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a year or more LED light experience?

Hey guys :P

So as this is thread about light...

From what I know a 260W LED panel would cost about 1.000$...

I finished yesterday a nice 260W LED fixture based on Bridgelux EB Gen.2 4000k 1120mm strip ( on hard base)
They have efficency 140-170lm ( 170lm when they are on half curret). And I power them with 2x 150W power units with 1400mA constant curret.

I have here about 36.000lm :)

Some photos :)




And some JAFSH and CP358 Apocalypse peppers under it on Dry Fog Aeroponics :P ( supplemented with AACT)
 
MnSuperHots said:
No peppers are not a money maker, but as a hobby, and for my interest in it and the toys involved 1500 bucks wont put me in the poor house. If my energy bill doesnt make my wife ask questions and I dont have to listen to 450 cfm of air being moved in my basement but I still get full size happy pods, then victory is mine. But! I do want to hear testimony from a few sources with experience before I pull the trigger on a fancy led. I cant believe i would be the first pepper guy to do this.
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buy a quantum board. the 550 watt version ($900) has been shown to be equivalent to a 1000w hps in a 4x4 or 4x5 area depending on the optics. The 320w DIY kit on their website would go great in a 3x3 and is $409 and will last upwards of 10 years. Keep in mind these specs are aimed at a particular type of horticulture ;) and peppers probably dont need quite as much light as long as you aren't trying to push your pepper plants to the absolute max. light penetration as good as long as you aren't skimping on the light for your grow space. you can also buy a cob led kit on: rapidled.com, cobkits.com, timbergrowlights.com, chilledtech.com. they should be comparable to a quantum board specs (thought some a bit less efficient) if you want to use the general suggestions on horticultural lighting group's website for wattage and grow area that would be a good place to start.
 
I've been growing my pepper starts and a 2' tall dwarf plumeria under 200watt creecxb 3590 (3500k color temp) this winter; the peppers are growing like crazy and the plumeria is about to bud. this equates to a roughly 3'x1' area that is lit. i run the fixture at 75% power because any more has burnt the leaves of the plumeria. i keep the fixture around 3' from the plumeria 4' from the pepper starts and 6ft from a Dendrobium orchid. within 1 month of putting the orchid under the plumeria for a little shade the orchid bloomed on all of its canes. with the optics on my cob fixture even at a distance of 6ft was a little to much for the orchid (high light loving type) - so light penetration is not a problem with adequate lighting for your space. blooming a plumeria, orchid and great growth with my pepper starts has really opened my eyes to just how powerful these new white phosphor leds are. based on the specs a generic blurple light like a viparspectra or mars hydro is coming in at 30 lm/watt which isn't significantly different than a compact fluorescent, t5ho or a normal hps light. new white leds are >150 lm/w when run properly with some newer tech touching 200lm/watt in some cases. if you're going to invest in LED do your research and buy a quality professional fixture or DIY one so that you can swap out or add components as the technology improves. dont buy and outdated fixture made of the cheapest parts like 95% of the leds that are flooding the market right now.
 
I wish I would have used bridgelux strips on my diy light instead of cheap Chinese led strips. After all the work I put into it I would have e rather had a better light. It works good enough though
 
I am using a CREE 3590 COB and have been incredibly impressed with it. A think a lot of the talk about LEDs not being great don't take into account the new LED tech, because it moves so fast. The old strips, and the cheap strips are TERRIBLE, maybe acceptable for starting seeds but that's about it. Every year there's a new best LED, last year it was the CREE COBs, this year it seems to be the quantum boards.
 
I'm on my second year with my COB and its been fantastic. I'm using one on a 3' x 4' area roughly and most of my plants are quite bushy, granted they're still pretty young. At the end of last year I brought in 6 plants from outside and put them under it and they continued to flower and produce for a couple months until I killed them off because the aphids got so bad. They were also in roughly a 3' x 4' area but that was really stretching the capabilities. I'd feel very comfortable growing in a 3' x 3' area. Like someone else said you're not going to get a 10 foot plant, but I believe you could raise one all the way to maturity and producing.
 
