is it cheaper to build and led or buy?

Hello fellas I just wanted to know if its cheaper to buy an led or build one no prefrence on watts? If so where's the diy plans?

well in the uk its really cheap to but l.e.d's and building ya own l.e.d light but that depends if ur in the uk

like i reckon i could build a 100 blue/red l.e.d unit for about £25/£30 for all parts but not transformer

Nitro1990 said:

well in the uk its really cheap to but l.e.d's and building ya own l.e.d light but that depends if ur in the uk

like i reckon i could build a 100 blue/red l.e.d unit for about £25/£30 for all parts but not transformer

Click to expand...

hi nitro is a 100 led consider good? hows it cheaper here? and how and where would i buy all bits including the transformer (best place) also is it easy to do? how many veging plants under this, thanks

Found this the other day http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250456885858&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2700wt_1190

I don't know much about LED set ups, but this seems quite reasonable to me and they have sold 549 of them, so seem popular as well...!

how well r you skilled in electrics and understanding them because i have a good knowledge of them so it wouldn't be that hard but if someone was to know nothing about electrics it could be really difficult

either ebay for ya bits your looking for HI power'd L.E.D lighting and work out how many led's you want to use look at what watt each one is x's that by how many you use and you will have ur voltage transformer you need

thanks I'm aright with electrics but i take it i would have to solder each led to a board of some kind? if so then I'm out lol

yeah each and everyone hahaha
could get tedious after like 2 hours

yes times that by 20 with my soldering skills lol

im thinking about doing it and it looking at a good 3/5 days work for soldering im looking to do a 4x100w one's but still looking for bits

first off, you need Hi power LED's to grow plants. those little 5mm bullet LED are worthless. Hi power leds are expensive. even just the parts http://www.ledsupply.com/led-catalog.php can run anywhere from 6$-25$ a fixture, assuming you'd need quite a few it's not really practical in my mind. at least not for the full grow cycle.

It might be worthwhile for cloning/mother setups.

Can you veg with 6500k leds?

hey buddy. Honest advice and not just a hokey opinion, build it yourself. Those chinese lamps that people are buying up for 500 dollars and are only 130 watts of LED power are rediculous and suck ass, IMO. I engineer various shapes and designs for LED lamps. I deal with full spectrum white and some warm white colors, they can go for under a dollar a piece at 3 watts each if you can get an order from China of atleast 100 or more. Good luck I love building LEDs, problem is I am not a great friend of the colorful monopoly money club, oh i'm sorry, I mean legal tender. Yea, but once I steal/rob/murder/ (like the government) some cash, or just get it legally, I will show you guys my 100 watter bank of White Fullspectrum Bridgelux leds. Peace! OH BTW, if you build your own, you can put optics on the LEDs, they can double or triple penistration of the canopy to 36"

realgamer84 said:

Hello fellas I just wanted to know if its cheaper to buy an led or build one no prefrence on watts? If so where's the diy plans?

Click to expand...

Cheaper to build your own, smarter to buy an Hps

Smarter for whom? Someone that wants a color spectrum that is only mediocre incomparison to a Blackstar Led panel? I like your style, but HPS is not the only do all lamp anymore, peace

LBH said:

Cheaper to build your own, smarter to buy an Hps

Click to expand...

Dude, that's an awesome avatar!! lol

I found 2 kinds of LED lights that can be bought where I live but I don't know how well those would work but here are the specs.

If those specs work very well for growing with I think this will take over.
I did a search and foud

250w MH pushes out around 96 lumes per Watt.
250w HPS pushes out around 116 Lumes per Watt


----- LED 1 -----
Wattage - 3.5
Lumes - 280
Life - 10,000 hours
No Rediated Heat
Mercury Free
Lumes per watt - 80
Colour Temp - 6062K
Cost per month on a 24/0 for 30 days - $0.15

----- LED 2 -----
Wattage - 3.5
Lumes - 201
Life - 15,000 hours
No Rediated Heat
Mercury Free
Lumes per watt - 57
Colour Temp - 5692K
Cost per month on a 24/0 for 30 days - $0.15


So by those numbers if you can find the little LED bulbs and not the built ones and build a light bulb that can produce the same specs as the ones that I found or close to a HPS or MH Lums per watt out put then your better off building it your self.