9 each = $144 + ~$40 for water cooling + ~$200 for driver(s) would be a pretty formidable light. But my strip lights are cheaper and hopefully as good.

 

[InTheValley]

man, I have a kill-a-watt!!! Thats cool then,

No regulators or anything like that needed then? so incase of strip failure, they others dont overload?

Putting final plans together, is all. Last time i hurried, didnt research, crunch numbers or anything, and ended up with 2 mars300's, lol.. annnnnnnnnd here we are, lol. 6 months later,lol..

 

[InTheValley]

Are strip lights better than cobs? That's a tough one. I think both are great but the $20 price of each heat sink turned me off.
When I built my cob setup, I didn't use passive heatsinks. Instead I used square aluminum tubing and water cooled it using a bucket, some vinyl tubing, and a fountain pump. That's cheaper than 2 pin heat sinks and I can add more cobs to the tubing if I want without needing more heatsinks or cooling. If I was still doing cob builds, I would do it that way again using a buttload of the cheap 1212 cobs at 500 mah or so. 16 citizen cobs at $9 each = $144 + ~$40 for water cooling + ~$200 for driver(s) would be a pretty formidable light. But my strip lights are cheaper and hopefully as good.

lol, yeah man, that was the other route i was going to take too.

citi 1212, Seen some great grows with them.

I like the heat issue is pretty much gone, and heck man, for under $100 for everything, i might be able to get 50,000 lumens, heck, im down for sure..

its probably 40,000 more then what i have now. and if these arent what I think they are, ill use them for side lighting and go COB up top..

But for the price, I have to give it a shot..

Really wish i could find optics, but we'll see what happens. Im a LST fool anyways, and have OCD about keeping my tops even with fkn string and tape, IDK, its a inner challenge i guess.

and scrog, so really I shouldnt need more then 16 inches between canopy and light.

But dang, in a 2x2 with 64,000 lumens should get me around 450g at least id expect. with a 50 day veg, 2 tent rotation.

Thanks for the Convo man, ton of help.

 

[Big Green Thumb]

Nothing else needed. Your strips will be wired in parallel. So each strip will be a single circuit. If 1 goes bad, all the others will still be working fine.

Say you have 10 strips running at 100 watts combined. If 1 strip goes out, your p/s will still be putting out 100 watts, but to 9 strips now, so they will now be putting out 11 watts each instead of 10 watts when all were working.

Make sense?

 

[InTheValley]

Yeah Man, sounds good,

Thats the final Plan, lol..

Will post when done for sure.

Cant wait to see how your harvest turns out!!

 

[Big Green Thumb]

Just bought 112' of 3/4" aluminum angle for the light build. Hopefully this weekend I will have the side lighting built.

What do you guys suggest, more watts of lighting on the top or the sides? I was thinking ~600 watts overhead and ~400 side lighting, but after researching the Suncloak Blades, it is almost ALL side lights.

Thoughts?

 

[Chip Green]

Ill tell ya what I know now. I jumped into the DIY wormhole after years of not growing, almost as an experiment...I watched all the videos, learned everything I could find around these forums about COBs and what not, felt I had a pretty good grasp on things.... Then is ran across the Bridgelux EB series build thread. I ended up following that path just for the simplicity of assembly, and I gotta tell ya...
I cant speak that 700w of LED strips can grow trees, but I can tell you that 440 watts from the wall, between 2 DIY panels made from a total of 16- 560mm 3500K EB strips, CAN GROW ONE F'n TREE.... LOL
well more like a hedge BUSH than a tree, but I'm really impressed with the results 6 weeks into the first run....The trained branches, are now sorta SELF TRAINING, staying flat from the mass accumulating in the colas.
Trees? I dunno, but damn hedges, no doubt in my mind.

 

[Big Green Thumb]

Hey BGT, Yeah, looks like that might be it. Going to get 20 strips, and this driver, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IU8QAUC?psc=1 or should i get the 360w and not fear blowing strips?

says 64,000 lumens, but id imagine that would only be obtainable in series?

I would also get something to control the output amperage, calls for 300W, I'll have 500W.

This will be in a 2x2. If i even get half the lumens, it has to be better then what i have now. Im skeptical on how its doing right now in flower. Vegs like a SOB, flower, ahhhhh IDK,

Im In the Valley

Just got to put it straight to you: you are going to have twice as much light as you need in a 2 x 2! You will have 75 watts per square foot, where most people get by with 30-50. Of course I can't talk, since I have upwards of 4000 watts (potential) with all of my strips.

Black pot meet black kettle.

Edit, please bear with me I am bored at work. If I drive ALL my strips at 1 amp, I have ~2925 watts. At 1.4 amps, ~4095 watts. That would make it tough to keep my 4x4 area cool. Lol

 

[InTheValley]

Just bought 112' of 3/4" aluminum angle for the light build. Hopefully this weekend I will have the side lighting built.

What do you guys suggest, more watts of lighting on the top or the sides? I was thinking ~600 watts overhead and ~400 side lighting, but after researching the Suncloak Blades, it is almost ALL side lights.

Thoughts?

You know man, I think your going to be squashed for room as it is, so im not sure how much side lighting is going to help. Your going to scrog? I know your mainlining and LST, great idea.

SO, this is what Id do with sidelighting. The sides would have to be pitched in.

 

[InTheValley]

Just got to put it straight to you: you are going to have twice as much light as you need in a 2 x 2! You will have 75 watts per square foot, where most people get by with 30-50. Of course I can't talk, since I have upwards of 4000 watts (potential) with all of my strips.

Black pot meet black kettle.

Edit, please bear with me I am bored at work. If I drive ALL my strips at 1 amp, I have ~2925 watts. At 1.4 amps, ~4095 watts. That would make it tough to keep my 4x4 area cool. Lol

Thats alot of watts, LOL..

Alllll about the dimming, lol..

 

[InTheValley]

See something on Dude growsshow. These dudes put a freakin COB on the front of a oscillating fan for side lighting. That would be awesome, i think. Imagine 4 on each side, even if they are just 30w-50w cobs,..

OK, No more COB talk, just something I seen i thought was interesting.

brings me to the point of, where you goin to put your fans Bro?

 

[Rolla J]

Are strip lights better than cobs? That's a tough one. I think both are great but the $20 price of each heat sink turned me off.
When I built my cob setup, I didn't use passive heatsinks. Instead I used square aluminum tubing and water cooled it using a bucket, some vinyl tubing, and a fountain pump. That's cheaper than 2 pin heat sinks and I can add more cobs to the tubing if I want without needing more heatsinks or cooling. If I was still doing cob builds, I would do it that way again using a buttload of the cheap 1212 cobs at 500 mah or so. 16 citizen cobs at $9 each = $144 + ~$40 for water cooling + ~$200 for driver(s) would be a pretty formidable light. But my strip lights are cheaper and hopefully as good.

Funny i did that with my diy light alum sq stock. With vinyl tubing amd a 1000gph pump to run 8 ft of line. The water res had a pc fan blowing along the water with a hose connected into the growbox. The bars ran good temps with 36 10w chips

 

[Big Green Thumb]

 

[Big Green Thumb]

I had time to build 2 side fixtures. Well the framework at least. 48" wide x 30" tall

 

[InTheValley]

looks freakin awesome brother,

 

[Big Green Thumb]

Got 1 side light completely built and the other frames assembled. Testing out the 1 sidelight on my girls.

 

[Big Green Thumb]