My LED laboratory

LemonHerb

LemonHerb

Well-Known Member
That looks cool. I am really considering a LED setup since for what ever reason I feel like being unconventional about the whole growing thing.

How much did you spend on all of that?
 
MstrWilliam

MstrWilliam

Well-Known Member
LemonHerb said:
That looks cool. I am really considering a LED setup since for what ever reason I feel like being unconventional about the whole growing thing.

How much did you spend on all of that?
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4 panels @ $30 ea
8 par 38 led (4 ea red and blue) @ $25ea
3 cfls and fixtures $35 ttl
reflectix, fan, shelves, and cardboard box all found lying around my garage. left over from building my bigger box (see my journal/gallery)

TOTAL COST $355

Watching it grow and bloom completely healthy and vigorous......

FUCKING PRICELESS!!!!!!:mrgreen:
 
vandula

vandula

New Member
that's way too much for LEDs. i would not start this setup. if LEDs worked, he would not need any CFLs to supplement the growth, also theyre so expensive.

w. $300+ you could buy a 1000W HPS or MH system.
 
MstrWilliam

MstrWilliam

Well-Known Member
vandula said:
that's way too much for LEDs. i would not start this setup. if LEDs worked, he would not need any CFLs to supplement the growth, also theyre so expensive.

w. $300+ you could buy a 1000W HPS or MH system.
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And what would you be paying monthly to run said set-up?
then you have heat to contend with....yadda yadda yadda
That box costs nothing to run 24/7.....and stays at a constant 75f
I added the back 2 cfls and the panels for a boost yes....after a week and a half of bloom, but the plant was raised just fine on the 4 led floods and 1 cfl
expecting over an oz without even trying.

not trying to compete with commercial ops. though I know a few who are now wanting to purchase the same lights to boost their mh/hps sytems.....expensive yes.....But I don't shop at wal-mart.......just a hardcore smoker with too much time on his hands who likes to get high and create things.
 
vandula

vandula

New Member
i hear ya bro, i didn mean to bash ur setup, i just wouldn want someone else to buy all this stuff thinking it was the "best", obv. LEDs have their advantages but theyre still to early in the stage of MJ growing.

i personally think CFLs are the best as far economics go, but i say that bc i live in the desert and use sunlight as the majority of my lighting source then supplement w. CFLs. i suppose if i only had CFLs i would need to upgrade to MH or HPS but for now i dont have to.

b4 i started my 1st plant, i really wanted to venture to LEDs too, but w. a lot of research i learned it was not the way to go just yet. once prices fall it may be the best.

here's one argument, CLFs are full sprectrum, plants use ALL spectrums of light except for green, that's why they look green, but obv. as we all know they use mostly blue and red, veg. and flowering respectively, when u use LEDs of red and blue, youre not giving the plants the other spectrums it needs to. i know it's cool as fuck, but it's not practical yet.
 
Corso312

Corso312

Well-Known Member
:blsmoke:i dig your set up muh man..... i plan on ordering alot of panels as i LOVE that they eat up almost zero juice ...and emit little heat!! i have my hands full right now with germ seeds and working...400 mh/hps my first light and this is my first serious run @ growing.... good luck and keep up the good work plant looks really healthy
 
MstrWilliam

MstrWilliam

Well-Known Member
NO OFFENSE TAKEN!

vandula said:
here's one argument, CLFs are full sprectrum, plants use ALL spectrums of light except for green, that's why they look green, but obv. as we all know they use mostly blue and red, veg. and flowering respectively, when u use LEDs of red and blue, youre not giving the plants the other spectrums it needs to. i know it's cool as fuck, but it's not practical yet.
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cfls Are full spectrum...yes.....the plants love blue/veg and red/bloom...The cfl just picks up the slack on the rest of the spectrum the plants might want...But I'm dosing them with huge concentrations of either blue or red when they want it.

look at my gallery on my big box. My pioneer VIII is 15" off my plants right now. (can't lower any more) my leds are about an equal distance, and the floods are pulling the plants.


