Overkill?

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csovfnst

Well-Known Member
Hey all, I’m getting a 4 x 8 grow setup and considering using 6 450w viparspectra leds to test them out. Do you think this would be overkill? I plan on using a hydro bubble bucket ebb/flow system and adding co2. Plan on growing 8 plants at a time.

Mainly curious is the led wattage is overkill. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance
 
Olive Drab Green

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
csovfnst said:
Hey all, I’m getting a 4 x 8 grow setup and considering using 6 450w viparspectra leds to test them out. Do you think this would be overkill? I plan on using a hydro bubble bucket ebb/flow system and adding co2. Plan on growing 8 plants at a time.

Mainly curious is the led wattage is overkill. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance
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Don’t get ViparSpectra. They’re shit. Get COBs or QBs instead, if you want a premade fixture and already plan to spend that much money.

http://www.timbergrowlights.com/
http://www.horticulturelightinggroup.com/
http://www.cobkits.com/
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
No its not overkill, those are only 200w a light.
I agree with Olive Drab on other suggestions but will add that these days there are shit cob lights all over amazon too. All COBs are not equal just the same as all LEDs are not equal. There are good diodes and bad diodes.
If you cant afford to use quality led then stick with HPS until you can, your talking about using 1200w of vipar so you might as well save 75% of your money and use 2x 600w HPS or spend more money on good LEDs.


You could have a look at this if you want to go with quality LED with good efficiency.
http://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/
 
C

csovfnst

Well-Known Member
coreywebster said:
No its not overkill, those are only 200w a light.
I agree with Olive Drab on other suggestions but will add that these days there are shit cob lights all over amazon too. All COBs are not equal just the same as all LEDs are not equal. There are good diodes and bad diodes.
If you cant afford to use quality led then stick with HPS until you can, your talking about using 1200w of vipar so you might as well save 75% of your money and use 2x 600w HPS or spend more money on good LEDs.
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So when calculating overall wattage for led I should not be using what they’re equivalent hps is but what they actually draw to output? I was under the impressions that 6 400w leds would be considered 2400w not 1,200.
I don’t want to run hps as I won’t really be able to vent the heat anywhere but the room I’m growing in.
I wish I was confident enough to build my own led setup but I simply know nothing about it...
 
C

csovfnst

Well-Known Member
Olive Drab Green said:
Don’t get ViparSpectra. They’re shit. Get COBs or QBs instead, if you want a premade fixture and already plan to spend that much money.
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I unfortunately am not comfortable building my own led although I’ve seen some very successful setups doing so. My other option I was considering was 2 MIGRO 400s.
 
Mazer

Mazer

Well-Known Member
csovfnst said:
I wish I was confident enough to build my own led setup but I simply know nothing about it...
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Dear csovfnst,
Fret not as when I decided to put together my first DIY grow light I did not even know how to solder. After investing some time researching the subject and a lot of exchanges on forums I manage to build my very own bespoke stealth grow lamps (four of them now).
Easier than it seems. make sure you get good supplies and practice your soldering/drilling skills blank prior to working on the real supplies. Besides there are a fair few ready to build DIY kits out there.
Be confident, you will prevail!

DIYingly yours,
M
 
C

csovfnst

Well-Known Member
Mazer said:
Dear csovfnst,
Fret not as when I decided to put together my first DIY grow light I did not even know how to solder. After investing some time researching the subject and a lot of exchanges on forums I manage to build my very own bespoke stealth grow lamps (four of them now).
Easier than it seems. make sure you get good supplies and practice your soldering/drilling skills blank prior to working on the real supplies. Besides there are a fair few ready to build DIY kits out there.
Be confident, you will prevail!

DIYingly yours,
M
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, i always enjoy research and learning but having no experience has prevented me from thinking its a viable option. I’ll look into it further and check out some diy kit packages. Thanks!
 
V

Viceman666

Well-Known Member
csovfnst said:
I’m looking at those now. I guess I need to do more research on COBs and calculating wattage per sq ft as I don’t understand the price difference for what appears to be less wattage for double the price.
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The Wattage they say is false.. go over to the LED section of this forum for lots of great info.

Basics : if they tell you the LED is 600w but draw only 200w it means its a 200w light.. if it doesnt draw 600w then it wont output 600w worth of power.. this is not a magician show its just logic..

Then comes efficiency.. what I mean by that is for each Watt of power use how much goes into producing HEAT and how much is used for light (lumen output).. HPS is lets say 110lumen/watt and quality COB or quantum boards or samsung strips, etc.. can range from 160-200lumen/watt depending how hard you run them.. to make it simple what it means is that for the same 1000w of power draw from the wall a HPS will produce 110 000 lumens while a COB or QB 160-200k lumens.. so you need half the power for the same lumens output.. the blurple light like vipar spectra is probably as efficient as hps at most.. so going with higher efficient light wll allow to lower your power consumption for the same light output..

