Best LED if money was no issue

[fanleaf]

I plan to grow mostly sativa strains. I like energetic high. I got some here, but it is indica and I'm always sleeping when I toke. I plan to toke during daytime lol.



Thank you! So I only need 350 watts. I'll buy 400 watts since that's the only set up in Timber. Can I combine two different color spectrums? Like 4000k and 3500k for my set up, will that be better for my grow? And will 8 COB lights fit in a 3x3 grow tent?

If you diy yes, uou can build a rack custom for your tent. 400 actual watts would be great. The nice thing about the Timber Kits is that you can dim them and run whatever wattage you want. For instance durring veg plants dont need a ton of light so if you have your light timer plugged in just pick up a " kill-o-watt" meter from your local hardware store. Then plug that meter into your timer then your light plugs into the meter. That way you can see exactly what wattage your pulling throughout the grow. So in veg you can dim to say 270w then in flower crank to 350-400.

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[TorturedSoul]

I plan to grow mostly sativa strains.

I like energetic high. I got some here, but it is indica and I'm always sleeping when I toke. I plan to toke during daytime lol.

I'll buy 400 watts since that's the only set up in Timber.

Each COB setup consumes 50 watts? I have read of people using nine COBs @ 50 watts each in a 3'x3' space (one centered over each ft²) which provided both a great deal of illumination, great coverage (IOW, no dim corners), and the pattern of multiple lights helped lessen the likelihood of the uppermost leaves/etc. shadowing what was underneath. If the sativas you are growing are of the pure landrace equatorial type - say, for example, strains from the Congo or Kenya in Africa, Columbia in South America, et cetera - then a really high level of illumination might be advantageous. AND, with the dimming function of those lights, you can give them less illumination during the vegetative phase - which might help you keep from overgrowing your tent when you switch to the flowering phase and those sativas stretch 3x (or more) during the first 40% of the flowering period, lol... Not only can you get by with a lower level of light during vegetative growth, but most folks run 16 or even 20 hours per day of lighting, so they are giving more light hours than when in flowering (IOW, even if the amount per hour is less, with much more hours...). Although... If one is standing directly on the equator, they will notice that they get around 12 hours of daylight year round - true equatorial sativas do not really need such a difference between vegetative and flowering (you could, in theory get by with 14 hours per day during vegetative, especially if the intensity is high). I have even heard of people successfully running 13/11 and then switching to 11/13 to initiate flowering with some of those strains (possibly increasing to 12/12 after, say, four weeks in the flowering phase when the plant is actually in flowering mode). But such things are probably meat for another thread, lol, one in which you might find yourself discussing the relative merits of different light schedules, smaller containers to restrict root growth and (hopefully) overall plant size, the dangers of overfeeding landrace sativas, et cetera.

Can I combine two different color spectrums? Like 4000k and 3500k for my set up, will that be better for my grow?

I looked at a chart a few days ago that suggested different (overall) color temperature COBs were beneficial in different ways. There was, of course, some overlap. But I would think it would be fine (and maybe even better than otherwise) if you mixed them a little as long as your setup/pattern was also mixed (IOW, don't place all of one color temperature on one side of the tent). Again, if you are going on the long and perilous journey to find the ultimate sativa (lol), you are going to have to deal with growth patterns that average much higher than indicas - so perhaps a few higher color temperature COBs might even be appropriate.

x x x
x x x
x x x

...gives you nine lights in a "tic tac toe" pattern. You could do a few different patterns. The middle one on each side (total of four) a higher color temperature, the four in the corners a lower one, and the remaining space in the center either one of those or something in between. That is just an example of what you can do to customize your lighting when you are running multiple separate light sources like that.

And will 8 COB lights fit in a 3x3 grow tent?

Just remember that you'll still be producing heat, lol. And those lights (AfaIK) aren't air-cooled, so you'll have to be able to move enough air through your tent to remove the heat that gets produced. But the same is true with any light source.

The nice thing about the Timber Kits is that you can dim them and run whatever wattage you want.

pick up a " kill-o-watt" meter from your local hardware store. Then plug that meter into your timer then your light plugs into the meter. That way you can see exactly what wattage your pulling throughout the grow. So in veg you can dim to say 270w then in flower crank to 350-400.

