200w COB LED LIGHT QUESTION

It's not oregano said:

I saw the mesh version you are planning but I don't have as much vertical space as you do, I only have 32" for everything, so I had to improvise. If you pack the carbon in tight and only grow 1 plant in there I don't see why the mesh filter shouldn't work. I posted this last november when I asked when to flip, which explains what I did for my filter..

"If anyone is interested, I have an external 5" pc server fan on top of the cabinet that is rated at 150 cfm, this is sat over a jigsawed out hole. Internally I got a 2" deep A4'ish sized box and cut a large rectangle out of the front and back, put wire mesh over the holes and then 2 layers of oven hood charcoal filter top and bottom. The remaining space was then filled with a mix of activated carbon pellets I got from my local hydro shop ( 1kilo for £3.70 - bargain!!) and some smaller pellets I took out of some respirator mask cartridges we had at work for some reason. Stuck this to the top of the cab underneath the fan hole with double sided tape, and taped all the joints of the box and where it joined the roof with shitloads of tape so there was no chance of air bypassing the filter. I love duct and parcel tape!! This means the fan is pulling air through quite a large surface area that is also about 1.5" deep with carbon, so hopefully it should keep the smell to a minimum. The pc fan has lost a lot of cfm with the filter in place, but it still comes out with a force you can feel with your hand, but as my cab is only small there is still enough of an air change to keep temps down and replace the air regularly."

The 1st pic shows the filter during my first ever grow, when I used cfl's. The second pic shows how little room I have when I cram 2 plants in there with store bought led bulbs. I cut those down last sunday and had just over 500g wet, so hoping for 3.5 - 4 oz dry. I had to put the globes back on some bulbs as they were bleaching the leaves. I think I may have to go cob in the future to save me a few inches. Last pic shows stealth cabinet in situ...nothing to see here *edit the cabinet is an old set of drawers in my garage, which is why it looks so battered and filthy. I am not a scruffy bastard who lives like that!
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CornerStone said:

Wow this is amazing bro, I see really nice buds over there, congrats!
What type o led were you using? How many watts per plant? Whats the measure of your cabine? Im really impressed

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It's not oregano said:

Thank you. I grow for my wife who has MS so while the buds may not be as big or saleable looking as people who do it for a living it doesn't really matter to her. They help her pain and that's all that matters.

I have only been growing for less than a year and have just finished my 3rd grow so I am still really tweaking stuff and learning all the time what works and what doesn't. I still have late teens / early 20's kids living at home who have no idea I grow or my wife has edibles / smokes and that's the way I want to keep it, hence the stealth cab and low (compared to others) wattage lights I use.

Cabinet size is 28" wide x 15" deep x 32" high. That works out about 2.9 square foot floor space and about 7.75 cubic feet. I can JUST get 2x 14 litre builders buckets in there. Tried just one plant first grow just to get my feet wet, but went to 2 for the other 2 grows. Because of my lack of height I FIM then LST then scrog to keep height down and fill the cabinet to the max. Just about getting the hang of when to flip now to ensure I don't run out of space.

I used 6x 15 watt and 3x 13 watt store bought 2700k led bulbs. Got the 15w then saw 13w in a local supermarket with the same lumens (all 1521 lumens) and they were a bit cheaper so bought 3. I already had most of the bulb holders from my cfl grow. Saw a thread on icmag showing people popping the globes off and getting 10-20% more lumens so popped them off. With 10% extra I have a total light wattage in the cabinet of 129 watts and just over 15,000 lumens, all aimed directly at the canopy, none goes directly to the sides or up like cfl's did. Total cost of the bulbs / fittings was about £50 so about $65. I might do a couple more grows then change to cobs. I want to keep things constant for a while so I can see what works and what doesn't. I have altered the cab every grow so never had a baseline to compare to.

Temps during the last run were averaging a high of 25-26C (in a non temperature controlled concrete garage during English summer) and a low of 19 during lights off. Lights were on overnight and off during the hottest hours of the day.

As I have mentioned, I am still a noob myself, but if I can help in any way I will try my best to do so. Best advice I can give is to read this site for hours and hours. People on here are great on the whole. I have had nothing but encouragement with anything I have asked.

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It's not oregano said:

When I saw how efficient led bulbs were cost wise I swapped every light I could in my house to led, from a mix of cfl and old style incandescent.
Even with running 129w of lights during a grow, my total electric bill has actually gone down from my non growing days.
Just weighed the last run dry and it came in at 3.5 ounces. Not great compared to others but good enough for me.

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It's not oregano said:

When I saw how efficient led bulbs were cost wise I swapped every light I could in my house to led, from a mix of cfl and old style incandescent.
Even with running 129w of lights during a grow, my total electric bill has actually gone down from my non growing days.
Just weighed the last run dry and it came in at 3.5 ounces. Not great compared to others but good enough for me.

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