DIY LED advice needed

Odysseus

Odysseus

Good afternoon! I'm new to the forum and thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself. I've grown peppers outdoors in pickle buckets with mixed results but this year, I need to grow completely indoors because my yard gets little sunlight and is prone to flooding.

I'm planning on building a roughly 2 x 6' grow box and using an LED setup strong enough to get plants to actually produce peppers. I have a very limited budget for the lighting (< $100). Perhaps my limited budget makes my goal unattainable, but I hear that much of the expense of LED setups can be avoided if you are willing to solder your own connections. I can solder, I can do complex math, and I can build just about anything. I just don't know much about what components I should choose for this application (SMD or COB; how many lumens needed; what wavelengths of light; what other components are needed).

I appreciate any help you guys are willing to give me and I'll understand if you tell me I can't build an effective light within my budget. Cheers!
 
id love to help you out
 
100 bucks is to little $ for that size garden
 
 
 
unless you have access to free aluminium and already have all the wire and screws on hand then 150-200 is possible
 
consider that you have 12 square feet of space in there
 
so you are trying to light it @ $8.3 per sq ft?  no lighting system will be that cheap
 
You might be better off trying to go HPS for the amount of room you are needing. For a few more dollars you can get a 400 to 600w HPS with reflector, ballast and bulbs. LED tends to be narrow. 
 
The DIY LEDs are not cheap by any means. However...if you find the right Chinese models they have the drivers and aluminum already there to play with. However I agree, the 100$ mark won't do much.

There is a great guy on YouTube... GrowMau5 that has a slew of DIY videos. One deals with converting Mars Hydro array to COB. But again, the original light is hefty up front.

http://youtu.be/1CvL4-Sbs90
 
louis-123 said:
Hps might be cheaper to buy, but more expensive to run... I choosed to go with Led, works well so far!
Click to expand...
Not necessarily true. My 1k Hps cost around $230 for everything including 2 bulbs. Efficiency is at 140lm/w. My mars hydro 600w costs around $150.00 at 35lm/w. Taking both into consideration, an led has a better spectrum but don't think for a second that you can skimp on power due to the spectrum. You will still need around 1k watts for led (just as an example) which will cost almost $900 in panels, but it will be slightly better in terms of growth. Even with bulb replacement at $30 a bulb for hps being replaced every 2 years or so, it still is cheaper than the total cost to get the leds to match the hps. If its cooling you want a 400 cfm inline doesnt cost hardly anything to run. 
 
You don't need to match watt for watt from led to match hps. I running A led panel that has 290 actual power draw to cover a 4x4 tent. Led and other systems are much more efficient than hps:-)

Cheaper to get started? Yeah but you will pay in the long run.
I don't think a person has to have a 1000watts of led to match 1000 watts of hps.
Not even close.
I have replaced all my household lights with led. They use 8.5 watts and are brighter than the old 60 watt incandescent lights. Yeah they cost a little more but last 10 yrs. So they pay for themselves easily.

I've found a website that sells replacement led lights for my camper,very cool:-)

Now I've used both hps and mh and would used again. I would say my led panel hangs with a 400 watt hps maybe even a 600 watt light. And there is Noway I would attempt to use a hps in the summer without ac. I can with my led panel. I'm using a 4" ho can fan 165 cfm. No way could I do that with a hps :-)
 
Flaming Youth said:
You don't need to match watt for watt from led to match hps. I running A led panel that has 290 actual power draw to cover a 4x4 tent. Led and other systems are much more efficient than hps:-)

Cheaper to get started? Yeah but you will pay in the long run.
I don't think a person has to have a 1000watts of led to match 1000 watts of hps.
Not even close.
I have replaced all my household lights with led. They use 8.5 watts and are brighter than the old 60 watt incandescent lights. Yeah they cost a little more but last 10 yrs. So they pay for themselves easily.

I've found a website that sells replacement led lights for my camper,very cool:-)

Now I've used both hps and mh and would used again. I would say my led panel hangs with a 400 watt hps maybe even a 600 watt light. And there is Noway I would attempt to use a hps in the summer without ac. I can with my led panel. I'm using a 4" ho can fan 165 cfm. No way could I do that with a hps :-)
Click to expand...
What brand led are you using, and can you show me the numbers? Ppfd etc. I've found that you would need to exceed the lumen efficiency of hps to greatly make leds worth the purchase. I've ran both side by side and my hps dominates the led in growth speed and spread. My 1k hps puts out around 5170 umol at the surface. My Led puts out 871 umol at 280 true watts. No comparison. Even at 36" hps is at 300 umol. If I can justify moving to led I will, and I definitely want to. I feel though, it just isn't where it needs to be to make it worth while.