That's a great idea! I use my Kill A Watt from time to time for checking power consumption, but never really thought about using it to "tune" the wattage of one's LED lights. +REPs!

 

[fanleaf]

Just remember that you'll still be producing heat, lol. And those lights (AfaIK) aren't air-cooled, so you'll have to be able to move enough air through your tent to remove the heat that gets produced. But the same is true with any light source.

They are actually air cooled. I'm running mine right now. I'm currently running the 3k's at only 25W each and the heatsinks on the back don't even get above room temp.
I'm running my 5k's at 65W each and the heatsinks are just above room temp. I can run them up to 80+ watts each but I have more than 1 cob per square foot so it's unneeded for me to run them hard at all.

I can tell you that since I just took out all of my Platinum's and other 3w LED's and am now running these cobs, my air conditioner is off far more than it's on. These hands down produce far less heat than my 3w led's do.

Thanks for the rep's brother!

 

[TorturedSoul]

They are actually air cooled.

I guess that was a poor choice of words on my part. What I meant was that they are not air-cooled in the traditional sense, IOW, there is no intake duct on one side and exhaust duct on the opposite side so that the grower can remove the heat that the thing produces without it mixing with the atmosphere of his/her grow room. Sort of like, well, any air-cooled HID reflector. AfaIK only one or two of Amare Technologies' Pro models (such as one version of their 900-watt panel, IIRC?) and possibly one other LED brand have this option. All the remaining LED lights / panels - if they have any active cooling instead of relying on passive cooling - merely use built-in fans to cool the lights by blowing the grow room's air across them. Which is to say, the cooling apparatus is just a heat exchanger - removing heat from the LEDs and adding it to the grow room's air.

Whether one notices or not, such lights - like all lights - DO add heat to the grow room. 400 watts' worth of lighting adds, what... between 1,200 and 1,300 BTUs per hour? That's the down side of setups like these that use multiple (separate) COBs - or multiple CFL bulbs, for that matter - one cannot easily segregate the heat given off by the lights from the grow room in general. That complicates sealing the room for CO₂ supplementation, it means that one's exhaust fan needs to be sized at least a little bit larger (capacity), one's carbon filter lasts at least a little bit less (both because there is more air moving through it AND because that air is somewhat hotter than it otherwise would have been, which decreases the efficiency and lifetime of the thing), et cetera.

Obviously, many people run setups like that - multiple CFL bulbs (I have only seen a couple examples of "sealed" air-cooled CFL reflectors, probably either because it forces the grower to place all of the CFL bulbs together or out of some misguided idea that CFL bulbs are "cool"), growers using MH and/or HPS bulbs in "open" reflectors, growers using HIDs in a "bare-bulb" setup... and probably 99+% of growers who use LEDs. <SHRUGS> But it's less efficient on several levels. OtOH, I have read about the concept of using water-cooled CPU type products to cool COBs in a DiY setup, and that looked intriguing. Sure, it goes against the "KiSS" principle, lol - but it seems relatively straightforward, and it has been around for years in the computer overclocking world. The grower could use a liquid to remove the (light's) heat from the grow room and send it to some kind of water-to-air heat exchanger. Or he/she could use a reasonably large reservoir sitting on his/her concrete basement floor (even mine stays relatively cool in the Summer - and my house is like an oven with a mailbox attached :rolleyes3 ); a thin-floored reservoir that was relatively large in area but shallow might be the most efficient, here. If the grower is large enough to have a pond worthy of the name... I doubt the average personal-sized grow would produce enough heat to raise the temperature of a pond enough to begin killing the fish wholesale (although I suppose I could be wrong). Such heat undoubtedly wouldn't even be noticed in an in-ground swimming pool. And I briefly wondered if a reasonably large household - married couple with two or three children - would flush a toilet often enough that the small amount of water in the storage tank would be "refreshed" enough times per day to serve the purpose of a water-cooled reservoir... before I realized that not everyone's toilet was manufactured in (I found a date on mine last year, lol) April, 1970 - and that newer models use far less water than the older ones do. A setup that is well thought out (and well-built) should NOT suffer any breaches, high-quality pumps can literally last years (and with a little effort, one could build in a second pump for redundancy), and many (most, lol?) COBs have provisions for temperature sensors, so one could add in the ability to either shut off the power to the LEDs or else drastically dim them (20%? IDK...) in order to safeguard against overheating damage in the (very) unlikely event that an issue occurred. Best of all, water-cooling setups would allow multiple COBs to be used but not require them to be placed side-by-side in a single enclosure.

