LED light help? IR and UV questions? Is more better?

[Bweezy]

Hi all...i question on these two led lights, does more ir and uv lights mean it's better or should I stick with less? Please any comments will be helpful! Thanks to the 420 community!

 

[Old Salt]

The second light will turn off some of the LEDs for bloom or grow. Who knows if all the UV and IR lights are turned on in both modes for the second light.

Take a look at the lights, and check how much power they are drawing from the wall. You need at least 30 watts from the wall per square foot of grow area for cannabis. I have seen several 1000+ watt lights advertised on Amazon that draw less than 100 watts from the wall.

 

[Emilya Green]

We really don't know yet about the uva and the ir either... many of us are experimenting with that now. As said above, dont go by advertised wattage... always know what their actual draw is.

 

[Bweezy]

Yea ive never went by the advertised watts iknow the actual draw is 300 probaly with both switches on and I was planning on picking 3 of them up ..two for a 2x4 tent and one for a 3x3

 

[Old Salt]

Yea ive never went by the advertised watts iknow the actual draw is 300 probably with both switches on and I was planning on picking 3 of them up ..two for a 2x4 tent and one for a 3x3

2 x 4 = 8 sq ft, 3 x 3 = 9 sq ft. Unless you plan on using the 3 x 3 for mothers, cloning, and veg, you'll probably need more light in it.

I'd go with two of the lights and complete a grow in one of the tents to see how they perform.

 

[Bweezy]

I'm lost when it comes to lights, I'm a outdoor grower just coming into indoor and am all just confused on lights I like hps and mh setup but don't like the heat problems or the electricity use and on the other hands led have problems with having airy buds, just really dont know like I said I want a preputial grow with 4 to 5 plants and only have a 3x3 and 2x4 tent whats everyones take on this?

 

[Old Salt]

I like the 2' x 4' tents, as I can reach the back of them easily to maintain the plants. They also fit well in my house. For anything deeper, I'd need access to both the front and back of the tent. I've also found that tents 5' high and under are good for SCROG, veg, cloning, and mothers. There's just not enough room for the plants to grow. Gorilla Grow Tents has a 7'-8' tall 2 x 4, and you can find clones on the 'net for about 1/2 their price.

For lights, my experience is with the King X6 Dimmable 1800W COB LED Grow Light which draws about 300W from the wall. It's barely adequate for growing cannabis in a 2' x 4' tent, despite the manufacturer's claims. I'm almost finished a DIY 8 COB array for flowering which should be much better. Most folks regret buying off-brands with great manufacturer's claims through Amazon or eBay.

As with anything, you get what you pay for.

 

[Bweezy]

Old salt ..i was thinkng on running two 1200w philzon about 300 actual draw in the 2x4 tent for veg and 1 1200watt philizon in 3x3 flower tent...but also been looking at cree cob cxb3590...ever use these?

 

[PurpleGunRack]

I think you should look at better lighting options than these ''cheap'' blurples/chinese box lights/mono diode caskets or whatever you wanna call them
They're no more efficient than HID, a lot less reliable and the fans inside them are loud AF.

In reality the small spectrum tweaks make close to no difference if the plants are saturated with light, you need much more IR or UV to see if it has an effect, it's just marketing...

I highly recommend going for either HID if you're on a budget, or for proper quality LED like Quantum Boards or high end COBs (you can get better and cheaper COBs than CXB3590 nowadays)
These will give you 50% more light per watt than the blurples (and HID) and they're 100% silent and don't break down or have diodes burning out / dimming down.
Like night and day

 

[Bweezy]

I think you should look at better lighting options than these ''cheap'' blurples/chinese box lights/mono diode caskets or whatever you wanna call them
They're no more efficient than HID, a lot less reliable and the fans inside them are loud AF.

In reality the small spectrum tweaks make close to no difference if the plants are saturated with light, you need much more IR or UV to see if it has an effect, it's just marketing...

