New LEDs: are they for growing?

Greetings all, I recently went on a hunting trip and most of the guys there had their trucks and atvs outfitted with LED light bars instead of headlights. These lights were the brightest lights I had ever seen on a vehicle, so I did a little research and what I found was this

http://www.plashlights.com/200W-LED-Flood-Light-detail.htm?productId=-86894&browse=-10423&shopBy=-6125&catalogId=-1774

Does this look suitable for growing/flowering? This one is 2700k in color temp. They have others that are 6000k would these work for veg?
I have seen these lights in action only as lighting upgrades to hunting vehicles but they are sooo bright!

I know that there will be those that say "no, they won't work because their not made for not made for growing", and to them I say "fine, tell me why" please do if you have that info. I've looked around and all I can find on this subject is on little 9watt Cree- stripped bulbs, not bashing the technique or the poster, just saying that it's not quite the same. I mean you could practically land a plane with those fucking things

Brightness doesn't mean a lot, and you can get them much cheaper than that (or even this): http://www.ebay.com/bhp/led-flood-light-200w probably ok for veg, mine were 3000k, but they didn't flower very well. You could get something that does both (or either) well for half the wasted energy and probably cheaper.. but yes, for veg they should 'work'.

The reasons why this is a poor choice will become clearer after a few hours browsing here.

Thank you for your response, I have looked over the Internet and either I'm looking in the wrong place or I'm too stupid to find it. Haha all Ive been able to find is either the par 38 led equivalent or that cree cross over, which was successful according to captain Morgan. But no lights that have sugh a high output

What do you think? What do you grow with? I know that LEDs aren't about lumens because that has to do with visable light but doesn't it stand to reason that 9000 lumens of 2700k of cfl is at least the same as 9000 lumens of 2700k led?

CM is my hero : ) but I think he's moved on from these? My thoughts were that I would use them elsewhere after the first run, I did, in the shed, they have both blown before lasting long enough for what would have been a second run.

I'd stick with a dedicated grow light for similar money: http://a51led.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=181 Bulbs do seem to be an ok way to veg on the cheap, only tried the e27ufo (12x 3w).. they blew too..

The pictures they do have on that listing are tiny, and the leds are covered by their watermark. (stupid..)

They say they are bridgelux, but the one cob I can see through the watermark censor bar is square. Epistar makes square multichips. They look like epistars.

Why can't they provide better pictures for such an expensive product?

It sounds like they're flat out buying generic prebuilt fixtures with epistar 50 die multichips and reselling them with their name on it. Does bridgelux have a square egg model now, or are they liars?

churchhaze said:

The pictures they do have on that listing are tiny, and the leds are covered by their watermark. (stupid..)

They say they are bridgelux, but the one cob I can see through the watermark censor bar is square. Epistar makes square multichips. They look like epistars.

Why can't they provide better pictures for such an expensive product?

It sounds like they're flat out buying generic prebuilt fixtures with epistar 50 die multichips and reselling them with their name on it. Does bridgelux have a square egg model now, or are they liars?

Click to expand...

No, I believe epistar licenses the dies from bridgelux, then everyone gets to call them that, though in reality it is bullshit....since bridgelux is nowhere involved in the actual manufacturing.....

"Instant on/off", not sure that's right, they will flicker for a long time before instant, everlasting- off

The heatsink couldn't be anywhere near big enough in any of these for the power used? even if they didn't seal the driver in to warm things up. You can remove the driver and play around... if that, you might as well build something much better: https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-led-cree-cxa3070.789575/

I'd actually suggest trying 10/20w floodlights for continuous use vapes (if you just Had to go this way). 4wd light bars (12v) are exposed to cooling but you'll have no air moving over grow lights.

Hello Vapes. You are correct, the fact that it is not a growing LED does not have to matter. In this case they claim 85lm/W but they also state 2700K or 7000K. The 7000K might be able to reach 85lm/W but I doubt their 2700K could. That said, 85lm/W is not very good for a cool white, 140-150 would be a fair target for a real bridgelux. I also suspect they are dissipating nowhere near 200W, which means the lamp is a lot more expensive than it appears to be. And finally, every generic lamp loves to claim they are bridgelux but that works out to BS as Abiqua mentioned.

