Need some help on lighting

Mcjoint

Well-Known Member
i am looking to upgrade a my grow a bit. i currently have a 30"x 18" grow space and i am looking to upgrade to 3'x3' tent. currently i use an old style mars hydro 300 and ebay cheap light of equal power draw. together they pull about 285 watts. i would like to add some more light in the tent. the research to more confused and indecisive i get. my cheapest route would be to add another mars hydro for $60 and add another 135 watts. after some reading many people claim that cob leds are the most efficient leds out for growing but they are quite expensive. i can make my own cob leds for about $170ish for 150 watts using the cree cxa3070. there exist another group of people aren't really all that great due to the fact they they don't have very much canopy penetration. i would really hate to spend $180 on lights that aren't that great. i could also scrap the leds all together and just get a 400 watt hps with an air cooled reflector for about $300 for the whole setup fan included. another opition would be to just upgrade to something like a ($350) mars ii 900 which pulls about 385 watts at the wall according to the website. my main goal is to get the best light per watt at a reasonable cost.
 
the Mars 900 looks nice keep it led to help with the heat I'm sure with the Mars 900 and the hydro 300 your rocking. Me my self i like HPS i use a 1000w set up to get fat rock buds :hug:
 
After some more research, I think I am gonna try the diy cobb setup. Par per watt seems to be most efficient with cob led
 
My tent is 3.5'high x 3'wide im planning on growin three plants what wattage LEDs do you guys recommend ? Would a single 900w suffice? ( it says max coverage 4' X 4').:Namaste:
 
ya you should be fine my buddy is running a 900w in the same size tent keeping the LED close to the plant abut 3 feet from the plant give or take
 
My tent is 3.5'high x 3'wide im planning on growin three plants what wattage LEDs do you guys recommend ? Would a single 900w suffice? ( it says max coverage 4' X 4').:Namaste:

What light are you planning to use. I would recommend at least 300/400 true watts for that size tent. After all the research I have done I will be using 6 cree cob cxb3590 3500k which will be pulling about 300 watts from the wall. If had a little more money to spare I would use 8 cobs instead of 6 giving me 400 wall pull from the wall and should be the equivalent to about a 600 hps with less heat. There is a guy called growmau5 on YouTube and he put a 7 part video explaining how diy cobb work and how to figure out par/watts And heat watt off of these cree cob
 
What light are you planning to use. I would recommend at least 300/400 true watts for that size tent. After all the research I have done I will be using 6 cree cob cxb3590 3500k which will be pulling about 300 watts from the wall. If had a little more money to spare I would use 8 cobs instead of 6 giving me 400 wall pull from the wall and should be the equivalent to about a 600 hps with less heat. There is a guy called growmau5 on YouTube and he put a 7 part video explaining how diy cobb work and how to figure out par/watts And heat watt off of these cree cob

Funny i was just out and i was going to PM you and ask after all the research you would know best my self i run two 1000w not I'm not big on LEDs but they sure do have there Pro's and grate for stealth grow ;)
 
Funny i was just out and i was going to PM you and ask after all the research you would know best my self i run two 1000w not I'm not big on LEDs but they sure do have there Pro's and grate for stealth grow ;)

Oh yes, much quieter indeed. You can run a passive cooling system for your led light and don't have to work nearly as hot to cool the space. They are pretty expensive up front but If par is all that true matters for plant grow then you should make your money back in lower electric bills and decreased heat. Growmau5's 7 videos are pretty long but he explains alot on how the light works. Plus there is a bunch of info on Google . I am currently trying to order the parts I need to start my build.
 
Nice I was thinking about switch to Led but don't know if I'll get rock hard buds that you get with HPS But I'll be checking out your build I'm interested now and I'll be checking out your set up
 
ya more light is better but you'll be fine how many plants are you growing in that tent

I am planning on growing 3 at a time any recommendations on brand ? (i want something in the 4- 7 hundred $ range) ilive in Australia and the mars II hydro look good yet it says that the switchable spectrums are only available to the US.
 
I am planning on growing 3 at a time any recommendations on brand ? (i want something in the 4- 7 hundred $ range) ilive in Australia and the mars II hydro look good yet it says that the switchable spectrums are only available to the US.
if you are able to solder some wires and know how to operate a drill, you can build you self a top of the line led system. how big is your grow space 3 ft by 3 ft ? normally you want about 50 watts per sqft or more.
 
if you are able to solder some wires and know how to operate a drill, you can build you self a top of the line led system. how big is your grow space 3 ft by 3 ft ? normally you want about 50 watts per sqft or more.
Ill search how to make them if it looks easy enough ill do it.
 
Ill search how to make them if it looks easy enough ill do it.
DIY LED basics: getting started building your own grow lights: (pt 1/7) - YouTube


here is a link to a youtube video. this is a 7 part video it will explain alot of the basics that you need to know to be able to build your own led. you have to buy the cob led, buy a heat sink, buy a power/ driver and put it all together. each cob cost about 50 from alibaba. the video will explain to you have to do all of this. if you get lost or need to help figure something out i will try my best to help you. so far i have ordered most of the stuff that i need to build my light system. the i only thing i am trying to figure out is how i want to pick my heat sink.
 
What do you know of led grow light strips?

Not to much, but I don't think they are very effective. I could be wrong tho. From what I under stand each cobb led is about 100watts. Now that doesn't mean they are pushed to 100watts. If push them to about 50% they become about 56%efficient depending on the cob you are using. Now what does it mean to be 56% efficient. It means that 56 % of the watts being used are turned into photons for our plants and the other 44% goes into heat. You can run the cob even lower and get a higher efficiency but you will need to add more cobs to to increase total wattage, so your initial cost goes up. You can run your cob harder but it becomes less efficient. AIf I am correct hps are about 35 efficient, so 65% of the wattage being used is turned into heat.
 
Not to much, but I don't think they are very effective. I could be wrong tho. From what I under stand each cobb led is about 100watts. Now that doesn't mean they are pushed to 100watts. If push them to about 50% they become about 56%efficient depending on the cob you are using. Now what does it mean to be 56% efficient. It means that 56 % of the watts being used are turned into photons for our plants and the other 44% goes into heat. You can run the cob even lower and get a higher efficiency but you will need to add more cobs to to increase total wattage, so your initial cost goes up. You can run your cob harder but it becomes less efficient. AIf I am correct hps are about 35 efficient, so 65% of the wattage being used is turned into heat.
so does this mean the more efficient the less heat?
 
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