LED question?

J

Joebob69

New Member
Hi all, I have tried this question in the lighting forum with no avail, so I wanted to try here.

I have 2 mars hydro reflector series right now. I am looking to add some supplemental lighting. Can a person use a 4ft led type lamp like you would hang in your garage? I wasn't sure about the light color and if that makes a difference or not? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
 
Joebob69 said:
Hi all, I have tried this question in the lighting forum with no avail, so I wanted to try here.

I have 2 mars hydro reflector series right now. I am looking to add some supplemental lighting. Can a person use a 4ft led type lamp like you would hang in your garage? I wasn't sure about the light color and if that makes a difference or not? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes. I run 2 Mars reflector 96's and 4 of the 4 foot white led's.
 
You could even add a reptile type supplemental UV bulb, which might help promote trichome production.

If you're using normal bulbs, remember that fluorescent lighting is low intensity and that the overall benefit from adding one two-bulb fixture is going to be pretty slight; placing the fixture very close to your plant (an inch away) so as to get maximum benefit would tend to cause shading by blocking the light from your blurples. But it'll be additive. It should add to the gross amount of light, and may help fill in any spectral deficiencies that may exist in the LED panels' illumination. If running supplemental UV, I wouldn't try placing them all that close, because too much can be damaging.

I'm actually thinking about doing the same thing. I have access to some 4' fixtures. I could easily add ~256 watts' worth of fluorescent lighting that way. It's not so much that I need to increase the illumination present in my space but, instead, that I need to increase the size of my space significantly (from nine square feet to at least 14 - and 17 square feet would be better), and cannot decrease the level of lighting.

But I also have a 400-watt HPS that can run at either 400 or 250 watts. So this will take some thought. I'd get a lot more light by going with the HPS, even at its 250-watt setting, and wouldn't be producing any more heat than I would with the tubes. So it seems pretty cut and dried. But someone wants to borrow the HPS setup. Hmm... I wonder if she'd be interested in a fluorescent grow, lol?
 
Joebob69 said:
8 of them will light an entire 50x100 body shop! They are BRIGHT!

I think I am going to try one for my closet...
Click to expand...

That's the spirit ;) .

the seller said:
Suggested mounting heights are up to 40 feet.
Click to expand...
Joebob69 said:
I think I am going to try one for my closet...
Click to expand...

Yep, lol, I like you're thinking. I retired an old metal halide fixture once and gave it to a friend. He hooked it up to his generator (at the camp) and the next day was going on and on about how bright it was and how it lit up the entire hollow. He then asked me what I had been using it to light. "Err... A 2½' x 3¼' closet."

The LED panel that I'm using came with lenses to cover the six COBs. It was described as being for high-bay applications, with recommended distance to the plants of 30+ inches. I ended up removing the lenses after noticing some mild bleaching at considerably less distance. In that case, the seller wasn't kidding. But that was a unit that had been designed for growing plants (specifically, cannabis). What you're looking at is meant to provide general illumination for humans, not plants. So you may or may not see bleaching at short distances, IDK.

BtW, I visited that web page, but was not able to view the images of the product because the website attempted to run something like 15 different scripts on my computer, and my script-blocker (thankfully) blocks such activity. But I did read the description and it states that the product consumes 165 watts. So one of the various generic LED grow light panel sellers would probably call it a "400w LED Grow Light," lol. Might be worth trying. But I'd be open to adding some other type of lighting in order to help fill in the spectrum, since the frequencies that appear to be brightest to the human eye are not really the best ones for growing plants. Still, in some ways, quantity (if there is enough) can almost have a quality of its own. I think that's why high-wattage HPS lighting performs so well. Its light may not be perfect for the growing of plants - but there sure is a whole lot of it.

If you end up getting one (or two?) and growing with it, please be sure to let us know how it goes.
 
TorturedSoul said:
That's the spirit ;) .




Yep, lol, I like you're thinking. I retired an old metal halide fixture once and gave it to a friend. He hooked it up to his generator (at the camp) and the next day was going on and on about how bright it was and how it lit up the entire hollow. He then asked me what I had been using it to light. "Err... A 2½' x 3¼' closet."

The LED panel that I'm using came with lenses to cover the six COBs. It was described as being for high-bay applications, with recommended distance to the plants of 30+ inches. I ended up removing the lenses after noticing some mild bleaching at considerably less distance. In that case, the seller wasn't kidding. But that was a unit that had been designed for growing plants (specifically, cannabis). What you're looking at is meant to provide general illumination for humans, not plants. So you may or may not see bleaching at short distances, IDK.

