Quick Impulse LED Buy.. Help!

bryleetch · Dec 15, 2014

Title says it all, I've been toying with the idea for a while now but I think I'm finally going for it. I just want to hear some expert opinions real quick... I grow in a 2.5 ft tall cab that is 1.5 ft x 1 ft, very tiny so I'm thinking like a 135 watt ufo that draws only 90 would do the trick. Like such...
http://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-trade-Light-Flower-Spectrum/dp/B00INM0BPG/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_1
Or would even 75 w ufo suffice?
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Hortic..._sbs_lg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0T3K5RQWC9RTSHV4Z2FN
Or... I'm tempted to go big with this cob even though I really would like to keep it under $80
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticulture-Purple-Sun-Spectrum/dp/B00I15WGWQ/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_5

If there are other ones I may have missed that are better quality please help a brother out. I appreciate any and all help LED gurus!

bryleetch · Dec 15, 2014

I also expect to still need to supplement with CFLs but am kinda curious how much led would be enough to get away without needing supplementation in my small area

az2000 · Dec 15, 2014

bryleetch said:
I grow in a 2.5 ft tall cab that is 1.5 ft x 1 ft,

You need 25-30w per sq. ft of high-quality LED. Or, 40-45w sq. ft of low-quality (Chinese import lights you're looking at). Because of the limited height of your space, you'd do better with more sources of light around the top of your plant, not one single source directly over head. One of those UFOs would be too much light and would consume a lot of your vertical height. 2-3" for the fixture, 3-4" space above it for ventilation, 6" below for distance to canopy. Now you have 1.5' of vertical height for your plant.

If I were you I would go with the Cree LED "lightbulbs" sold at Home Depot. (<<link) Put one in each top corner of your cabinet. The 75w equiv bulbs are 12w each. Four would be 48w. That would be about the right w/sq. ft. for these lights. In veg run 2700k and 4000k in 1:1 ratio. Run just two 12w bulbs in veg, or maybe four 6w (40w) equiv bulbs if you want better coverage. In flower, run four 12w in a 3:1 ratio (warm:cool).

There are bulbs on AliExpress using SMD5730 chips (<<link) that are supposed to be good too, about $2-3 each with free shipping.

You definitely don't want to do the Purple Sun in your space. That's way too much. You don't have enough vertical space for that. Softer, more diffuse sources of light would be better for your space, side-lighting instead of direct top-light to give you more vertical space.

For you, the GU10 base would conserve some space too. The mounting hardware wouldn't take up as much room. I wrote something about this at the end of this article. (<<link). If you wanted to stay with normal screw-in sockets, this style socket (<<link) could be flush mounted inside your cab to minimize how much space the mounting stuff consumes. Use the short gooseneck extender shown in the previous link. You can also mount the sockets on the floor and use goosneck extenders to get the light up to the top and curved down.

bryleetch · Dec 15, 2014

az2000 said:
You need 25-30w per sq. ft of high-quality LED. Or, 40-45w sq. ft of low-quality (Chinese import lights you're looking at). Because of the limited height of your space, you'd do better with more sources of light around the top of your plant, not one single source directly over head. One of those UFOs would be too much light and would consume a lot of your vertical height. 2-3" for the fixture, 3-4" space above it for ventilation, 6" below for distance to canopy. Now you have 1.5' of vertical height for your plant.

If I were you I would go with the Cree LED "lightbulbs" sold at Home Depot. (<<link) Put one in each top corner of your cabinet. The 75w equiv bulbs are 12w each. Four would be 48w. That would be about the right w/sq. ft. for these lights. In veg run 2700k and 4000k in 1:1 ratio. Run just two 12w bulbs in veg, or maybe four 6w (40w) equiv bulbs if you want better coverage. In flower, run four 12w in a 3:1 ratio (warm:cool).

There are bulbs on AliExpress using SMD5730 chips (<<link) that are supposed to be good too, about $2-3 each with free shipping.

