Building An LED Grow Light for a small 2 plant setup

[valverguy]

Hi guys,

I am from the UK, i am looking to build an LED grow lamp using only white LED's. I know many use multispectrum (using correct LED bulbs such as 660nm reds etc for flowering). However those kind of LED's are not cheap this side of the world, Where as alot of the white light (2700-3500k for instance) are available at reasonable prices.

Since i am used to growing a few small plants every 3-4 months or so with cfl. I figured this would be the way for me to go.


So i am wondering if you guys can let me know if the few bits and pieces i have been looking at will be compatible?

New 1W/3W High Power 90~240LM Epistar Chips LED Lamp Cold/Warm White Beads Bulb | eBay

(These are the warm lighting, i am opting for the 3w 220-240lm led's) As with the next lot these are Epistar ( a good make i believe). I want to run 50 of these.

New 1W/3W High Power 90~240LM Epistar Chips LED Lamp Cold/Warm White Beads Bulb | eBay

These are for the daylight, 3w 220-240lm LED's. I want to run 10 of these.

200W Switching Switch Power Supply Driver for LED Strip Light DC 12V 17A | eBay

This is the driver i wish to use to run the above. I figured it to be capable, but not 100% sure.

The reason for the low amount of cold/daylight led's is simply because i use autoflowering femenised seeds for fast bud.

Any opinions very welcome as when it comes to LED i am not familiar at all. As above i use CFL to good affect may i add. but feel a change is needed.

Thanks

 

[Hosebomber]

You can find discrete LED's at roughly the same price. You have forgotten about the circuitry and the heat sink (or simply failed to mention it. The driver you have selected will push about 4.5 amps more than you need and is not a constant current driver so you will have to add a few components into your board to burn off the excess power and stabilize the current.

 

[valverguy]

Cheers buddy, i have several other LED's i can add into the array, circuitry and heatsink i have covered. I just wanted to make sure that the LED's would first, grow the plants alright, and secondly the driver was alright for them. Thanks

 

[Hosebomber]

I would highly suggest against using a driver that does not provide constant current.

 

[valverguy]

How come? Is it not as simple as making sure that as above all of the ampage is used up? Any other issues with it?

Thanks

 

[Hosebomber]

LEDs require a constant current to be driven. Meaning that as the diode heats up it will pull more current and or voltage to attempt to maintain it's level of output. the hotter it gets the more it pulls making it hotter etc etc. This is called thermal runaway. It creates a condition that makes it hotter and to correct the issue it gets even hotter. If you stabilize the input of the current to a constant level, it can only pull more voltage. Voltage is much easier and cheaper to regulate and can be limited by proper calculation of the number of diodes on a run.