Cheap led bulbs for small grow cab?

I'm putting together a little grow cabinet and wanted to know if there's any recommendations on any LED bulbs i could use?? inexpensive ones if possible. I I would go with CFLs but I've heard LEDs are way better. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

Do it

V22 cob $11 , driver maybe $50, PC heatsink and fan maybe $10 and an old wallwart from a drawer to drive the fan on the heatsink., will light a foot and a half diameter circle.

Do not buy a mars light or any of those inefficient Eepistar assemblies with their light robbing plastic lens caps. They belong back in the last decade.

Smokey_mc_pot said:

I'm putting together a little grow cabinet and wanted to know if there's any recommendations on any LED bulbs i could use?? inexpensive ones if possible. I I would go with CFLs but I've heard LEDs are way better. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

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If you REALLY must go that route, Home Depot sells 9W 800 lumen Lumitech led bulbs for like $1 on sale.
Get a lightbulb base-to-outlet plug adapter for each bulb you plan to use and plug them into a power strip.
Remove the diffusers from the bulb to achieve more lumens.
Cheap and easy, but you get what you pay for when it comes to lighting so I wouldn't expect much more than mediocre veg lights.

HydroRed said:

If you REALLY must go that route, Home Depot sells 9W 800 lumen Lumitech led bulbs for like $1 on sale.
Get a lightbulb base-to-outlet plug adapter for each bulb you plan to use and plug them into a power strip.
Remove the diffusers from the bulb to achieve more lumens.
Cheap and easy, but you get what you pay for when it comes to lighting so I wouldn't expect much more than mediocre veg lights.

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What flowering would you recommend using the same lights?

HydroRed said:

If you REALLY must go that route, Home Depot sells 9W 800 lumen Lumitech led bulbs for like $1 on sale.
Get a lightbulb base-to-outlet plug adapter for each bulb you plan to use and plug them into a power strip.
Remove the diffusers from the bulb to achieve more lumens.
Cheap and easy, but you get what you pay for when it comes to lighting so I wouldn't expect much more than mediocre veg lights.

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What size cab we talking about here?

HydroRed said:

What size cab we talking about here?

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3ft tall x 2.5 wide x 2 ft deep

Smokey_mc_pot said:

3ft tall x 2.5 wide x 2 ft deep

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You're probably gonna want more than led light bulbs in my opinion..
lets say you want to get 150W of light in there. You can put a 150W hps light in there which puts out roughly 16,000 lumens.
To get the same lumens in those led light bulbs as that hps light, you would need about 20 of them.
At 9W 800 lumens per bulb x 20 led bulbs = 180W for 16,000 lumens.
The hps seems a better choice to me since it will be the same lumens for 30W less power used to get it (and likely less money to put together). Plus you can get a 150W hps light from Home Depot for like $65 bulb included.
Im just assuming your keeping the budget at an absolute minimum. If you have a few more $$ we can talk about better options. How are you cooling the cab? Dont be fooled by the hype you hear about led's. They put off heat too and your cab will need exhaust for air exchange and cooling. Then theres the smell and how to get rid of it and so on.......
@whitebb2727 has an oak cab build that would likely be beneficial for you to check out. Hes got it laid out rather well.

Wal-Mart has their 100 watt replacement bulbs that draw about 14 watts and 1100 lumens. You can get 4 packs for 10-20 bucks depending on the year rating. They have 6500k and 2700k.

I would suggest getting a 200 watt diy citizen or Vero cob setup.

I have used the 14 watt ones. Remove the globes.


I started with t5 and it grows some great pot. Here is a link to my cab.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/oak-wardrobe-organic-grow.870933/

Home depot also has cree bulbs, 4 packs about $1 each. Cut them diffusers and grow! Be warned these things can burn your plants!!! Second thought, you may want to leave the diffusers on, maybe run a couple extra bulbs.

Cletus clem said:

Home depot also has cree bulbs, 4 packs about $1 each. Cut them diffusers and grow! Be warned these things can burn your plants!!! Second thought, you may want to leave the diffusers on, maybe run a couple extra bulbs.

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How sure are you? And also I'm mainly worried about flowering I'm only vegging for a couple of weeks considering my box is small. Its a 3 ft tall x 2 ft wide x 1ft deep just measured it

I think im going to piggyback this idea to make some supplimental light bars for the edges of my flower room... i dont need a horsepower light thats already going im looking for a boost as it fades off, i think those incadencent replacement LEDS b great for what im looking for

How sure am i of what?