Hope this helps
 
C

csovfnst

Well-Known Member
Viceman666 said:
The Wattage they say is false.. go over to the LED section of this forum for lots of great info.

Basics : if they tell you the LED is 600w but draw only 200w it means its a 200w light.. if it doesnt draw 600w then it wont output 600w worth of power.. this is not a magician show its just logic..

Then comes efficiency.. what I mean by that is for each Watt of power use how much goes into producing HEAT and how much is used for light (lumen output).. HPS is lets say 110lumen/watt and quality COB or quantum boards or samsung strips, etc.. can range from 160-200lumen/watt depending how hard you run them.. to make it simple what it means is that for the same 1000w of power draw from the wall a HPS will produce 110 000 lumens while a COB or QB 160-200k lumens.. so you need half the power for the same lumens output.. the blurple light like vipar spectra is probably as efficient as hps at most.. so going with higher efficient light wll allow to lower your power consumption for the same light output..

Hope this helps
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Thank you very much for the info. I’m still pretty new to the LED world so I have a lot to learn. I will check out the led section and continue my research.
 
V

Viceman666

Well-Known Member
csovfnst said:
Thank you very much for the info. I’m still pretty new to the LED world so I have a lot to learn. I will check out the led section and continue my research.
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And I will just add that for a 4x8 you should be looking at about 2000w of HPS or blurple light (power draw from the wall) or about 1200w of quality COB, quantum or strips.. otherwise if you still decide to go with 6xvipar spectra 450w (about 200w actual) id put them all in a 4x4 tent or 5x5 if you really wanted to stretch a bit and you will get roughly the same yield as if you put it in a 4x8.. it will just be more work with more plants in a 4x8 so not worth it IMO unless you put more lights or use more efficient lights
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
csovfnst said:
So when calculating overall wattage for led I should not be using what they’re equivalent hps is but what they actually draw to output? I was under the impressions that 6 400w leds would be considered 2400w not 1,200.
I don’t want to run hps as I won’t really be able to vent the heat anywhere but the room I’m growing in.
I wish I was confident enough to build my own led setup but I simply know nothing about it...
Click to expand...
For cheap LEDs the efficiency is not great so we can treat it with the same rule of thumb as HPS and say 50 true watts per square foot is around what you need. ( and I do think HPS outperforms cheap LEDs)
For highly efficient LEDs Like the link I put up we can say 30-35 watts per square foot produces solid buds.

Don't be afraid of a bit of DIY, it seems very overwhelming at first but it really isn't too tricky. It took me a while to get my head around the basics but with these strip builds that are possible these days its very simple. Plus the community here will always help someone with questions.
 
whytewidow

whytewidow

Well-Known Member
Viceman666 said:
And I will just add that for a 4x8 you should be looking at about 2000w of HPS or blurple light (power draw from the wall) or about 1200w of quality COB, quantum or strips.. otherwise if you still decide to go with 6xvipar spectra 450w (about 200w actual) id put them all in a 4x4 tent or 5x5 if you really wanted to stretch a bit and you will get roughly the same yield as if you put it in a 4x8.. it will just be more work with more plants in a 4x8 so not worth it IMO unless you put more lights or use more efficient lights
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For a 4x8 2k in hps is a tad much. And will make heat like crazy. In a 4x8 I would run 12-1400 watts of led. I built my light for under 225 bucks total. It' 335 watts in a 2x4....
You only need minumum 30 watts per square foot. I'd go a tad over. 50 watts per sq/ft woukd rock a 4x8.

My light......
10 Samsung F series gen 3 strips and 4 custom made 2 foot red strips. With 60 660nm deep red diodes and 60 HE red diodes. Alternated for even red blending.

mir_20180316_161148.jpg mir_20180314_163619.jpg mir_20180323_161921.jpg mir_20180320_155823.jpg mir_20180320_155548.jpg mir_20180318_122910.jpg
20180321_153142.jpg 20180319_165934.jpg 20180319_170110.jpg 20180318_165348.jpg
 
whytewidow

whytewidow

Well-Known Member
a mongo frog said:
Can you explain the red Strip lighting? Beautiful flowers by the way.
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They are blank 24inch pcb strips, custom made. With 120 leds on each strip. 60 of them are 660nm deep red and 60 of them are 660nm HE photo red. Alternated so the reds mix together. And then I put them inbetween the samsungs strips driven on their own driver.
 
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