Ya lost me on that one. I can build a computer just fine (on a custom build now) but when it comes to building/wiring anything else, you have to explain it to me like Im a 3 month old chimp.
No problem. These "LED chips" are
basically just a bunch of LED diodes wired up in series. 100W chips have one hundred, 1Watt diodes in a 10 x 10 square. They have a negative terminal and a positive terminal. The LED driver has two input wires (alternating current from your wall, so neither wire has polarity) which you hook up to, say, and extension cord so you can plug it into a wall. The two output wires are either Red (+) or Black (-) which you then solder to the corresponding tab on the chip. It's as easy as that.
The size of the dies (45 or 35mil) determines the quality of the chip. The larger dies produce more light per Watt which is why they are almost twice the cost.
I said I wanted mostly a Warm White spectrum and then started talking about Blue diodes. That's my bad. White LED's can be made using Blue diodes that have a phosphor lens over them. The phosphor is excited by the Blue light as it passes through it and then emits White light. These Warm White LED's will have a primary peak in the Amber/Red spectrum (depending on the phosphor blend that is used) and a secondary peak at the wavelength of the Blue diode that was used (some of the Blue passes through the lens). When I say "peak," I just mean it produces high amounts of light at those two specific wavelengths (think of the vertex of an upside down parabola, or the top of a bell-shaped curve). Because plants would like a variety of colors to pick and choose from I asked the manufacturer to use two different wavelengths of Blue. This slightly stretches the spectral distribution peaks of the chip which makes it more photosynthetically friendly.
I also dont feel as if 3-4 of those 100w boards would be enough? Would I hang 2 on top and put 2 on the sides or put all 4 up top or..?
3-4 of these would be 300-400Watts! That sounds like plenty of light to me for your friend's grow space. As for placement, the heat sinks will be rather large. You could technically make a couple as side-lighting, that's your prerogative, however this does have its own design obstacles to overcome. Personally, I would make them all with the intention of hanging them directly over the canopy. Also, given we're hypothetically using White LED's we should be able to keep the chips pretty close to our canopy w/o too much (maybe any) stress on the plants. This allows for a very customizable coverage over the canopy. Think of these as 100W flash lights that you can point at specific buds sites, or bud site clusters. Don't be fooled, though, they should have pretty good coverage also. I believe the ones I'm looking at have a 120 degree viewing angle.
I know how stupid I must sound, but this has piqued my curiosity like few things have.
Not at all. I was where you are not long ago. And others are walking through the door right now. Pretty soon you'll be introducing people.
Also, why wouldnt a couple LED strips help an HID light?
Endur0xX was talking about his personal experience. I can't speak for him, nor do I have any experience with HID + LED myself. However, I have read people rave about HID + LED supplements. LED's are great for veg. I think some Blue LED's could keep a plant from stretching too much after the 12/12 switch. HPS bulbs also don't have much output in the Red spectrum, so some LED supplements in the 630-660nm range could be beneficial in my mind. I don't know, really, I'm just speaking theoretically.
One thing I find especially interesting is the Sun's interaction with Earth's atmosphere. Our atmosphere causes photons of light to reflect and refract as they collide with airborne water molecules, dirt particles, pollution/contaminates, etc. As a result a lot of Blue gets reflected out. Ever wonder why the sky is Blue? At Sun up, however, light has to pass through a lot more air before it reaches your eye because of the angle. Even more Blue light is reflected out/away. Red light is able to pass through more readily, however, due to its longer wavelength. Have you ever wondered why the Sunrise and Sunset is Orange/Red? Plants see this just as you do. In my mind, it would behoove a plant to learn/adapt a method in order to utilize this light. I don't believe the fact that plant absorption peaks being in the Red and Blue spectra are coincidence. By making good use of Red light it increases its own natural photo period, especially post equinox as the days get shorter and shorter. It makes perfect sense to me that Red light is as important as it seems to be. That being said, I do believe a comprehensive spectral distribution is important which is why I really like a lot of the Warm White LED's.
Sorry for the long winded rant, but you brought up HID + LED and this took me off on a tangent.
Science meets Mysticism, though? If that's what you're going for I like it.