Help with LED's.

I would like some more info before making the switch from HID. I want to cover a 6x10 ft area. Currently running 2k hps. My main question is, will 2- 200/300 actual watts of samsung lm301h diodes cover half of the room or will i need 3 lights per 1k? Thanks in advance.

or will 600 actual watts of diodes = a 1k hps worth of par ?

480W of lm301h diodes is what many growers use to cover a 4x4 area and a little under 600W for a 5x5 area. You want to aim for 30 watts per sqft. You'd be able to light that area up for a lot less money if you build your own lights. The Samsung F-Strips are pretty popular, too. I'm building my own lights based on recommendations I got in the following thread.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

480W of lm301h diodes is what many growers use to cover a 4x4 area and a little under 600W for a 5x5 area. You want to aim for 30 watts per sqft. You'd be able to light that area up for a lot less money if you build your own lights. The Samsung F-Strips are pretty popular, too. I'm building my own lights based on recommendations I got in the following thread.

Samsung F Strip Build

I built this unit yesterday and since I can't show it to anyone personally, I am going to show it off here instead. It was very helpful for me to look at other builds and there is a ton of information on this website so thanks everyone. Overall Dimensions 37" x 24" Strips - 6 x Samsung F-Series...

www.rollitup.org

Click to expand...

so i want 30 actual watts per sqft ? cool , thats easy enough. Although that does come up to 1800 watts for a 10x6.
Going by charts an nothing more, it seems i can only grow directly under the light to keep things optimal. is this true ?
Im sorry guys , im lazy on this one , i can only read so much about leds before losing my mind.
Maybe point me to a pre built one and i can homemake one cheaper? i just need the same par value as im getting now with hps. (or lux or whatever the right word is)
Thanks farmer!

I'm with you when it comes to information overload and that's why I posted the thread I did. I would post in that thread asking what they would recommend for your grow area. I basically took the original design of that thread, but went with 8 strips (instead of 6) and am making two 4 strip lights for my 4x4. They recommended drivers and heat sinks for me and I went from there and designed my lights in sketchup. Here's what I came up with for my design. Each light will draw about 240W.

i cant see how long each strip is ? 4ft ?so your thinking 8 strips total for a 4x4 ?

getogrow said:

i cant see how long each strip is ? 4ft ?

Click to expand...

Dammit, I missed a measurement! They are 22" strips so each light will be 22" x 32".

Will this cover what it says ? or will it cover a 5x6 ? thanks

getogrow said:

QUANTUM LED GROW LIGHT V3(rspec)600w+660nm w/Meanwell HLG-600h,SAMSUNG lm301H | eBay

The LM301H diode is the highest μmol/J of any Quantum LED to date. We also now only use the latest top bin and highest quality LM301H quantum LED's for all of our models. We have Samsung LM301B LEDs as well as the latest LM301H!

www.ebay.com

Will this cover what it says ? or will it cover a 5x6 ? thanks

Click to expand...

No, unfortunately its too compactly laid out, if they had spread those boards out better it would be good for 5x5.

Edit, it would cover a 5x5, but it would be real intense in the middle and a bit lacking round the edge. No way its lighting up 6x6 or replacing 2x 1000w se hps like they say.

He's just a middle man reselling Chinese lights I think.

coreywebster said:

No, unfortunately its too compactly laid out, if they had spread those boards out better it would be good for 5x5.

Edit, it would cover a 5x5, but it would be real intense in the middle and a bit lacking round the edge. No way its lighting up 6x6 or replacing 2x 1000w se hps like they say.

He's just a middle man reselling Chinese lights I think.

Click to expand...

so basically im better off getting a light to cover the whole 5x6 or 5x10 ? Going by the above design , i would build a 5x10 light but how many strips would i need? If the strips are 22" , will 20 of them be enough?

**22" strips x20**quick draw of what im thinking..... Thanks guys!

getogrow said:

so basically im better off getting a light to cover the whole 5x6 or 5x10 ? Going by the above design , i would build a 5x10 light but how many strips would i need? If the strips are 22" , will 20 of them be enough?

Click to expand...

Theres some good examples for 5x5 here, just go down the page, he has them listed by area. Might be cheaper ways to drive them now because his site is a bit out of date.

Might want to look for lumatek zeus pro, but I think they have to call themselves something else stateside


They are priced well. I know somebody said they will go by a different name over there due to someone having a similar brand name or something.

i cant find a price on anything with that name. i see the lights though an they look good.

If i do 30 watts per foot then we only save 200 watts total ? im missing something here. I see real world results with 600 watts easily replacing a 1k hid but going by specs on bulbs , it seems i need 1800 watts to replace 2000 in hid. If i cant save 30 or 40% on bills then where is the "efficiency" everyone claims?
My main problem is that i cannot find any solid ppfd numbers on an HID bulb. ive only found 2 images and they are both way off from each other. One shows super high numbers on the outter edge of a 4x4 and the other shows low numbers on outter edge.

Soooo, should i build a custom light to cover the 6x10 , using actual watts as my reference ? Example: 1200 watts of lm301h to replace 2k, so i just build it a certain wattage or should i use a certain number of diodes or should i use the 30 watts per sqft ? i am lost and thanks for your help guys.

if my math is right , this is a 4ft strip , coming in at about 144 watts ? Thanks !

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

480W of lm301h diodes is what many growers use to cover a 4x4 area and a little under 600W for a 5x5 area. You want to aim for 30 watts per sqft. You'd be able to light that area up for a lot less money if you build your own lights. The Samsung F-Strips are pretty popular, too. I'm building my own lights based on recommendations I got in the following thread.

Samsung F Strip Build

I built this unit yesterday and since I can't show it to anyone personally, I am going to show it off here instead. It was very helpful for me to look at other builds and there is a ton of information on this website so thanks everyone. Overall Dimensions 37" x 24" Strips - 6 x Samsung F-Series...

www.rollitup.org

Click to expand...

Although the watts per sq ft add up with those #s, I think saying 500-550w for a 4x4 and 650-700w for a 5x5 is a bit more accurate and realistic

this would be 10 of them 4ft strips at 1440 watts. i think ?

getogrow said:

View attachment 4542091
this would be 10 of them 4ft strips at 1440 watts. i think ?

Click to expand...

If you want to light that whole 6'x10' space, I would break your space into sections, and build a fixture for each of those sections. It is more practical and will make adjusting the lights easier.

If you want to use the 4 foot F series strips, you could divide your space into quadrants and build four fixtures each covering approximately a 3'x5' space. It's not perfect, but it will work.

Barristan Whitebeard said:

If you want to light that whole 6'x10' space, I would break your space into sections, and build a fixture for each of those sections. It is more practical and will make adjusting the lights easier.

If you want to use the 4 foot F series strips, you could divide your space into quadrants and build four fixtures each covering approximately a 3'x5' space. It's not perfect, but it will work.

Click to expand...

i think your way would be a better footprint too. thank you. I just want to use the best leds i can get to get a better spectrum then HID and hopefully save some money on electricty in the long run. I could care less who makes what diodes/drivers , I dont have the meters some of you led guys have, im just going by what seems the best.
The sole reason i was looking at strips was because of dimensions. I dont understand much of this stuff but going by the numbers on smaller pre-builts, it seems i will need diodes spread evenly across the whole footprint, thus leaving me completely lost on what to buy.
Any recommendations on pre built lights for a 6x10? 4 lights would be great but if i gotta do 6 or 8 i will.