- Expensive to purchase
- Require expensive ballasts
- Expensive to operate
- Short limited life spans
- Hazardous materials
- Fragile
- Excessive heat
- Limited K values
After quite a bit of investigation I have come to believe there are two types that stand out
- Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)
- LED
Neither is cheap to purchase and at this time LED is very expensive, but I just found components to build your own LED light bar which exhibit none of the problems I've listed above!
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| A Standard LED Grow Light |
The components to build and equivalent 400W 36000 lumen grow light at less than 1/2 the cost!
This is just one of many LED K values that are available and a wider spectrum could be made by including other K valued LED Chips.
12V power supplies are very inexpensive thanks to the computer industry.
Total cost about $200
While searching for your components you may find some bulbs are listed in 'mcd' rather than lumens. Here is a converter calculator to help you design the grow light you wish to build.
Coming Soon! New LED technology
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22106718
Hey I'm planning to buy LED Grow Lights but now I'm having having second thoughts. After seeing this I want to try and build my own grow light and this post is really helpful. Thanks
ReplyDeletePlease let me know how things work out for you. I'm still a bit leery of LED's. I posted another article about lights and spoke about Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)which have been proven to work. The bulb gets very hot but the total heat wasted is low. The heat is concentrated whereas with LED is dispersed. I'm not saying LED waste as much heat, but the perception is different.
DeleteThe nice thing about CMH is that they do not have to be close to the plants and the spectrum is very wide.
http://chicoaquaponic.blogspot.com/2012/03/lights.html
I'm a little confused about the BLULED products. They claim to have tested the female leaf using 24 different wavelengths and 13 different spectrum ratios. Are they developed specifically for marijuana? I see no mention of being able to select different plant groups.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed they drive the LED at about 50%. That indicates to me they are building a quality product that will last a long time.
How awesome! I would love to make my own led grow light!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, I was hoping to find this. We've been looking for led grow lights. I can't wait to get them.
ReplyDeleteI proposed this LED light system as a an idea, but never built it. Yesterday I was shopping for LEDs for my house, and found a variety of K values. 2700 - 5500. Be sure to get the ones you need. As I recall the 5500K range is best for vegetation, and 2700 is good for blooming. I don't understand some of what I've read, but I have heard that LED light does not penetrate well. If you have used LED for growing I'd like to hear about your results.
ReplyDeleteI finally went with a 400W Ceramic Metal Halide because I only need it in the winter and the heat which is generally considered a loss is not wasted in my garden room because it helps to heat the room during the cold Winter months.
Thanks for sharing this about the led grow lights. I think these are actually really cool! My sister has used them and she says that they are awesome!
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ReplyDeleteCompared with the traditional road lighting technology such as HPS and MH, the main attraction of LED street light is energy saving. Its characteristics include: long life, predictable life, more accurate color rendering, fast opening and closing, in line with RoHS standard, little attraction to night insects, and low glare. Even at low temperatures, it has higher light output and makes it more suitable for different uses.
It is nice when we can use led grow light to grow indoor garden, but with DIY, it can save lots of money if we do in the right way.
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