Looking to flower a 5 by 5 decently cheap.

R

Roshambizzle

Well-Known Member
Hey all thanks in advance. I'm looking to flower a 5 by 5 tent soon and looking at some QB options because my heat control is kinda crap i found a couple from a few sources here but i know nothing about diode/driver quality really so was just wondering if people could give me some tips. This is what I have came across so far was wondering if the price is worth the output. Not wanting to wait forever so prefer a Canadian or a non backed up US company.

https://www.growlights.ca/600-watt-fb288-lm301h-3000k-660nm-uv-ir-led-fusion-board-light.html

www.growlights.ca

600 Watt FB288 LM301H 3500k + 660nm + UV +IR LED Fusion Board Light DIY Kit

Complete Kit 600 Watt FB288 X6 LM301H 3500k + 660nm + UV +IR LED Light
www.growlights.ca www.growlights.ca

Or would a couple smaller ones most likely same diodes/drivers as they are from the same site work better/more efficient?

Edit: I'm also in my 6'6 basement so being able to be close to canopy is a must.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Roshambizzle said:
looking at some QB options because my heat control is kinda crap
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I would focus on the heat control first, LED lights do make a surprising amount of heat. That said, I dunno about that light, it might be great, it might not, I simply have no experience with it.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Any light like that you will want 14-18" above canopy.

I would go for multiple smaller units to cover a 5x5 better.

Not sure how thy compare price wise but you might want to look at BC Blondes game changers too since they are in Canada.

Renfro's right, sort your heat control out, 600w is 600w of heat.
 
NanoGadget

NanoGadget

Well-Known Member
coreywebster said:
Any light like that you will want 14-18" above canopy.

I would go for multiple smaller units to cover a 5x5 better.

Not sure how thy compare price wise but you might want to look at BC Blondes game changers too since they are in Canada.

Renfro's right, sort your heat control out, 600w is 600w of heat.
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I mostly agree with this, but with an HID a good portion of the heat is radiating from the bulb itself so by its nature the hottest component of the light needs to be in the tent or grow space. With QB style led a very large portion of the energy lost to heat is from the driver. Drivers can be wired to be outside the tent or grow space and this is were you can really can see a huge temperature difference between led and hid. Just my unsolicited 2 cents.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
NanoGadget said:
I mostly agree with this, but with an HID a good portion of the heat is radiating from the bulb itself so by its nature the hottest component of the light needs to be in the tent or grow space. With QB style led a very large portion of the energy lost to heat is from the driver. Drivers can be wired to be outside the tent or grow space and this is were you can really can see a huge temperature difference between led and hid. Just my unsolicited 2 cents.
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I do not disagree with you at all.
 
R

Roshambizzle

Well-Known Member
Well yea the heat from the wattage might be around the same-ish but QB are also way more efficient then LEDS are so you need less watts to cover an area do you not? I have like 600ish watts of LED in my 4 by 4 and it barley covers it so i'd think i would need a fair bit more then 600 watts for a 5 by 5 if it was being covered by LED. I have an AC i can run in the room but since its turning to winter i don't wanna mess with that til i see the temp change once its colder outside so i don't freeze us out upstairs.

BCblondes has like 2 premade lights and nothing else on it dunno what they are doing at the moment.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Yeah I haven't seen BC Blondes on here for ages now, used to post a lot.
Yeah more light for your space.
I don't like the close design of 6 boards or 4 boards on one plate/heatsink, its just not ideal coverage/spread. It will be especially noticeable in a 5x5 and also hot spots in the middle meaning higher hanging height.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
Without good ventilation and heat control your going to get issues, environment is the most important thing with indoor horticulture.
I use a 600/1100w in a 5x5 one my most important tools is a variac with a double relay, in the 5x5 I'm using a 6" rvk but it's only running around a quarter speed at maximum, its brilliant for the neighbours/visitors not hearing a 6" fan kicking during the night and I've now got control over the heat and humidity, I can maintain 77/80f +/- 1%? (I work in c) until the outside temp goes above 20c/66f, I could just turn up the speed instead I run the light through the night when it's cooler.

