New guy looking for advice

R

Rufe0

New Member
Hi I've just recently got into growing, currently using 1 600w HPS but looking to upgrade and change my style altogether. I would like to be able to grow on a racking unit, with two grows stacked on top of each other, so probably about 4ft vertical height maximum between the two levels. Weather or not I do go down that route I would still like to go LED. I've never built an LED before but I can solder, weld etc.

I would like to achieve a very consistent light intensity across my canopy if possible so I guess strips would be best for this? Initially be looking at a 4x2ft grow area although I'm quite flexible on that, I eventually want to go much bigger.

Delving into digikey & mouser I've found a few possibilities from what's in stock but only one seems to stand out at the moment

New Energy SPB1-48F01-3080-00 https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detai ... ND/8566912
2384lm £5.41 440lm/£ 172lm/w 500mm strip

This seems to be by far the best option from what's in stock in terms of lm/£ while still being decent lm/w.

I want to run them at about 75% power in series, looking for around 1000ppfd so I guess 50w/sqf? So I would need 7 per foot?

Driver would be Meanwell ELG-150-C500A-3Y or ELG-150-C500A 300v 0.5a driver. Which would be 9 in series, which would cover 1.28feet.

Total cost would be 9 strips at £48.67 + driver at around £30 = £78.67. Would cover 1.28 x 2ft or 2.56sq/ft or if you do the maths £30.7/sqft.

Does this all seem about right? Am I heading the right direction?

Thanks Rufe0
 
Rufe0 said:
Hi I've just recently got into growing, currently using 1 600w HPS but looking to upgrade and change my style altogether. I would like to be able to grow on a racking unit, with two grows stacked on top of each other, so probably about 4ft vertical height maximum between the two levels. Weather or not I do go down that route I would still like to go LED. I've never built an LED before but I can solder, weld etc.

I would like to achieve a very consistent light intensity across my canopy if possible so I guess strips would be best for this? Initially be looking at a 4x2ft grow area although I'm quite flexible on that, I eventually want to go much bigger.

Delving into digikey & mouser I've found a few possibilities from what's in stock but only one seems to stand out at the moment

New Energy SPB1-48F01-3080-00 https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detai ... ND/8566912
2384lm £5.41 440lm/£ 172lm/w 500mm strip

This seems to be by far the best option from what's in stock in terms of lm/£ while still being decent lm/w.

I want to run them at about 75% power in series, looking for around 1000ppfd so I guess 50w/sqf? So I would need 7 per foot?

Driver would be Meanwell ELG-150-C500A-3Y or ELG-150-C500A 300v 0.5a driver. Which would be 9 in series, which would cover 1.28feet.

Total cost would be 9 strips at £48.67 + driver at around £30 = £78.67. Would cover 1.28 x 2ft or 2.56sq/ft or if you do the maths £30.7/sqft.

Does this all seem about right? Am I heading the right direction?

Thanks Rufe0
Click to expand...
Yes, strips are the way to go with limited vertical height. Most strip builds are Samsung or Bridgelux and a few companies have strips specifically for growing. Search the word strips here and you'll be reading for days.

ledgardener.com

DIY LED Strip Build Designs for Samsung H-Series, F-Series, Q-Series, and Bridgelux EB Gen.2 - LED Gardener

DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...
ledgardener.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top