If you get one like anything else, spend a little extra, it'll be worth it.
 
Ethansm said:
I am using a CREE 3590 COB and have been incredibly impressed with it. A think a lot of the talk about LEDs not being great don't take into account the new LED tech, because it moves so fast. The old strips, and the cheap strips are TERRIBLE, maybe acceptable for starting seeds but that's about it. Every year there's a new best LED, last year it was the CREE COBs, this year it seems to be the quantum boards.
 
I'm on my second year with my COB and its been fantastic. I'm using one on a 3' x 4' area roughly and most of my plants are quite bushy, granted they're still pretty young. At the end of last year I brought in 6 plants from outside and put them under it and they continued to flower and produce for a couple months until I killed them off because the aphids got so bad. They were also in roughly a 3' x 4' area but that was really stretching the capabilities. I'd feel very comfortable growing in a 3' x 3' area. Like someone else said you're not going to get a 10 foot plant, but I believe you could raise one all the way to maturity and producing.
 
If you get one like anything else, spend a little extra, it'll be worth it.
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So are you growing with one cxb3590 in a 3'x4' area?? or are their multiple cobs in the fixture? 
 
Yeah now that I've got my peppers outside I realize one 3590 wasn't cutting it. The peppers never got leggy so I thought it was okay, but they're exploding with growth now that they're outside. Maybe 2 3590s would be better, I also had my light fairly far away. Lesson learned, still highly recommend the 3590 cob
 
Ethansm said:
Yeah now that I've got my peppers outside I realize one 3590 wasn't cutting it. The peppers never got leggy so I thought it was okay, but they're exploding with growth now that they're outside. Maybe 2 3590s would be better, I also had my light fairly far away. Lesson learned, still highly recommend the 3590 cob
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i've been running 2 cxb3590 at around 75% of their 90w max had to lower the dimmer to 60% because the light was too bright. there is additive effects to having multiple light sources in an area as it increases light uniformity and adds new angles for light to reach the plants. i've got a plumeria growing and blooming like gangbusters under my fixture with the peppers off to the side waiting for plant out.
 
thefish said:
 
i've been running 2 cxb3590 at around 75% of their 90w max had to lower the dimmer to 60% because the light was too bright. there is additive effects to having multiple light sources in an area as it increases light uniformity and adds new angles for light to reach the plants. i've got a plumeria growing and blooming like gangbusters under my fixture with the peppers off to the side waiting for plant out.
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How far away are your lights? I think part of my issue was my light was too far away. I'm going to add another cob or the new light bars for next year.
 
Ethansm said:
How far away are your lights? I think part of my issue was my light was too far away. I'm going to add another cob or the new light bars for next year.
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2-3ft above plumeria and peppers keeping lights at 60% power. 6ft from my orchids. the more lights you have in a given area gives you a better "photon blanket" and increases the efficiency of your light source. my cobs also have optics which reduces the light spread but increases the par closer in. it also protects the chips from residue and dust which I like. optics are good in areas that are not enclosed like a grow tent or a grow room with reflective walls, otherwise they are not necessarily needed.
 
another consideration with LEDs is that they do not often heat up your grow environment like other lights do- this means that you may be giving your plants a lot of light but the leaf temp is too low and so photosynthesis and transpiration are in conflict and you get poor growth from your plants. a lot of people use artificial lighting in the winter to keep their gardening hobby going through the offseason but i'm guilty of keeping the house cold at night and when im at work to save energy which slows my plants down significantly. i over watered my plants in the winter because even though my light was on max power the temps were low at night and for most of the day so i wasn't really driving optimum transpiration. if you have a cold growspace the heat from a HID lamp will out perform every day because of infared light, waste heat from the lamp and ballast. if your environment is not warm when the LEDs are on tropical plants will not be happy.
 
you'll have better results if you add additional lights, you will get a better photon blanket and the lights will penetrate the canopy better. even better would be to add 3 more so you have 4 lights evenly spaced. 

 
 
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