A member of my local aquatic plant club ran across a new LED vendor called "Build My LED".
Build My LED Custom LED Lights for DIY Horticulture Aquarium Hobby Lighting
After visiting the site, I was intrigued because they had both horticultural and aquarium systems and you could design you own. Looking at the design you own option, I discovered they list their LED emitters by spectral wavelength, plus a couple of "white", and by beam angle rather than by perceived color temperature as everyone else does. You can also generate a report to show expected spectral analysis, PAR, lumens, efficiency, power consumption, etc. he also has a link to a study NASA conducted back in 2004 on green-enhanced lighting which is a really interesting read.
A quick email with some questions and the owner calls me back. It turns out, he has a background in horticulture, and worked for a top horticultural lighting company designing lighting systems for research facilities of some of the biggest names in the horticultural industry. He decided to leave all that and start his own company. We discussed some of the latest research in light and photosynthesis, and then about some of my plans for an LED system for a seed starting set up and for growing emersed aquatic plants in empty aquariums (for humidity), getting dimensions, planned fixture height above the plants, etc. He then sent me some 3-D PAR models to show how some recommended lights would light the setup which I posted in the club forum.
Here's the complete thread:
GWAPA • View topic - Buildmyled.com
All that said, the guy knows what he's about and for anyone looking into LED's, in my opinion, this is THE place to go.
Cheers.
Jim
New LEDs for my grow room
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