Thanks for sharing your experience! Is there any benefit to have the UV bar on before the final weeks of flower? My old blurple led lamp with UV and IR diodes seemed to always hermie the plant that was under it. Maybe just a coincidence, but I stopped using it. I feel like it just blasted the plant too hard and stressed it out. Another stress I couldn't see until it was too late. No more nanners!!
I ran both singles and double 315s. The scorpion puts off very little heat. I’ve run a 1k hps and the heat isn’t even comparable. Light comes on in 3 hours, I’ll shoot the heat sink with the infrared thermo but seems to me it’s around 90f (88-93f if my broken memory isn’t failing me) I have to heat the room to maintain 80+, with the 630 I had to cool the same room then heat during lights off.
I have a hard time believing you weren't able to keep a 5x5 tent cool if you were pulling in 20 degrees air while just running 2 CMH. Were you pulling directly into the tent or just letting it into the room? I pull around 4-5 Oz in a 3 gal pot. I prefer that size for ease of moving them and the cost of soil.
I think this is more common than the LED group cares to admit.
The daytime/nighttime temperature fluctuating was the tough part. Thats what led me to buy a tempature regulator to turn the fan on and off as needed. But then I ran out of room for my 5x5 and stopped gardening for a year or so....
It won’t be the case in the summer though, I don’t expect to have to run AC. I bet that in the long run it will balance out. As long as it gives great smoke, I’m happy.
it all depends on environment and location. for me, using leds means I only have to run the AC for 2-3 mos instead of 8.
Well, thats definitely saving some money! I chose the garage this winter for my 3x3 600W HPS and just exhaust in the garage to raise the temp a little. Run through the night time colder temps. If I get the Scorpion, I may have to install a dedicated circuit on a 15A breaker to my basement. The garage will get too cold and too warm for LEDs.
yup I know a few ppl that just use led in summer to save on the AC costs and then use the heat from hid bulbs to get temps up in winter. its whatever works!
The Scorpion is (6) 288 boards that are diffused, i believe to bring them closer to the canopy, and using the newer inventronics driver. I can get one for about $800 right now. DIY for the same project may run me around $100 cheaper... maybe 200? but I think it's a steal at this price with a warranty and legendary customer service. I see a lot of videos and journals of the HLG 550 V2 R-Spec, but not much about the Scorpion.yup I know a few ppl that just use led in summer to save on the AC costs and then use the heat from hid bulbs to get temps up in winter. its whatever works!
leds are dope for being able to customize your space too. im growing in a small apartment so my space is limited so low hanging height was one of reasons I bought my first board. I eventually went into ocd overkill mode w my fixtures lol. I grabbed like 14 of the qb288 v1 boards when they were on clearance, as well as have a collection of v2s I bought new + some CL scores. I built all my lights so each board is only at 50W so I have a crazy spread of diodes and I can be like 2" away from colas w no light burn. I actually just sold a couple of those to a buddy and am making a new light now with bridgelux vestas that has tuneable colors so I can do clone to harvest under the same light in a SIP. hps was never this much fun
if you have the cash I would buy the pre-built one especially for your first time. but dont worry you will "come to the light" soon enough and have diy qbs everywhere in your house like the rest of us. only a matter of time
Available power is my only limit ... and money...if you have the cash I would buy the pre-built one especially for your first time. but dont worry you will "come to the light" soon enough and have diy qbs everywhere in your house like the rest of us. only a matter of time
nothing wrong with that tho either. i have learned a lot about electronics and science that I didn't know before I started learning about LEDs. I do really enjoy the process of designing and building light fixtures.
Nothing wrong with that. I enjoy growing weed so that's where my focus is. I do have to point out that one of the big things that LED users like to talk about is how they don't have the cost of replacing HID bulbs but then turn around and buy new LED's every time something "new" is put on the market. Anyone who started buying and using LED's since they hit the market with the blurples has spent more on new lighting setups than I will on bulbs in the next 10 years. The R-spec - B-spec - Diablo - Scorpion - added UV etc all seems like a marketing gimmick to me.
My LEDs pay for themselves in a year, so if I replace them every two years, I can essentially get my new ones for free
In areas where electric costs are super high, I can see that. I still haven't seen the return on my $600 LED investment. In my situation, I only had the savings of the few hundred watts of extra electricity from the switch. I never ran A/C so I only saw a $12 monthly savings. My point is the new ones aren't any better than the old ones. I would love to see a side by side with original QB boards the V2 and the R-spec