Yes, a water-cooling setup would cost more in the short term. But the title of this thread IS "Best LED if money was no issue" .

I'm running mine right now. I'm currently running the 3k's at only 25W each and the heatsinks on the back don't even get above room temp.

Both logic and physics states that they would have to. They are producing heat - and the heatsinks are, in turn, being heated by them and radiating that heat into the grow room. It's just that old "multiple sources of less heat (each) instead of a single source that is hotter (but producing the same amount of gross heat output)" thing fooling you. IOW, shove them all into a small well-insulated box, add an unwrapped frozen ice cream sandwich, seal the lid shut, fire the lights up, and come back in twelve hours to see how they - and the ice cream drink I mean sandwich are doing, lol.

I'm running my 5k's at 65W each and the heatsinks are just above room temp. I can run them up to 80+ watts each but I have more than 1 cob per square foot so it's unneeded for me to run them hard at all.

They're all going to be above room temperature (to one degree (lol) or other, depending on the wattage that they're eating). A larger heatsink just spreads that heat out, making any particular area less hot (again, simple physics) - but it's all the same if the heatsinks/fans are inside the grow room - all the heat is, too.

I can tell you that since I just took out all of my Platinum's and other 3w LED's and am now running these cobs, my air conditioner is off far more than it's on. These hands down produce far less heat than my 3w led's do.

That would be attributable to one or more of: less gross wattage, higher efficiency of the replacement products, lower ambient temperature, et cetera. My guess is that efficiency plays a part. Electrically-powered lights... eat electricity and crap out two things, lol: light and heat. Law of Conservation of... IDK, I'm burnt . But as an extreme example, if a light is 1% efficient, for every 100 watts' worth of electricity it consumes, it is only producing one watt's worth of light (so to speak - I know light isn't measured that way) but with a 99% efficient light, for every 100 watts that it consumes, it produces 99 watts' worth of heat. Now that doesn't mean that the 99% efficient light produces 99 times less heat because light, itself, seems to produce heat when it interacts with solid objects (or... something). But, anyway, even a 99.999999999999(etc. to infinity)% efficient electric light will produce some heat.

I'm just rambling. It's either that or climb up on the roof and get the neighbor's cat down, and my extension ladder got ran into by a truck and is "a little" bit bent (won't collapse any more, won't "sit" straight, probably isn't nearly as safe as it looks (which is not very )... So I figured I'd wait until it got dark and everyone else in the neighborhood went in for the night so that if I ended up falling of, I wouldn't die...

...of embarrassment .

Guess I better go get the poor thing off now, though. Looks like it might rain (probably just enough to raise the humidity, but...) in a few hours, and that thing has been up there all day so it looks like it doesn't believe that cats always land on their feet....

 

[NorCaliwood]

Anyone have a idea about this one? I always wanted to try a LED in a 4X4. When I first looked at LED they were a joke. Single color pannel.. Then big time,, tri color.. But I know they have come a long ways,, and conbonations that should work great. But awhile back I had enough to invest in one.. I'm still kicking myself for playing black jack and losing it.
I hear good thing about the UVB light last 2 weeks. But they are hella spendy. Really tho,, your first crop wood pay for it.. Who knows, one day I might end up getting one, one day. Thanks and Keepem Green

 

[fanleaf]

Adding a HUGE amount of UVA and UVB is pretty cheap. These lights are no joke and in 15 minutes gave my face a hell of a sunburn.

 

[Komplex180]

That setup is insane brotha!


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[fanleaf]

That setup is insane brotha!