That's cool Cletus Clem, very ingenious man.

Been done many times before me! Excellent thread on ic mag showing the differences at varying heights between cfls, and led bulbs both with and without the diffuser. I cant imagine any cfl user not switching to these after reading that thread. Granted it is a lux meter so not the full story but the difference in output/watts leaves alot of wiggle room. Removing the diffusers is huge. The price for that though is they will burn your plants at distances of just 12”. Some strains seem to tolerate it better than others. Its a low and slow thing. By the time you notice, youve done some damage.

HLG add more as you can

https://growerslights.com/collections/horticulture-lighting-group/products/horticulture-lighting-group-65-watt-quantum-board-led-kit

Cletus clem said:

Been done many times before me! Excellent thread on ic mag showing the differences at varying heights between cfls, and led bulbs both with and without the diffuser. I cant imagine any cfl user not switching to these after reading that thread. Granted it is a lux meter so not the full story but the difference in output/watts leaves alot of wiggle room. Removing the diffusers is huge. The price for that though is they will burn your plants at distances of just 12”. Some strains seem to tolerate it better than others. Its a low and slow thing. By the time you notice, youve done some damage.

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How much did those set you back? Home depot here had nothing like that so i went all the way to china for cobs to switch from cfl growing

Cannadab1s said:

How much did those set you back? Home depot here had nothing like that so i went all the way to china for cobs to switch from cfl growing

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$60. Its a diy build. Cree 4 packs of bulbs, $5. The boxes are outdoor flood light socket and junction boxes mounted to 1/4” polycarbonate with 1” aluminum c channel rails for rigidity and mounting.

Cletus clem said:

$60. Its a diy build. Cree 4 packs of bulbs, $5. The boxes are outdoor flood light socket and junction boxes mounted to 1/4” polycarbonate with 1” aluminum c channel rails for rigidity and mounting.

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Damn, i need your home depot. Haha. Nice looking plants

Cannadab1s said:

Damn, i need your home depot. Haha. Nice looking plants

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Yours should have all of that. If not you can order them online.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-SA19-08127MDFD-12DE26-1-14/206943220
I used a ratio of 6:4 5000°k/2700°k
2 of these:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/BELL-5-Outlets-1-2-in-Threaded-Round-Weatherproof-Box-White-5361-1B/204208042
And a square one. These will be in electrical most likely, not lighting. In that same area is adjustable sockets that fit into these. The polycarb and aluminum channel arnt needed. You could skip the pc and just mount them to the aluminum or just hang them as modular 4 bulb clusters. The aluminum is in the hardware isle. Probably a little nook in the middle with all the other lengths steel and aluminum. All of these things are at your home depot. They are very common components.
4 pack of bulbs x 3= $14
5 hole junction box x 2=$10
Power cord=$9 or scab from some other broken piece of shit laying arpund
Aluminum channel 1”x48”=$9
Adjustable flood light sockets x 10=$25
Just add wire nuts and patience. Sockets are already wired. All the blacks together, all the whites together, match that to your power cord. To cut the diffusers i mark just behind the apex all the way around. drill a 1/2” hole athe top of the bulb, diffuser facing down so as not to get debris on the diodes and then use this hole as an access point for a pair of tin snips or heavy duty scissors. You have a nice line so hack away! You can clean it up after the bulk of it is out of the way. Trust me, this is far easier then using a hack saw. Cleaner too. The plastic is pretty easy to cut. If you want, you can line the inside of whats left with some foil tape. Not the best thing but better then leaving it to piss photons out the sides. Shoot them suckers at your plants! A high temp flat white paint that would stick would be better i just had little desire to source it, figure out if itll actually work yadda yadda. Foil tape kicks ass. $8 a roll, done. I always have a roll kicking around. Congratulations. You just built yourself a ghetto blaster photon cannon. Ultimately, the quantum board kit is a better option. Ill switch over to that or something like it some day. Theres also the rapidled rooter kit. 20 cree xml2 on a 4’ heat sink. Could easily be cut into 2, 2’ 10 diode bars. 45 watts, $120. My setup is cheaper and outperforms it. Nice kit though, a highly considered option at one point.