BtW, I visited that web page, but was not able to view the images of the product because the website attempted to run something like 15 different scripts on my computer, and my script-blocker (thankfully) blocks such activity. But I did read the description and it states that the product consumes 165 watts. So one of the various generic LED grow light panel sellers would probably call it a "400w LED Grow Light," lol. Might be worth trying. But I'd be open to adding some other type of lighting in order to help fill in the spectrum, since the frequencies that appear to be brightest to the human eye are not really the best ones for growing plants. Still, in some ways, quantity (if there is enough) can almost have a quality of its own. I think that's why high-wattage HPS lighting performs so well. Its light may not be perfect for the growing of plants - but there sure is a whole lot of it.

If you end up getting one (or two?) and growing with it, please be sure to let us know how it goes.
Click to expand...

Ok I was wondering if there could be too much light! I will keep an eye on bleaching if I get one!

I already have a couple mars hydro reflector series I'm using now.. I would just like to get this light to add some "general" light to my closet! I have a feeling one might be too bright! 23,000 lumens is crazy!
 
Joebob69 said:
23,000 lumens is crazy!
Click to expand...

I've seen 250-watt HPS bulbs rated up to 29,000 lumen :rolleyes3 , and a 1kW HPS might be over 100K lumen. (A 600-watt HPS produces less output than a 1kW, but will be more efficient.)

But the lumen scale is heavily weighted - the frequencies that our human eyeballs perceive as being brighter will rate at higher lumen than others. So it is somewhat difficult to guess at any given light source's prowess at growing plants based solely on its lumen rating. And... Because manufacturers can tailor their products' spectral output more or less precisely, that product might have lots of output in the range that helps US see, and a correspondingly less amount in the frequencies that plants need. So... flip a coin. It could help greatly... or not. I suspect that you'd be the guinea pig on this one, that you may be the first person willing to take the chance on using it as a grow light. It'll definitely help that you have some plant-specific lighting in there already. I'll go on record, lol, and predict that it'll help. But I couldn't even guess at whether it'll help greatly, and thus be worth its price, or only be marginally helpful. I'm curious to see what you decide after using it in a grow.
 
TorturedSoul said:
I've seen 250-watt HPS bulbs rated up to 29,000 lumen :rolleyes3 , and a 1kW HPS might be over 100K lumen. (A 600-watt HPS produces less output than a 1kW, but will be more efficient.)

But the lumen scale is heavily weighted - the frequencies that our human eyeballs perceive as being brighter will rate at higher lumen than others. So it is somewhat difficult to guess at any given light source's prowess at growing plants based solely on its lumen rating. And... Because manufacturers can tailor their products' spectral output more or less precisely, that product might have lots of output in the range that helps US see, and a correspondingly less amount in the frequencies that plants need. So... flip a coin. It could help greatly... or not. I suspect that you'd be the guinea pig on this one, that you may be the first person willing to take the chance on using it as a grow light. It'll definitely help that you have some plant-specific lighting in there already. I'll go on record, lol, and predict that it'll help. But I couldn't even guess at whether it'll help greatly, and thus be worth its price, or only be marginally helpful. I'm curious to see what you decide after using it in a grow.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input!

It comes in a 4000k or 5000k light color. Which one would you recommend?
 
Hmm, well, IDK, lol. Are your plants "stretchier" than you'd like? If so, the higher color temperature might be better. But that's just a wild-@ss guess. That might be a question to post in the giant Mars-Hydro thread - you could mention the M-H products you already have and ask which version would be more likely to add to your current lighting in a meaningful way.
 
Id go 4000k, great veg and flower light, its the median between both moreless. if you could only get one certain spectrum, 4000k is the goto one. Dang, and its dimmable. I might have to get one of these myself, lol.. 2 of these, with a sheet of Solex greenhouse sheeting for diffusion, plus would keep the direct heat off the plants would probably freakin rock.

Was going to get another Mars300, but Hummmmmmmmmmm. Plus, i love 4000k spec, :thumb:
 
I had a bad experience with a 4,200K light source. But I think it was due to it being an unjacketed utility metal halide bulb (lots of UV in the output, IIRC, possibly too much). Still, since IDK for sure what caused my poor performance that run, I have shied away from recommending (near) that color temperature - just in case. Therefore, I'm glad you're getting more responses than just mine, lol.
 

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