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Just dipped my toe into LED's (not a DIY thread)

buggedcom

buggedcom

Some of you may have read that my 3 week old 2700K CFL just went pop. And given my recent findings that CFL's have a certain fail rate, I've just purchased some of these leds instead things, and they are not too cheap either. Now I know they are not as powerful as some of the bigger boys out there however I can't really stretch to those amounts.

I've ordered, 6 x Red and 2 x Blue. I communicated with a nice guy called Mark on the sales team and I got a bulk discount of $33.99 instead of $39.99 for ordering 8. (If you order some perhaps you mention Oliver from Finland and maybe I'll get a better discount in the future?)

I intend to run some performance tests on these and will keep the thread updated.

Oh and also I'm looking for something to run the bulbs in. If was thinking something from Ikea but may make my own, but since I have no electrical knowledge feel free to offer any advice.
 
I found those spotlight type LEDs give a very narrow footprint. If you only have a few plants they will probably work just fine, but for a large tray of seedlings they won't give very good coverage without being quite a distance away. I forget what you wanted them for...
 
Yeah it's not seedlings my 6400k cfl is still working fine, these are for flowering. I intend to get somekind of spotlight mounting system going on so i can focus then on specific plants or at least rotate them. I only have about 40 plants so it's not that many.
 
Cheers. I'll be interested too as I've read lots of conflicting results. I think it boils down to the fact that you can't just use LED's for a healthy plant and as I still have the other CFL as mentioned I think it will be ok. but we will see. If the worst comes to the worst and they are rubbish I'll just get another 2700k CFL as the primary light and use the led's as suppliments.
 
bugged,

I hope you have better luck with yours than I did with mine. One section of the LEDs, about 1/4 to 1/3 of them quit working within a month

Mike
 
Yeah I read a whole load about his LED tests on Green Pipe, but he only really performs big tests on the more powerful kit as opposed to the stuff aimed towards hobbyists like myself. That said I did read a bit about led bulbs on there.
 
buggedcom said:
Yeah I read a whole load about his LED tests on Green Pipe, but he only really performs big tests on the more powerful kit as opposed to the stuff aimed towards hobbyists like myself. That said I did read a bit about led bulbs on there.
Click to expand...

There's a reason for that. Only powerful lights will produce fruit, unless a pod or tom here and there is satisfactory. Outside, it is extremely overcast right now, almost like evening time. Yet I am getting 2.3-2.5K lux.

It's hard to compare the lux of LED lights to others since they are a single spectrum, but the 14 watt ones usually check in at less than 5K.

I do believe they are the future in grow lights but they are not there yet as far as affordability goes.

Mike
 
Ah well, I'll see how they go. Given that I'm getting 8 hopefully it should be ok.

I just thought I would try an alternative given that CFL's are soooo expensive in Finland. If they don't work out I'll get another CFL as mentioned and either use them as supplemental lighting. Either way I'm excited to see them arrive and give em a test.
 
The title makes it sound like you...

stepped on a LED plant grow light panel, some LEDs broke, and you got electrocuted.

Anyways... post some pics if you please
 
wordwiz said:
It's hard to compare the lux of LED lights to others since they are a single spectrum, but the 14 watt ones usually check in at less than 5K.
Click to expand...

The problem is that you can't use a normal light meter on a red/blue LED panel, because these are not sensitive to very much light outside the green spectrum.
 
i read that as well, and no one really has a definitive answer as too if they are worth the money you pay for them. But if they do last 15 years that is definitely and advantage.
 
I didn't just read that. I found one on fleaBay, and it had a link to an instruction manual. Inside there I found a chart that showed the reading spectrum. Almost no reading in the red and blue areas at all.
 
I've used both the 14 watt red, blue and red & blue panels, the 15 watt "flood" type (red & blue) and a 45 watt red & blue panel. My experience is the 14 watts are great for seedlings but cover only about a 14" square area. The 45 watt was good for growing plants to maturity, though I never did get buds (I think that was my lack of experience growing in water) - the plant had extremely great foliage.

Mike
 
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