New LED Lamp

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

@Ray (but others feel free to chime in)

To adequately light a growing space (shelf) that is 20 x 64 inches, how many of these lamps would you need? How high above the leaves should they be suspended? How should they be arrayed?

To keep it simple, let's assume everything on the shelf needs Phalaenopsis type light.

Thanks!

I'd say 2 would be adequate, but 3 better. I have one 13W Ray's LED suspended 20" above a 20"x28" table of Phals and they seem to be growing nicely, although they also get some spillover light from a large terrarium behind it and southern windows about 4 feet behind it to the right and left.

[Leafmite]

Wow, looks very nice!

[naoki]

20x64" is 8+ sqft, right? For that, I would use 3-4x 32W T8 or 2x 54W T5HO for phals. LED is a bit more efficient than florescent lights, but I would think that 2 x 14W LED is even tough for phals. I use 28W LED R+B grow light for phals, but it is a bit of stretch to cover 4 sqft. So I would say with W+R 14W, you probably need 4-5 bulbs (56-72W) to cover 8 sqft. I would set the distance between the bulb and leaves to be around 6-12" (you get 520-170fc). But if it is not the only source of light (like Jayfar), then you might be ok with less.

---------- Post added at 03:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 PM ----------

Originally Posted by mexorchid

Ray, do you know the wave length of the red LEDs they put? Does the light still look white, or does it now look red-ish?




Aaron, your post is SUPER interesting - THANKS!
I'd very much appreciate if you could give me your opinion to my idea:
I understand that mixing wavelengths gives the best outcome for the plants. Do you see sense in mounting next to Rays LED bulb a little heatsink with 1x1W blue LED, 1x1W red LED (I found 680mn, assuming the red in Ray's light is 625mn) and 1x1W UV LED (420mn) and have this extra light running 4 hours in addition to Ray's bulb.
Does it only make sense if the extra light runs all day same as the bulb?
Would the UV light be too much?
Would this 1x1W red even make a difference?
Any thoughts you have on this really would be very helpful! Thanks

I'm guessing Aaron is talking about Emerson effect, which was used to discover two photosystems in the photosynthetic pathway. I thought the effect is more to do with 680nm and 700nm (not 630nm). Also, I thought that the benefit of UV is species specific, and I'm not sure if it is general phenomenon (and applicable to orchids). If you read the third link I posted yesterday, you'll see some information about combining LEDs with different wavelength. As Aaron points out, photomorphogenesis (e.g. how different light influence stem elongation, leaf spread etc) is another factor, and I'm pretty sure this effect is specific to different species. So I think optimizing the LED spectra requires quite a bit of tinkering.

[butterfly_muse]

While we're on the subject of lights, I was thinking of buying a few of Ray's LEDs for my guys over the winter. I have very few plants - only 9 in total (5 phals, 3 cattleyas and an oncidium intergeneric) that have different light requirements and will be in a very compact growing space. 1) How many lights would I need for each set of plants (3/5 phals are mounted, 2 are minis in a pot) and 2) I am still new to the light/spectrum thing so I don't really understand the different colors/nanometers/spectrum, etc. I know the basics, but all I want for the winter is to provide my plants enough light not to wither and die, and to allow them to continue growing. Will the LEDs do the trick or should I try something different? I am pretty constrained for space, so...

Sorry, I'm confused...^^;

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by butterfly_muse

While we're on the subject of lights, I was thinking of buying a few of Ray's LEDs for my guys over the winter. I have very few plants - only 9 in total (5 phals, 3 cattleyas and an oncidium intergeneric) that have different light requirements and will be in a very compact growing space. 1) How many lights would I need for each set of plants (3/5 phals are mounted, 2 are minis in a pot) and 2) I am still new to the light/spectrum thing so I don't really understand the different colors/nanometers/spectrum, etc. I know the basics, but all I want for the winter is to provide my plants enough light not to wither and die, and to allow them to continue growing. Will the LEDs do the trick or should I try something different? I am pretty constrained for space, so...

Sorry, I'm confused...^^;

I'd use three bulbs. They plug into any incandescent light fixture so finding something to plug them into is easy. I use 10 gallon aquarium hoods (just the area where the lights plug in, not the whole piece that covers the tank!) and suspend them above the plants.

[naoki]

A lot of people successfully grow orchids without any artificial light. So if you have decent window, you probably can try without supplemental light. It's unlikely they will die.

Some of us become obsessed with specs, efficiency etc (because energy costs adds up when we rely on artificial light 100%). But if you have small growth area, and if you are using it only in winter, CFL may be more reasonable. Probably 2x 23W 5000-6500K CFL? You can control the light intensity by distance, so you don't need different light sources for different light requirement. With these, it's unlikely you'll give too much light.

[butterfly_muse]

Unfortunately my windows are west facing and have trees outside so the light hitting my orchids isn't cutting it anymore because of the shortening days.

We thought about CFL but my fiance read up and thought if the LEDs could provide the same benefit, they live longer and use less energy than even a CFL. Unfortunately our heat/ac system is extremely inefficient so every little bit is going to count this winter lol. But if there is some benefit the CFL has over the LED could you tell me what it is?

[bethmarie]

I've been using Ray's LED bulbs for about a year with good results. I grow a wide range, including bulbos, phals, dendrobiums, cattleyas, angraecums..maybe a couple others I'm forgetting. My plants are healthy and blooming so far, both the high and low light ones.
I like LEDs better than the CFLs I was using. I can get my high light plants closer to the LEDs, since the bulbs burn cooler. IMO, CFLs are cheaper short run, LEDs long run. Per one source, 95% of the energy LEDs use is translated into light. I'm not crazy about the disposal/environmental issues with mercury in CFLs, but there are apparently hazards with the disposal of LEDs too. There's some info on that here, if you're interested. http://www.electronicstakeback.com/2...-incandescent/

Did I just go on and on? I think I might have. Sorry if that was TMI!

[butterfly_muse]

That is helpful thank you!!

[naoki]

The advantage of CFL is just lower initial cost. If you don't mind the initial cost, I think LED is more interesting for sure. Cree LED bulbs from HomeDepot seem to be interesting, too (with long 10 year warranty). I do like Ray's LED, and I recommend it.

Here is David's input:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post554104
LED could save about 30% in electricity over florescent (for a given amount of light relevant to photosynthesis). So instead of 2x 54W T5HO, you can use 75.6W of LED. So you can calculate how long it will take to recover the initial cost with the price of your electricity. The last time I calculated with our expensive electricity, it did take a couple years of constant use (15h/day).

If you are interested in highly efficient one, this one seem to have pretty good performance:
Lighting Science - PAR38 LED Grow LightLighting Science – The world's leading maker of advanced LED lighting.
I think the larger version of this LED was used in the 2nd link I posted here: LED related links
It's not cheap, though.