I highly recommend going for either HID if you're on a budget, or for proper quality LED like Quantum Boards or high end COBs (you can get better and cheaper COBs than CXB3590 nowadays)
These will give you 50% more light per watt than the blurples (and HID) and they're 100% silent and don't break down or have diodes burning out / dimming down.
Like night and day

I was thinking of getting 4 or 5 cob cxb3590 for a 2x4 and 3x3 tent whats your take on them?

 

[Old Salt]

We went through comparing COBs and LED strip lights a while ago in this thread.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'm lost when it comes to lights, I'm a outdoor grower just coming into indoor and am all just confused on lights I like hps and mh setup but don't like the heat problems or the electricity use

Well, if you get an LED of the same wattage as a high pressure sodium, the electrical usage will be roughly the same, differing only slightly and that because the amount of loss due to not being 100% efficient (nothing is, really) is likely going to vary just a bit from one electrical device to another. In other words, a 600-watt HPS will probably consume just over 600 watts - whereas two 300-watt LED panels will probably consume... just over 600 watts .

Heat, depending on your setup, could actually end up being more of a factor with LED. Consider the two aforementioned lighting setups. The 600-watt HPS will probably be in an air-cooled reflector and will almost certainly have a remote ballast. The air-cooled reflector gives you the option of cooling your light(s) on a completely separate ventilation run - air comes in, passes through the reflector, and goes out again without ever entering your grow room's "atmosphere," so to speak. It hasn't picked up any scent, so no need for a carbon filter on that ventilation run. Therefore, no backpressure added - meaning you might get by just fine with a cheaper fan, since you won't need to move air through an obstruction. The ballast, normally, would be placed outside of the grow space, so it's heat production isn't even counted. The two 300-watt LEDs... Just have internal fans cooling their components - no flanges to connect ducts. That means you must cool the lighting and cool / ventilate / sanitize the odor as one unit. And the LEDs' power supplies are internal - which means that, unless you want to "remote them" yourself (which, admittedly, isn't difficult), the heat those power supplies produce is getting dumped directly into your grow space.

LED grow lighting is kind of cool. And some of the newer stuff does have an efficiency edge. But we cannot really state that "LED is cooler and cheaper to run than HID," in the generic sense. Not having to replace bulbs regularly seems like a clear "win." But LED panels occasionally fail (or partially fail). Then you get to send the product off for repair or, if you can determine the exact problem and which components require replacement, request repair parts be shipped to you (and hope that they do so in a hurry ). With HID lighting, on the other hand, you'll probably end up with an aged - but still functional - bulb in a cupboard somewhere that you can swap in about 30 seconds. Or, if not, you might be able to pick one up locally. So I see that whole "no bulbs to replace" thing as being a potential benefit that depends on quality of the LED product's components (and of the labor which assembled them) and on the individual gardener's circumstances/situation.

I'm NOT saying that you shouldn't purchase an LED product. Just that - again, "in the generic sense" - a random LED product is not an automatic win over a random HID product. And, for that matter, vice versa.

 

[Bweezy]

Well, if you get an LED of the same wattage as a high pressure sodium, the electrical usage will be roughly the same, differing only slightly and that because the amount of loss due to not being 100% efficient (nothing is, really) is likely going to vary just a bit from one electrical device to another. In other words, a 600-watt HPS will probably consume just over 600 watts - whereas two 300-watt LED panels will probably consume... just over 600 watts .

Heat, depending on your setup, could actually end up being more of a factor with LED. Consider the two aforementioned lighting setups. The 600-watt HPS will probably be in an air-cooled reflector and will almost certainly have a remote ballast. The air-cooled reflector gives you the option of cooling your light(s) on a completely separate ventilation run - air comes in, passes through the reflector, and goes out again without ever entering your grow room's "atmosphere," so to speak. It hasn't picked up any scent, so no need for a carbon filter on that ventilation run. Therefore, no backpressure added - meaning you might get by just fine with a cheaper fan, since you won't need to move air through an obstruction. The ballast, normally, would be placed outside of the grow space, so it's heat production isn't even counted. The two 300-watt LEDs... Just have internal fans cooling their components - no flanges to connect ducts. That means you must cool the lighting and cool / ventilate / sanitize the odor as one unit. And the LEDs' power supplies are internal - which means that, unless you want to "remote them" yourself (which, admittedly, isn't difficult), the heat those power supplies produce is getting dumped directly into your grow space.