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That's the thing about led panels that use to drive me crazy. Yours is a 600 watt panel that uses 280 watts. To me that's a 280 watt panel.
My panel is a 2011 Spectra 290 led panel that draws 290 actual watts. In no way am I saying mine is the be all end all of led panels :-)

Back when I purchased mine there was major led and hps wars going on . Old school verses new tech.etc.
I did come away with a few opinions about the subject. One,not all led panels are created equal. Some are just plain junk. Misleading watts is a big problem. That's what I like about Spectra's panels.
But they had a bad batch of panels that destroyed that company.
If you were lucky enough to get a good one,they work:-)

But I don't think I would compare just one brand of led panel at 280 watts to a 1000 watt hps.
I do remember all kinds of comparison grows and side by sides,lol
I do believed a good quality led panel can out perform hps.
Would my 290 watt out perform a 1000 watt hps? Nope I don't think so.
But 2 of my panels in a 4x4 that's 580 watts? Yeah I would do that all day long.
 
Almost all panels show "equivalent" wattages.

Best advise... Pick a brand email them your grow area and ask them.

I have several diff panels and manufacturers and my two 60 watt Hans Panel rock beyond belief. All about the components and configurations. Really is.

Peace
 
95% of the light from hps is wasted in the form of non usable light and heat. My Spectra panel is advertised to be 80% more efficient.:-)
 
I could definitely do led if half the led wattage could equal a hps. I've been researching it till I'm blue in the face bc I'm about to expand out. I also don't want to be confused with the other guys that use it for illegal stuff due to wattage use lol. When I see that 300-400 watts of led can produce 5000 umol at the surface, then I'll make the switch. Even with a 400 watt mars II producing 1000 umol at 187 watts, do the math. It's 935 watts needed to produce that or something similar. Not much savings there unless you have a lot of panels.

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I personally will not be invested into LED until it can produce a 20 diode.   
 
I looked into a DIY system, learned the ins and outs, and came to the conclusion that until the tech catches up to the need I won't be looking into it.  
 
Vicious Vex said:
I personally will not be invested into LED until it can produce a 20 diode.   
 
I looked into a DIY system, learned the ins and outs, and came to the conclusion that until the tech catches up to the need I won't be looking into it.  
Click to expand...
 
it has caught up check out cree cxb 3590 3500k CD bin
Xpur3log1cX said:
I could definitely do led if half the led wattage could equal a hps. I've been researching it till I'm blue in the face bc I'm about to expand out. I also don't want to be confused with the other guys that use it for illegal stuff due to wattage use lol. When I see that 300-400 watts of led can produce 5000 umol at the surface, then I'll make the switch. Even with a 400 watt mars II producing 1000 umol at 187 watts, do the math. It's 935 watts needed to produce that or something similar. Not much savings there unless you have a lot of panels.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
?
what are you talking about? 5000 umol at the surface of what? u only need 300ppfd at the canopy to flower peppers very well
mars are less efficent than HPS
 
500w of top bin(not thise silly chinese spiderman lights)LED will crush 1000w of HPS
 
N8thaniel said:
 
it has caught up check out cree cxb 3590 3500k CD bin

?
what are you talking about? 5000 umol at the surface of what? u only need 300ppfd at the canopy to flower peppers very well
mars are less efficent than HPS
 
500w of top bin(not thise silly chinese spiderman lights)LED will crush 1000w of HPS
Click to expand...
I'm talking about the surface of the light. Problem is the intensity of the bulb makes you come off from it. So using inverse square law means by the time you are 36" away from an hps for example due to burn or whatever. You'll only be receiving around 300 ppfd. If you start out with low ppfd numbers to begin with under led, you will still need to back up atleast 12" which cuts it by 4? Still trying to understand all of the details lol

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I don't know why people compaire Watts.
I think Plant useableable light is what matters,in the LM needed for Whatever plants.
 
In general,Halides,T 5's and a Lot of Leds are pretty much the same in usage costs,per watt.
 
I see LED's costing more at first to buy,but Will outlast most other light sources.
 
The red and Blue thing isn't important these days.
 
Lot of different White Leds are way better for plants.
Super cool replacements for the T12's we used before.
I like the new LED's in 5000-6500 K for my peppers,in the much higher LM. they put out.
 
I use my 1 watt DIY panels these days-well over 5 yrs. old.
As they fry,I'll use White LEDS.
These days I can get a ton more LM out of White LED's.
Same K and LM as other light sources-close to the same cost to run them.
 
In general I see little savings in usage costs,But my plants Love the extra LM.
I have 4-6 in. plants Heavily budding up on my grow shelves right now.
 
My grow is My Grow.Might not work for you.
But I like listening to my plants.
I've always been into trying new stuff.
What works for Me might not work for you...
 
I really don't like the complicated stuff people use on the net,a lot of times.
Simple rules for me.
I do get a lot of cool harvests....Lighting or nutes.
 
I ended up building a DIY LED setup using Vero 29 4000Ks.  I mentioned it in another thread, but since you guys are comparing HPS to MH to commercial LED panels to DIY LED panels and what not, I figure it's relevent to the conversation to post it here:
 
LEDs:  2 Vero 29 4000K
Driver:  Meanwell HLG-185h-c1400
Heatsink:  HeatsinkUSA 4.6" profilie (19" long for passive cooling for 2 LEDs)
 
They only draw 101.92 watts together but they put out a combined 14,490 lumens or 206.6 PPF.
4.62 umol/Joule QER
They are 43.88 % efficient (photons/heat) giving me 44.72 PAR watts total.
r4OlNd6.jpg
 
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