You definitely don't want to do the Purple Sun in your space. That's way too much. You don't have enough vertical space for that. Softer, more diffuse sources of light would be better for your space, side-lighting instead of direct top-light to give you more vertical space.

For you, the GU10 base would conserve some space too. The mounting hardware wouldn't take up as much room. I wrote something about this at the end of this article. (<<link). If you wanted to stay with normal screw-in sockets, this style socket (<<link) could be flush mounted inside your cab to minimize how much space the mounting stuff consumes. Use the short gooseneck extender shown in the previous link. You can also mount the sockets on the floor and use goosneck extenders to get the light up to the top and curved down.

The height issue was what I was kind of worried about so that's kind of a bummer. Those bulbs with chips look pretty sweet tho, going to have to look into those a little more... Can't believe how cheap they are.

I've been looking into the Crees too since they'd easily replace the CFLs but I was interested in having a quality led fixture that would suffice for the cab and then I could switch the CFL fixture out to another spot. Plus it'd be nice to already have one for when I can grow in a little bigger area but oh well I guess it's just not meant to be quite yet.

Thanks a bunch tho, you just saved me from wasting a bunch of my pretty pennys

Bad Karma · Dec 15, 2014

Get a Hans Panel, aka Bonsai Hero.

AquariusPanta · Dec 15, 2014

az2000 said:
For you, the GU10 base would conserve some space too. The mounting hardware wouldn't take up as much room. I wrote something about this at the end of this article. (<<link). If you wanted to stay with normal screw-in sockets, this style socket (<<link) could be flush mounted inside your cab to minimize how much space the mounting stuff consumes. Use the short gooseneck extender shown in the previous link. You can also mount the sockets on the floor and use goosneck extenders to get the light up to the top and curved down.

Damn. I remember going through that article right at the onset of my discovery of RIU. I was really considering the screw bulbs (LED) but somehow got caught up in the mix of DIY COBS.

Abiqua · Dec 15, 2014

If you going to buy those lights, at least just go to Ali first and search. Could spend about half, to start.....same lights can be found, maybe even with better doo-dads attached too....

bryleetch · Dec 16, 2014

Thanks for the help guys. Think I'm going to hold off and do a lot more research and considering, instead of just buying any random light.

I was in Target today and they had the cree bulbs but I just couldn't pull the trigger. Just not sold on those yet and I need to better weigh my options, I'll be back when I have a better idea of what I'll be upgrading to.
:peace:

bryleetch · Dec 16, 2014

I couldn't hold off for long lol, I already have a much better idea of what to go for. I found the corn leds are the best bang for my buck but the crees from home depot might be a more reliable option. Only proper way to decide is with a pro/con list....

My Two New Options:
#1. 2 10W 6500K Corn LED + 2 12W 3000K Corn LED
These are supposed to put out 100 lm per watt so that would give me 4400 lm to replace about 7000 lm of 95w of CFL. 2 42w CFLs would still accompany these 4.
Pros
- Mixed Spectrum
- Lower Canopy Temp
- Most efficient option
- Get to try something new
Cons
- Omnidirectional design might result in majority of the light being wasted since my reflector is crap
- Unreliable, they could suck... haven't been able to find any grow journals to base off of
- Have to order online

#2 4 9.5W 2700K Cree LED
These will give me less than half as many lumens that I have now but almost for a third of the wattage. Also + 2 42w CFL
Pros
- Easy to get
- Also lower temps
- More reliable, I've seen what these can do
Cons
- Still could have a lot of wasted light
- More expensive
- All the same spectrum
- Might not be strong enough as central lighting

The corns seem like the go to option, plus I kinda really want to experiment with them now that I know about them. They're cheaper and put out more light. Should I go for the buy or go back to the drawing board?

Quick Impulse LED Buy.. Help!

bryleetch

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bryleetch

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az2000

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bryleetch

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Bad Karma

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AquariusPanta

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Abiqua

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bryleetch

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bryleetch

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