Cheap LED Grow Light Reccomendations
- Thread starter metalmaniac253
- Start date
Quitekeen
Active Member
not to this thread or forum
wyteberrywidow
Global
Yeah then led would be perfect for your situation bro. Go for it. Everyone's situation is different I understand that but clearly as you can see I'm not saying go get a hps and this and that I'm just saying what I would do. No disrespect to those who use LEDs.
wyteberrywidow
Global
Dude seriously play nice or don't play simple.. I don't know what your problem is. We are in the indoor growing section. I'm just stating my exp indoors with hps lights. You seriously do not have to post if you feel it's irrelevant. There are plenty of led threads out.
wyteberrywidow
Global
Nice choice there.. I've seen people do alot in small spaces.. I look forward to seeing your grow.
clobbersaurus
Well-Known Member
Thanks again, bruv. I will see what I can find about knna on these intrawebs.
johnawares
Member
For LED grow lights, the size, light beam angle, and lumens are not very important. The most important thing to consider is the wavelength of the lights. For growing plants you want to use a combination of red and blue lights. Red lights should have a frequency of around 625 nanometers and blue should be around 465nm. It also depends on the type of plants you want to grow. There are some best and reliable online stores offers good quality led grow lights at cheap prices, I would suggest you to go with them.
Spuzzum
Well-Known Member
For starters.. beam angle.. a 90° diode doesn't mix as easily as a 120° or 140°, especially if working with 5 or more wavelengths. It just creates colour spotbeams.
And as for lumens.. if one 630nm red has 30lm more than another 630nm red.. which do you think is stronger and more efficient? My guess would be the diode with 30lm more of that 630nm red wavelength. It's a monochromatic light source.. it's not like a HID where it's a combined lumen amount from "all" wavelengths within the HID's spectrum. And getting back to viewing angles.. "if" you planned on lenses or reflectors, starting with a 140° or 120° angle will be much more concentrated than a 90° stock angle diode, thus outputting more lumens of that 630nm red.
vilify
Well-Known Member
didnt read all the posts.
just bought 2 of these. was very happy with the first 2 older HTG led's i bought over a year ago.
http://htgsupply.com/Product-7-Band-240w-LED-Grow-Light.asp
there are the 135w lights as well, for cheaper, if it better fits your budget/grow style.
pulled on oz off 1 plant with my old 90w HTG LED, so we will see how these perform.
just bought 2 of these. was very happy with the first 2 older HTG led's i bought over a year ago.
http://htgsupply.com/Product-7-Band-240w-LED-Grow-Light.asp
there are the 135w lights as well, for cheaper, if it better fits your budget/grow style.
pulled on oz off 1 plant with my old 90w HTG LED, so we will see how these perform.
serioussquirrel
Member
I have owned a few led systems over the years and I find that you get what you pay for. The lower wattage systems made my plants stretch like a mofo. The higher the individual LED wattage, the better the penetration. After a ton of research and comparisons I purchased the 'Top Shelf Series 600mx' which I highly recommend. Its the cheapest for its power-class but may be more than necessary for some @ $950 a pop. http://secondsunlab.com/products
VERY good post, for sure.
But what's the difference between the links you recommended and this link at Alibaba.
http://gehlled.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-219025598-2/Noah_Series_LED_Grow_Light.html?isGallery=Y
hyroot
Well-Known Member
the ones you are using are around 160 watts , 80x3 in theory is 240 watts, but no leds are driven to capacity except apache's. yours are made by cidly. depending on the color diode. they run at 1.6-2.4 watts. so a rough average of 1.8watts x 80 leds .....
serioussquirrel
Member
Ah good point. As far as I can tell only the minimum order quantity and warranty details. Still less markup than the big name dealers.
LedGrowNewer
New Member
biostudent
Well-Known Member
Sorry for reviving an old thread but have some info that might be helpful.
I built my own led panels for cheap. They are just as effective as commercially sold ones, maybe a bit less efficient, but cost 10x less.
Firstly, the internal components of the assembly are dirt cheap. Do some research on how to assemble these cheap components and you will find in the end that you have a system almost as good as a store bought LED panel.
This is how I started off:
54W 6500K LED. $2.90
54W constant current driver. $8
CPU heat sink with fan: $12
Housing built from scrap metal that probably doesn't even cost $2.
