"Area 51 LED" Information and discussion

whichever way you want, I am thinking of only using the upper screws and having the whole cluster of lights curved like a banana or a smile for better light distribution.

TedeBoy said:

The A51 W90's can be locked together with included brackets.
Anyone know if they can be assembled both side to side and/or end to end? Either or?

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Check out GreenSantas grow.. https://www.rollitup.org/t/a51-w90s-grow.885925/page-3#post-12048165

They can be assembled in either direction.
While we're on the subject - which would be the better way to hook up two of these to cover an 18" x 30" scrog? In other words, would it be better to have 4 or 7 inches of separation between the two COBs?

Im looking to make the jump to led for Veg only. I was eyeballing a couple of w90s 5ks for a 3x6 veg area. 8 20gallon no tills. My concern is that 2 of these lights wont be enough to veg 8 plants to around 2.5-3 ft. Think im good?

m4s73r said:

Im looking to make the jump to led for Veg only. I was eyeballing a couple of w90s 5ks for a 3x6 veg area. 8 20gallon no tills. My concern is that 2 of these lights wont be enough to veg 8 plants to around 2.5-3 ft. Think im good?

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There is NO WAY 2 of these can veg 8 plants to 3 feet, maybe they could veg 2 plants to that size but are you seeing how small the coverage for each unit is? You would need 8 units in that area to do what you want.

Well the website said 36x36" space for veg. so 2 would be 36x72. I know my maths not wrong...

m4s73r said:

Well the website said 36x36" space for veg. so 2 would be 36x72. I know my maths not wrong...

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It says
Recommended veg footprint:
Up to 36"x36"
Just notice how small each unit is, the real coverage is going to be like 18x18. These LED makers seriously over state their coverage to sell more units then you get the thing and it puts out about the same coverage as a flash light.

Well 8 of those is a little outside of my budget sad to say.

Yodaweed said:

It says
Recommended veg footprint:
Up to 36"x36"
Just notice how small each unit is, the real coverage is going to be like 18x18. These LED makers seriously over state their coverage to sell more units then you get the thing and it puts out about the same coverage as a flash light.

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LED makers do what every other company on the planet do, they suggest what can possibly happen in the best possible scenario. So one unit would easily cover 40 freshly rooted cuttings that are all the same height therefore offering a veg footprint of 36'' x 36'', same goes with flowering... but if you wanna grow dank, you must use a lot more light than they might recommend for flowering, what you put in, you get out. Perhaps as the technology keeps improving we might at some point in time see that 25 watts per sq.ft is plenty but I honestly think this will never happen, dont forget penetration, or vertical coverage, one thing to have 25 watts over a 1 sq.ft 1 foot high plant and another to have that 25 watts over a 5 feet tall plant...

GreenSanta said:

LED makers do what every other company on the planet do, they suggest what can possibly happen in the best possible scenario. So one unit would easily cover 40 freshly rooted cuttings that are all the same height therefore offering a veg footprint of 36'' x 36'', same goes with flowering... but if you wanna grow dank, you must use a lot more light than they might recommend for flowering, what you put in, you get out. Perhaps as the technology keeps improving we might at some point in time see that 25 watts per sq.ft is plenty but I honestly think this will never happen, dont forget penetration, or vertical coverage, one thing to have 25 watts over a 1 sq.ft 1 foot high plant and another to have that 25 watts over a 5 feet tall plant...

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Well my T5 can cover a 36x36 area no problem, and it consumes less wattage than that light and it's spectrum is better for veg. These lights are cool but theres WAY better veg lights out there , price wise these lights are nearly worthless for veg, who in their right mind would pay that much when you can get the same results or better with soooo much less money invested. These might be good for flowering if you buy a bunch of the 3k ones and link them together, but for the price they want, no thanks. And if you tried to flower with these lights in a 36x36 area you would get the most fluffiest buds imaginable, weed needs light intensity these might be good for growing little plants but unless connected together they are worthless for anything larger than a small closet grow.

Yodaweed said:

Well my T5 can cover a 36x36 area no problem, and it consumes less wattage than that light and it's spectrum is better for veg. These lights are cool but theres WAY better veg lights out there , price wise these lights are nearly worthless for veg, who in their right mind would pay that much when you can get the same results or better with soooo much less money invested. These might be good for flowering if you buy a bunch of the 3k ones and link them together, but for the price they want, no thanks. And if you tried to flower with these lights in a 36x36 area you would get the most fluffiest buds imaginable, weed needs light intensity these might be good for growing little plants but unless connected together they are worthless for anything larger than a small closet grow.

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Your T-5 covers a 36x36 area? Thats fucking crazy, mine don't. Did you build it yourself or something?

a mongo frog said:

Your T-5 covers a 36x36 area? Thats fucking crazy, mine don't. Did you build it yourself or something?