LED grow lighting is kind of cool. And some of the newer stuff does have an efficiency edge. But we cannot really state that "LED is cooler and cheaper to run than HID," in the generic sense. Not having to replace bulbs regularly seems like a clear "win." But LED panels occasionally fail (or partially fail). Then you get to send the product off for repair or, if you can determine the exact problem and which components require replacement, request repair parts be shipped to you (and hope that they do so in a hurry ). With HID lighting, on the other hand, you'll probably end up with an aged - but still functional - bulb in a cupboard somewhere that you can swap in about 30 seconds. Or, if not, you might be able to pick one up locally. So I see that whole "no bulbs to replace" thing as being a potential benefit that depends on quality of the LED product's components (and of the labor which assembled them) and on the individual gardener's circumstances/situation.

I'm NOT saying that you shouldn't purchase an LED product. Just that - again, "in the generic sense" - a random LED product is not an automatic win over a random HID product. And, for that matter, vice versa.

So whats your take on cobs Cxb3590 ?

 

[PurpleGunRack]

I was thinking of getting 4 or 5 cob cxb3590 for a 2x4 and 3x3 tent whats your take on them?

Great COBs, but they're obsolete in the sense that better and cheaper COBs are available, like Luminus CXM22 gen3 or Citizen CLU058 - 1825 gen6, and the lights that use middle power diodes like the Quantum Boards are even more efficient.

You need at least 4 COBs @ 50w each for each of those tents, the QBs are definitely a better choice for the 2x4.

 

[TorturedSoul]

So whats your take on cobs Cxb3590 ?

I got really excited about them some time ago and was all set to replace the six 2530s in my big hybrid (COBs plus "monos" plus a small fluorescent UV tube) LED panel. But then I quickly realized that they weren't the same physical size and that, therefore, I'd either have to figure out a way to do quite a bit of trimming to the panel and/or the "reflector cups" AND give up the option to then screw the retaining rings that hold the six optional 90° lenses in place... or (possibly, if they'd even physically mount inside the case without any modification) end up sending a non-insignificant portion of their photons into the case instead of onto the plants. At which point, I completely forgot about them.

But they were the cat's @ss for a little while, I think. I also think that they started getting some serious competition from some other brand's (brands'? IDK) top offering not long after that, and one which was cheaper, too. But I might be mistaken about that. I'm really about as far from an expert on LED components as someone can get who actually owns products that contain the things, lol. Hopefully, someone with real knowledge will see your post and reply.

I think the competitor that I'm vaguely remembering might be Citizen. CLU... something or other for the actual COB, IDK.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Someone like PurpleGunRack, lol. Thanks!

Great COBs, but they're obsolete

 

[Bweezy]

Well I figured out I'm going with top quailty lights but I have several options, heres a few I'm looking at for a 2x4 tent with 3 or 4 plants ..which would you think be the best


Timber lights I think it's the 3vl the one with three lights for the 2x4

Model 3VL

This three (3) COB LED light fixture features Bridgelux Vero29 COBs and a Meanwell driver. Remote driver placement helps with managing heat and custom color temperatures are available. Designed and engineered to cover a 2 x 4 coverage area for full cycle/flowering.

timbergrowlights.com

Optic led 2x4 3 optic 1 cobs non dimmable


Rapid leds 2x4 setup wit 4 lights dimmable


Don't know which one to get they all look awesome

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi all...i question on these two led lights, does more ir and uv lights mean it's better or should I stick with less? Please any comments will be helpful! Thanks to the 420 community!

Hi Bweezy, IR and UV is helpful for growing, but not the more the better, if too much , it will also influence the grow with less quality or less yields.

 

[Grassmaster]

In the winter IR is helpful by heating the plants and soil so they don't go dormant. In the summer it would be a negative. UV is helpful in killing mold and deterring mites. Making the plants tougher with thicker leaves resistant to pests and more resin production to protect the plant. A CMH is known for these properties.