That's $25 for a 54W fixture. Commercial sellers have prices ranging from $1-3/Watt; this is 4x less.
All items purchased from alibaba, eBay, Aliexpress.
Next system I'm building now is like this:
500W constant current driver. $110
10x 54W 6500K LED chips. $29
Aluminum panel with 4 CPU heat sinks and 2x fans on each end (1 inflow, 1 outflow). ~$60.
Total cost: $199, for ~500W system. If I wanted, I could've also used blue red combos (these chips cost like $1 more).
You wont find a 500W LED system on the market that costs less than $500. I built mine for less than half that price, tailored to my needs.
My next system that I'm still planning removes the entire conventional cooling system of heat sinks and fans. Instead, cooling is provided by chemical reactions (i.e. sublimation of dry ice). Still working on the idea.
I built my own led panels for cheap. They are just as effective as commercially sold ones, maybe a bit less efficient, but cost 10x less.
Firstly, the internal components of the assembly are dirt cheap. Do some research on how to assemble these cheap components and you will find in the end that you have a system almost as good as a store bought LED panel.
This is how I started off:
54W 6500K LED. $2.90
54W constant current driver. $8
CPU heat sink with fan: $12
Housing built from scrap metal that probably doesn't even cost $2.
That's $25 for a 54W fixture. Commercial sellers have prices ranging from $1-3/Watt; this is 4x less.
All items purchased from alibaba, eBay, Aliexpress.
Next system I'm building now is like this:
500W constant current driver. $110
10x 54W 6500K LED chips. $29
Aluminum panel with 4 CPU heat sinks and 2x fans on each end (1 inflow, 1 outflow). ~$60.
Total cost: $199, for ~500W system. If I wanted, I could've also used blue red combos (these chips cost like $1 more).
You wont find a 500W LED system on the market that costs less than $500. I built mine for less than half that price, tailored to my needs.
My next system that I'm still planning removes the entire conventional cooling system of heat sinks and fans. Instead, cooling is provided by chemical reactions (i.e. sublimation of dry ice). Still working on the idea.
Abiqua
Well-Known Member
biostudent
you could delve into top of the line Cree CXA cobs with good quality drivers [Meanwell] and nearly double your quantum efficiency watt for watt @500 watts for about 15-20% more than your original cost.
You could also build yourself a near 400w fixture out of Crees which will still be more efficient than 500w's of your currently mentioned cobs for less than $500.
biostudent
Well-Known Member
^^ Cree cobs are more expensive as far as I've seen, much more than 15-20%. If not, can you share some insight anyway?
Abiqua
Well-Known Member
@biostudent
https://parts.arrow.com/item/search/#st=cree cxa3070;reMzFE
The bin I prefer AB3500k is $36 and @1.4amps it is producing about 52 watts over 42% efficient. About 130+ lumens/watt.
One module can be built like this:
1x Your Choice of Cree $31-46
1x Arctic 11_ Alpine Cpu Cooler 92mm $10
1x Meanwell LPC 60-1400 $20
Those are the big items for 1 module.
Then you add things like
7 modules added together would be about 365 watts and just a little less than $500, while putting about 50k lumens.
I hate using lumens, but with all the info that Cree puts out the efficiency, output and spectrum are now mysteries. They might put out double to triple the amount of light, then your generic LED's.
Not trying to be down on your shit, but it is no contest, especially if we are considering price first
https://parts.arrow.com/item/search/#st=cree cxa3070;reMzFE
The bin I prefer AB3500k is $36 and @1.4amps it is producing about 52 watts over 42% efficient. About 130+ lumens/watt.
One module can be built like this:
1x Your Choice of Cree $31-46
1x Arctic 11_ Alpine Cpu Cooler 92mm $10
1x Meanwell LPC 60-1400 $20
Those are the big items for 1 module.
Then you add things like
- non soldering wiring harness [$2] -
- Prolimatech [$10] - Wago Connectors [$3-5]
- Self tap and drill w/6mm screws [$3]
- 12vDC 2a Fan Power Supply [will power 5 cpu fans or so at once] [$7]
7 modules added together would be about 365 watts and just a little less than $500, while putting about 50k lumens.
I hate using lumens, but with all the info that Cree puts out the efficiency, output and spectrum are now mysteries. They might put out double to triple the amount of light, then your generic LED's.
Not trying to be down on your shit, but it is no contest, especially if we are considering price first