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It's a 4 foot long T5, covers about 3 feet by 4 feet. Give or take a few inches in width. Something like this
http://hydrobuilder.com/agrobrite-fluorescent-grow-light-t5-4ft-8-tube-fixture-bulbs-included.html
Spectrum is customizable with a simple bulb change, if you want taller plants use 3k spectrum, want shorter use 6.5k spectrum, want something in the middle? fill it with 4k or 5k. There are even UV-B bulbs if you are into that sort of thing, my point is you should veg with as little money as possible and wasting money on LEDs for veg is beyond stupid, these should be used for flowering and connected together, if only they were overly expensive and not cree's That's a high wattage model, my T5 uses 96 watts.

That 8 lamp T5 fixture is 432 Watts.
For veg I would go Inda-Gro 420. Better spectrum and no lamp changes

25 watts per foot is already happening with the CXB3590. 25 watts per foot from a 1.4 amp driver will provide over 700 PPFD.

GreenSanta said:

LED makers do what every other company on the planet do, they suggest what can possibly happen in the best possible scenario. So one unit would easily cover 40 freshly rooted cuttings that are all the same height therefore offering a veg footprint of 36'' x 36'', same goes with flowering... but if you wanna grow dank, you must use a lot more light than they might recommend for flowering, what you put in, you get out. Perhaps as the technology keeps improving we might at some point in time see that 25 watts per sq.ft is plenty but I honestly think this will never happen, dont forget penetration, or vertical coverage, one thing to have 25 watts over a 1 sq.ft 1 foot high plant and another to have that 25 watts over a 5 feet tall plant...

Click to expand...

Yodaweed said:

Well my T5 can cover a 36x36 area no problem, and it consumes less wattage than that light and it's spectrum is better for veg. These lights are cool but theres WAY better veg lights out there , price wise these lights are nearly worthless for veg, who in their right mind would pay that much when you can get the same results or better with soooo much less money invested. These might be good for flowering if you buy a bunch of the 3k ones and link them together, but for the price they want, no thanks. And if you tried to flower with these lights in a 36x36 area you would get the most fluffiest buds imaginable, weed needs light intensity these might be good for growing little plants but unless connected together they are worthless for anything larger than a small closet grow.

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yeah 8 lamps T5 fixture draws almost 5 times what a w90 does. Not only this, I have had mixed results with my T5s, sometimes bulbs burn within 2-3 months, I fkin hate having to replace bulbs, I have 5 x 4ft tubes that have been running for over 6 months now but generally, the bulbs, most if not all 3ft tubes I have have lasted 3 months at best. Maybe I have not been lucky with them but looking at a fixture and watching every fuking bulbs die one after the other all within 2 months is so frustrating, thanks but I will stick with LEDs.

I bought 3 AF-600s from A51 , 1 of them over 3 years old and the other 2 right around the 3 year mark, out of 48 clusters, 2 went off, Thats like 95-96% efficiency 3 years later, now try growing a plant with a 3 years old hps bulb... or a 3 years old t5 bulb for that matter.

Rahz said:

25 watts per foot is already happening with the CXB3590. 25 watts per foot from a 1.4 amp driver will provide over 700 PPFD.

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sure you can grow a plant with even less than 25 watts per sq. foot, but is there enough intensity there to penetrate deep in the canopy, of 3-5 ' tall plants? ultimately we are going to have to talk about watts per cu.ft...

Yodaweed said:

It's a 4 foot long T5, covers about 3 feet by 4 feet. Give or take a few inches in width. Something like this
http://hydrobuilder.com/agrobrite-fluorescent-grow-light-t5-4ft-8-tube-fixture-bulbs-included.html
Spectrum is customizable with a simple bulb change, if you want taller plants use 3k spectrum, want shorter use 6.5k spectrum, want something in the middle? fill it with 4k or 5k. There are even UV-B bulbs if you are into that sort of thing, my point is you should veg with as little money as possible and wasting money on LEDs for veg is beyond stupid, these should be used for flowering and connected together, if only they were overly expensive and not cree's That's a high wattage model, my T5 uses 96 watts.

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I agree with the part about spending too much money for veg, but with the DIY LEDs, the LEDs vegging lights are becoming more affordable., I am still vegging with T5s and CFLs and sometimes MH but down the road, I do want to veg with LEDs, I have seen the best growth under LEDs for vegging hands down.

Intensity is measured by photon density, PPFD. A single ended 600w HPS in a 4x4 uses 37 watts per foot and provides under 700 PPFD so yea over 700 PPFD can certainly penetrate the canopy.

For that matter 500 PPFD can grow some dense nugs. They get fluffy if the humidity is too high and/or the bush is dense and air has trouble circulating. The plant does this to help prevent mold.

Yodaweed said:

There are even UV-B bulbs if you are into that sort of thing, my point is you should veg with as little money as possible and wasting money on LEDs for veg is beyond stupid, these should be used for flowering and connected together, if only they were overly expensive and not cree's

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that's funny because supra literally said the opposite in another thread. you really keep grasping at straws to try and demonstrate that this is a shitty product, but it's not