Lights

DanDMan

If you were interested, here is the data sheet on the purple LEDs.

bio-farmer

DanDMan wrote:

I got my L.E.D. grow light today. It has a 4:1, (red:blue) ratio. They are not the super bright LEDs, but with all 168 of them they crank out a lot if light.

I needed a grow light for here in the office anyway. Everyone here is asking me if Im growing pot, LOL..

It cost me about $34 with shipping. It would have cost me $8.40 to buy 168 LEDS and another dollar for a custom PCB to mount them all to and a couple more dollars for a light socket. So I could have made one for $12 not counting the two hours to etch a board and solder 336+ leads. Its hard to say if it would be worth saving $22 for two hours of my time. I guess it would be worth it if I was lighting a greenhouse because then you would be saving $22 per square foot(or two).

Oh, I got the data sheet on those purple duel wavelength L.E.D.s and the advertised wavelengths don't match the data sheet. Also, They produce a much wider spectrum of light so that would be wasted energy. So its a no go on those.

any pics? cheers

KudaPucat

Dan,
What is the estimated power consumption of this light? Or can you do a tong test on the mains for me?
I'd love to do a cost per growth analysis. cpg doesn't matter with pot, but as we only grow lettuce and tomatoes, it becomes higher priority. :-)

DanDMan

I could take some pictures, but Im lazy today. You can check it out at ebay

They say you need 5 of them for 24 square feet. The light is pulling .11 amps at 120 volts 60 hz. Thats 13 watts, enough for 2 square feet by my estimation.

DanDMan

I find it interesting that they say you can stop bolting by adding blue light..

Quote:

premature "bolting" or flowering is a big problem but with LED's you can just add some extra blue light and any "bolting" instantly stops!!!

KudaPucat

very...
Alright Dan, get em set up, I wanna see some growth :-)
I'm not surprised that they claim they're better than they are, but 5 for 24ft is approx 1 for 5ft. Yet you say you estimate 1 for 2ft.
Do you really think the discrepancy is this much?

So my gbs 1m*2m = 22 square ft.
so you think I need 11, they think I need 5.
13W *11 = 145W or 65W
145W is a fair bit.

When using lights, do you run them during the day or night or both (assuming the sun is available during the day)
if used 12hrs a day, 1740Wh/day, so less than 30c per GB per Day... hmmm $9 per month.
Starts getting expensive when I get my 10 GB....
I do wonder how much growth we could expect. I liked the 'growth under metal halide lamps' thread. Could we expect similar growth to that? or is the heat in those metal halides integral to great growing?

veggie boy

Not much benefit for outdoor growth KP - unless you want the plants lit at night also. Where climate requires the AP to be inside - this is the real advantage.

KudaPucat

I was gunning for the night growth VB...
no real advantage you don't think?

GotFish?

Lets see if they do the trick first.

GotFish?

I have seen no change with my lights, as far as the peas go.

Outbackozzie

As in growing alright or not ?

GotFish?

No growth were all spindly before the lights and they are still all spindly. Will plant some new seeds and see how that does.

KudaPucat

If they were spindly, then they're likely in shock, and will take a week or more to recover.
My chillies, capsicums, cucumbers, strawberries and pumpkins were all spindly due to lack of water and nutes.
My system has been running 3 weeks now, and only the cucumber and the strawberries have picked up, the others are still struggling. And the cucs took at lest 10 days...
Stress is a bitch

GotFish?

Maybe shock, they thought they were peas and I treated em like mushrooms. Kept em in the dark and fed em fish s***. The lights didn't convince em that it would be socialy acceptable to revert to peadom.
Ain't no sunshine in the basement.

steve

when you said bolting i thoguht you meant "to seed"

blue light WILL make the spindly and elongated (from memory)

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