Anyway, if what you saw on the trucks and ATV impressed you, I can vouch that the "real deal" can be twice as bright using the same power dissipation and likely costing less as well. Eventually, commercial LED lamps will catch up, but for now you have to either DIY or go with a lamp that uses the real deal parts in their builds (A51, Onyx, Apache and hopefully soon to be tested Optic)

Thank you all for your responses. supra, I think you really nailed it! They also have some work lights that are CREE at 6000k that I was looking at but I think that I'll probably shelf this idea. Interesting to me but not feasible I suppose. Just for my future knowledge, can any of you by chance explain if 1000 lumens of 2700k CFL is equal to 1000 lumens 2700k LED? Also why/why not, if you can swing it!

Yes if they are the same color temp and lumens, they are equal in terms of output, but not in terms of heat. Fluoro is about 20% efficient, generic commercial LED is 15-20%, commercial LED is 30-32% and DiY can be 35-60%. So if each one was creating 1000 lumens, the higher the efficiency, the lower the heat.

Also, LED emits it output in a cone shape whereas fluoro emits in a globe, so it is much easier to get LED photons into the canopy where we want them. That means 1000 lumens of LED can grow a lot more bud than 1000 fluoro lumens

SupraSPL said:

Yes if they are the same color temp and lumens, they are equal in terms of output, but not in terms of heat. Fluoro is about 20% efficient, generic commercial LED is 15-20%, commercial LED is 30-32% and DiY can be 35-60%. So if each one was creating 1000 lumens, the higher the efficiency, the lower the heat.

Also, LED emits it output in a cone shape whereas fluoro emits in a globe, so it is much easier to get LED photons into the canopy where we want them. That means 1000 lumens of LED can grow a lot more bud than 1000 fluoro lumens

Click to expand...

So true... There's also much better lumen maintenance over time which certainly makes LED more attractive to me..

Thank you supra! +rep been looking for a straight answer on that for along time. How hard is it to build a good grow light? Like could I stumble through one of the how to guides on here or YouTube? Or is that best left to the professionals?

On a sidebar, supra, just saw your status msg. Congratulations on your new marriage, and I wish you both the best of luck! I truly hope yall have as much fun as I have since I've been married.

Totally depends on your attitude/aptitude. But basically if you can hook up a home stereo and you have a healthy respect for electricity, its well within your grasp.

Count yourself lucky if you decide to diy, you couldnt have access to a more useful resource than this forum right here.

vapesCHRONICally said:

Thank you supra! +rep been looking for a straight answer on that for along time. How hard is it to build a good grow light? Like could I stumble through one of the how to guides on here or YouTube? Or is that best left to the professionals?

Click to expand...

Thnx vapes, I was cut out for marriage, much happier life Here's to hoping, for those who have not found the right team mate(s) yet

Nogod nailed it, if there is a will there is a way, and DIY is getting more accessible all the time. Unfortunately there is a not a real concise comprehensive DIY guide that I can point you to. And if we had written one up, it would be outdated already because we are still learning a lot everyday

Here are a few example designs for flowering lamps:

~41% efficient lamp, 51W ea.
Vero 29 3000K
Arctic Alpine 11 heatsink/fan
1.4A driver (I have not tested these yet but they ship from US and look decent)
9V fan adapter OEM quality (these are all over eBay and each one can power several fans. You could use 7.5V or even 5V.

If you prefer multiple COBs on each heatsink
Vero 29 3000K
HeatsinkUSA 5.88" (12" length with 140mm fan is good for 2 COBS or ~105W)
HeatsinkUSA 4.23" (19" is good for 105W)
HeatsinkUSA 3.5" (25" is good for 105W)
1.4A driver
9V fan adapter OEM quality

If you can find a more powerful driver for a decent price, you can run the Vero29 much harder, 2.1 - 2.4 - 2.8A? That approach can reduce up front cost. At 2.8A it is still 35.7% efficient. I am working on tracking down some drivers with this in mind.

If you prefer a very high level of efficiency, the CXA3070 3000K AB bin is a great choice, although currently hard to come by in large numbers. At 1.4A they are 43.3% efficient, at 1.05 they are 46.7% and at 700mA they are 50.4%.