Build/design assistance

loco41 said:

That's what was hanging me up on grabbing some of the 2700k ones I got. Wasn't sure if the large dip in efficiency made it a worthwhile venture, but in the end I figured that running each strip around/under 10 watts per would still give some benefit, albeit not very efficiently, to the whole red spectrum up to the 730 region that the f/h series 4k 80 cri's seem to be missing. So $36 for the 20 of the 2700k strips shipped to me seemed worth a try. Again, still not sure if it was really worth it in the long run, but will try and test some things out on some random plants here relatively soon.

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Just to give you perspective ... Any run of the mill a19 bulb does 100lumens a watt.


8watts 800lumens, standard a19 bulb. Seems a waste of time and money to order strips, drivers, wiring, build a frame. All to do what a $2 led bulb from home depot will. Just snap the diffuser off and its a led board, i still use them for my clones.

Just a thought. How far away from the plants the side lights will be will determine how hard or soft to run them.
As an example 5 x 2ft - 600mm strips on a light fixture measuring 1m x 600mm - 3ft 3" x 2ft running at 260 watts at 18" - 450mm away gives 600 par reading at the centre. When dimmed to 175 watts at 18" par reading is 400.
I've been running 2 x F strips as side lighting a couple of months now at ~700mA ~25 watts per strip around 6" away from side of plants, I'll take a par reading when the lights come on later but I think it's around 600.
I bought 15 of the arrow F strips for side lighting experiments but my plants grow close to the side walls so I'll need to run them soft or it'll fry the plants I think......

Moflow said:

Just a thought. How far away from the plants the side lights will be will determine how hard or soft to run them.
As an example 5 x 2ft - 600mm strips on a light fixture measuring 1m x 600mm - 3ft 3" x 2ft running at 260 watts at 18" - 450mm away gives 600 par reading at the centre. When dimmed to 175 watts at 18" par reading is 400.
I've been running 2 x F strips as side lighting a couple of months now at ~700mA ~25 watts per strip around 6" away from side of plants, I'll take a par reading when the lights come on later but I think it's around 600.
I bought 15 of the arrow F strips for side lighting experiments but my plants grow close to the side walls so I'll need to run them soft or it'll fry the plants I think......

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I have thought about it but I’m still not sure after doing some reading. I have a high ceiling and run a DE fixture. Ideally I would like to keep them as far away as possible and still be effective. I do see another possibility of running the 9 strips at 900ish mA. 9 at 1.2, 6 at 1.2 or run either configuration harder at like the 1.8 max. Ballpark, 30-36” I would like at the start which seems doable from what I have read, if I keep the wattage up. I can get closer later. Just saw you mentioned side light, I plan on running these bars right over the plant sites to replace my one 600w hid and add the K the mh does currently, previously I was going with 2 315 cmh setups.

I’m starting to wonder if my idea is even feasible, if I don’t move my HID which I don’t plan on doing, my leds would need to be either side mounted and angled or hang around 4 feet while the plants grow. Or I just use them in flower with the hps. Looks like they will have to be strong anyways.

Other idea is put them on the shelf and find more strips in the 3k under over and just build a fixture over winter to replace a 1kde. I’m not finding convincing info that adding in 600w of 4K led and removing a 600w hid will be worth it. The 1k hps is the coverage light. Maybe I’m overthinking it or am just too high to think about it

Check this bad pic out, I’m in process of ripping fans out, changing the funhouse mirror walls. Red lines are 9ft from ground and would be about 7.5 feet to a seedling in a basket.

Digging around reading, can anyone tell me if the big difference in the cheaper SE series drivers is efficiently and dimming, not a sealed case? How would one wire a potentiometer, would I require a inline resistor for protection if a strip fails. I’m looking at the SE series because of the 1000w option, not worried too much about the actual heat as it’s remote anyways. Can anyone point me to some info on the SE power supplies, everything I’m finding is on a a or b hlg or such drivers. I remember seeing info on wiring them into the circuit but can’t find it to see if it could apply in my situation. Making a list for materials and I would like to do 30 amps with 2 drivers, 20 over head and 10 for side lighting @ 48v

Will add the nes and rsp ones too, can’t find info of why these are not commonly used, other then efficiency.