I don't rave about the panels. But the floods kick ass. You can find them in china and have them delivered cheaper then anyone in the states.
 
vandula

vandula

New Member
just an fyi, LEDs use little energy have low heat bc they light output is SO SMALL. if you had the same amount of wattage going to the LEDs at other lights, they would be just as hot.

i dont want to convince anyone of anything. im just trying to share some insight that the technology is not there yet...esp. if you consider the high costs. again, the reason why they seem so economical is bc the light output is very small. try to find a seller that lists the lumen output...you would be hard pressed to find this info bc it's very small.
 
MstrWilliam

MstrWilliam

Well-Known Member
vandula said:
just an fyi, LEDs use little energy have low heat bc they light output is SO SMALL. if you had the same amount of wattage going to the LEDs at other lights, they would be just as hot.

i dont want to convince anyone of anything. im just trying to share some insight that the technology is not there yet...esp. if you consider the high costs. again, the reason why they seem so economical is bc the light output is very small. try to find a seller that lists the lumen output...you would be hard pressed to find this info bc it's very small.
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UMMMMM they don't list lumen output because lumen is a white light reference..I copied this for you and learned something myself:

The unit of measure commonly used to describe LED intensity is the millicandela (mcd), 1000 millicandela equals 1 candela. Candelas measures how much light is produced as measured at the light source.
The candela is the Luminous Intensity, in a given direction, of a source of monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian.

The unit of measure commonly used for most other light sources is the Lumen.
Lumens are units of Luminous Flux and they measure how much light actually falls on a surface.
The Luminous Flux (lumens) from a light source is equal to the Luminous Intensity (candelas) multiplied by the solid angle over which the light is emitted, taking into account the varying intensities in different directions.
So you can see that it is not a simple matter to accurately convert millicandelas (mcd) to lumens but here is link to a handy program that will do it for you:

not pitchin for them...Information is power....and these don't take much....oh yeah then there is the whole lifetime of the led thingy, but that is a diff story....
 
VictorVIcious

VictorVIcious

Well-Known Member
Preach on brother I have been saying that led's will be the grow lights for the next five years for some time now. Don't have any yet, they said the same thing about the t-5's I use. VV
 
MstrWilliam

MstrWilliam

Well-Known Member
Can I get a funkin-A my brother....They are pricey, but the mfg knows they won't be replacing them anytime soon so they gotta make it where they can....People are quick to judge what they have never seen. Isn't that how the war got started?

Thx for the props....I don't know much about this stuff, but I like to research. As I only work in the summer, I have way too much time on my hands, and plenty of KGB to spur creative blundering.
 
VictorVIcious

VictorVIcious

Well-Known Member
vandula said:
just an fyi, LEDs use little energy have low heat bc they light output is SO SMALL. if you had the same amount of wattage going to the LEDs at other lights, they would be just as hot.
Click to expand...
That is pure speculation on your part, and it is wrong.

i
dont want to convince anyone of anything. im just trying to share some insight that the technology is not there yet...esp. if you consider the high costs. again, the reason why they seem so economical is bc the light output is very small. try to find a seller that lists the lumen output...you would be hard pressed to find this info bc it's very small.
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If you didn't want to convince anyone you wouldn't have said it, be real. I wasn't trying to convince any one of anything either, I just wanted to 'prove' I could get the same yield from a T-5 4'-8 bulb fixture as you would get with a 600watt hid light. It only uses 440watts and only produces 40,000 cooler lumens and cost about the same to buy, initiallly. I didn't have to buy a cool tube or a fan for it cause its so weak? It doesn't have a seperate hot ballast to deal with, runs both red and blue lights in the same fixture so you don't need seperate lights for grow and bloom, and my yield from 12 plants was a little over 18 oz dry weight. But I wasn't trying to convince anybody of anything. Yeah right, I was just trying to save them money by giving 'good information'. Not to mention the logistic comparison, which allows you about a foot and a half more 'grow height'.

If led's are so week I wonder why all of Hollywood is using them for lights. I have seen information about computer controls for Leds that cost thousands and that is just to turn them on. How many hid flashlights have you seen? Why are they being used for warehouse lights instead of hid's. 25% brighter, less energy. You really need to do some research before making statements like this. We would the light industry spend the time and money developing something that doesn't work and costs too much?? VV:blsmoke:

PS. aaaamen, aaammen, aaammen,ammen, amen.!!
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