I've taken 3x taps of my variac + there's the variable, I've got its wired through a relay to switch between a pre set tap and the variable speed.
I've never had it so so stable, light out 50/54% 68/70f light on 25/26/77/78f 50/54% pretty much constant, were going into autumn no doubt I'll need to tinker with it I might need to select a slower pre set or/and slow down the variac variable.
For anyone not familiar with variacs they give you control over the fan speed with zero buzzing, buying a bigger fan then turning it down makes a huge difference with the fan/air noise.
If you have a sms controller you can run a variable supply from the variac so that it doesn't burst into full speed, that's not ideal with neighbours :-) or very covert.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
Without good ventilation and heat control your going to get issues, environment is the most important thing with indoor horticulture.
I use a 600/1100w in a 5x5 one my most important tools is a variac with a double relay, in the 5x5 I'm using a 6" rvk but it's only running around a quarter speed at maximum, its brilliant for the neighbours/visitors not hearing a 6" fan kicking during the night and I've now got control over the heat and humidity, I can maintain 77/80f +/- 1%? (I work in c) until the outside temp goes above 20c/66f, I could just turn up the speed instead I run the light through the night when it's cooler.

I've taken 3x taps of my variac + there's the variable, I've got its wired through a relay to switch between a pre set tap and the variable speed.
I've never had it so so stable, light out 50/54% 68/70f light on 25/26/77/78f 50/54% pretty much constant, were going into autumn no doubt I'll need to tinker with it I might need to select a slower pre set or/and slow down the variac variable.
For anyone not familiar with variacs they give you control over the fan speed with zero buzzing, buying a bigger fan then turning it down makes a huge difference with the fan/air noise.
If you have a sms controller you can run a variable supply from the variac so that it doesn't burst into full speed, that's not ideal with neighbours :-) or very covert.
Click to expand...
I own a few variacs, one of which is temp controlled but has pre set voltages and the one thing I don't like about it is the idol speed cant be lower than around 50% which in winter is not enough reduction.
My others are manual knob or switched, I like the full control.

I would like to see yours and a thread showing what you did with parts and instructions if you have the time,
 
R

Roshambizzle

Well-Known Member
Should have just left the heat part out.... I don't have issues right now. But if i use a LED for a 5 by 5 along with what i have once my heat kicks in i MIGHT have issues. I don't need temp control help this is purely about lights that will cover a 5 by 5 flowering and not give off much heat as i need it to be pretty close to canopy with full coverage of 5 by 5 why i'm looking at QB or bar lights. And i don't trust alibaba at all and with a 7 day lead thats a longer wait then i'm willing to wait i don't know how long on top of that it will take to get the stuff off there to Canada where I am at rather spend the extra and get it within a reasonable time of when i want it.
 
Gond00s

Gond00s

Well-Known Member
I have like half cree chips and half sammies around 5000 diodes in total and it’s just over kill. For a 5x5 atleast
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
coreywebster said:
I own a few variacs, one of which is temp controlled but has pre set voltages and the one thing I don't like about it is the idol speed cant be lower than around 50% which in winter is not enough reduction.
My others are manual knob or switched, I like the full control.

I would like to see yours and a thread showing what you did with parts and instructions if you have the time,
Click to expand...
Hi Corey I'm not disputing the 40% thing but I've run my fans for years now around 20/25% max, the idles taps are 18w 21w and 24w, by far the 18w tap is the most used, I'd need to measure it again but I think on variable/max speed just now is only 28/30w, I can't remember the exact figures for the fan but I can assure you it's only ticking over significantly less than 40% even in the height of summer.

I wouldn't know where to start with a wiring diagram,
If you're familiar with electrical it's relatively easy to do.
I can explain how I went about it, it's no difficult I've no electrical experience outside of a grow room.
Really all you need is a two stage relay, one that heats and cools, and a 4 gang rotary selector for 3 taps + off, the taps I've taken are wired through the cool side and the variables is wired to the heat side, so there's a 0.3c degree window when the fan isn't turning, anything outside of that 0.3c and it's on really slow or sped up cooling.
You can adjust the relay temps between 0.3c and 4/5c and some relays also have a time delay.
If I can help in any way just ask :thumbs:

I've misread the 40% thingy, sorry i thought you meant they should not be run below 40% :-)
 
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