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Haha. Thanks man. Thats my baby 25 CXB3590 cob array...Heres my big dog 42 CXB3590 array.
42 Cree CXB3590 array test#1 - YouTube

 

[Jaystor]

The only convincing leds with the right spectrums are perfectsunled and spectrum king. Kind led is ok with the spectrum but is overpriced imo. Those leds that dim off more red are just ordinary ones. Most leds lack blue and yellow/green thus we can see more red with our naked eyes. You should really look at the spectrums the leds got (you want bit of uv/ deep blue/ deep red)


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[fanleaf]

The only convincing leds with the right spectrums are perfectsunled and spectrum king. Kind led is ok with the spectrum but is overpriced imo. Those leds that dim off more red are just ordinary ones. Most leds lack blue and yellow/green thus we can see more red with our naked eyes. You should really look at the spectrums the leds got (you want bit of uv/ deep blue/ deep red)


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Please explain your expertise and knowledge. If those are the only LEDs with the correct Spectrum how is it that white cob LEDs can Harvest over 1.9 grams per watt? This will be interesting. Just a single 90cri cob covers the whole spectrum minus uv which is simple to add.

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[Jaystor]

Obviously i dont know all leds. Leds with correct spectrums will work - that is my point and so far out of all leds i know those are the ones that convinced me. Looking at the graph that light covers wide spectrums which is what you are looking for in an led along with light intensity. Look i m just a newbie here sharing my insigt/ experience no need a bash


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[Jaystor]

Like i said look for leds with correct spectrums and i think u ll be good to go for it


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[NorCaliwood]

Fanleaf I popped over and looked at what you threw together,,, it's a monster... Can I ask wha your total actual power draw is? And are the warm? Your doing waht 5x5 or close right? That Solar Storm I was thinking of a all in one unit, kind of turnkey pug and play type shit.. That is one hella light. You got good light all the way to the floor? Keepem Green

 

[fanleaf]

Fanleaf I popped over and looked at what you threw together,,, it's a monster... Can I ask wha your total actual power draw is? And are the warm? Your doing waht 5x5 or close right? That Solar Storm I was thinking of a all in one unit, kind of turnkey pug and play type shit.. That is one hella light. You got good light all the way to the floor? Keepem Green

My large 42 chip in the video above is in an 8x8. It runs whatever wattage I want at the turn of a dial. From 10 watts to 2500 watts. I never need 2500 or even close but I built it so its there if wanted. They are the coolest running light man. At 60% efficient at a nice soft drive they turn more power to light instead of heat then anything out there really. For instance a Double ended hps is hard for any light to beat and is 41% efficient. Most blurple led lights are under 40%

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[buzzychuck420]

It's pretty simple he's full of shit and opened his mouth cause he couldn't help but be jealous and bash his shit . Well dude your rooms the fucking bomb I'm not jealous I wish I had one like it lol

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[fanleaf]

Honestly the only reason I said anything is because I don't want newer people reading things that would make them think that they need to spend $2000 on a name. Even red and blue led's will contain green, yellow and orange parts of the spectrum. Some more then others. Yes, spectrum is important and certain parts of it more than others. It has been shown though that there is one thing that takes on even more importance.....Intensity! Cannabis has shown it's ability to adapt to whatever light it's under. Intensity (par/ppfd) is the key. The higher the ppfd per watt is where the main concern is. Yes, we want reds and blues with a touch of IR in flower along with a hint of orange and green but plants will adapt. Having intense lights is where it's at.

 

[buzzychuck420]

Yep it's pretty simple it's a weed and it adapts. I've proven that growing in a dam abandoned parking lot lol. Like the lights man I'll slowly start buying one at a time in the next 6 months. I've got a 6 by 6 room so won't need quite as many .

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[fanleaf]

Nice job man!

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[GroZone]

I'd suggest checking out black Diamond led's, I'm growing with their perfectsun500

these are the clones that I'm growing right now under the PS500 and that's when I first got them and then 16 days after

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[Komplex180]

I'd suggest checking out black Diamond led's, I'm growing with their perfectsun500

these are the clones that I'm growing right now under the PS500 and that's when I first got them and then 16 days after

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I've actually seen a few grows with this light and the results speak for themselves. I'll probably upgrade to them once I pick up a 3x3


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