New LEDs for my grow room

[littlefrog]

I haven't made much noise about it yet, but I'm selling a 4' LED 'tube' that fits right into a t8 or t12 fluorescent fixture. You might see others selling them soon. The nice thing is that they aren't that expensive (~$30 per 'tube'), and they don't use the ballast that comes in the fixture. So, for old fixtures that are dying, you open them up, do a little simple wiring (pulling out the old ballast) and put everything back together, throw the LED tubes in.

Plus side, you get to reuse your fixtures, and they are drawing a fair amount less power (on my meter, the white tubes draw 15W). They are also cool to the touch. And actually compared to most of the other LED products out there, the price per unit area (as long as you have rectangular areas) is pretty darn good.

Now everything has a downside... First, I haven't tested these for a long time yet, I don't know how durable they are but they seem pretty good. Second, the only 'growlight' style tubes I can get (red and blue) are not particularly powerful. The white ones are bright as heck (easily the same as a T8 bulb).

Also have 2' tubes...

Just a thought.

Rob

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

Okay...Maybe you can solve my conundrum then.

My current flourescent fixtures I use in my grow room are dying of old age. They're lighting various orchids, house plants, seedlings and tissue cultures.

Specifically, I have a grow chamber where I need a completely new lighting system that will not raise temps more than 5 degrees above ambient temp in a sealed box approximately 48" x 24" x 60" high. I would prefer lighting in 450-500 nm and 630-700 nm wavelengths, and could produce as much or more useable light whilst using less electricity as we recently de-regulated and my electricity rates are almost doubling.

What do you recommend?

Thanks.
Cheers.
Jim

---------- Post added at 10:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 AM ----------

I concur that this seems a bit too good to be true... One thing that you see coming out of China (and I buy out of china a lot) are lights listed at X watts (where X is very high), but when you actually put them on a meter they draw 1/2X or less. Some of this is on purpose (you don't want to run 3W LEDs at the full 3W, I guess, and different colors run at different voltages). Some of this is hype...

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

A 600 watt LED fixture with 200 3watt LEDs for $400! I find that hard to believe. 2 watt to 3 watt LEDs from a reputable manufacturer, LEDs only- no housing or power supplies, will cost you $1.50 each in lots of 1000.
High Power LEDs - White | Mouser

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by escualida

Cool, yeah I had seen that I just didn't really knew what it meant in terms of equivalents.

It doesn't mean anything in terms of real equivalents. The "wattage" values that that ebay is assigning to his lights have no basis in reality; they are just numbers pulled from thin air. The ebay vendor's so-called "300W" fixture that is really only 180 watts (and I don't believe that it is even 180 watts) is not equivalent to 300 watts of fluorescent lighting; it may not even be equivalent to 180 watts of fluorescent lighting. 180 watts input power to a well designed LED fixture could be about equivalent to 270 watts of T8 or T5 fluorescent but I doubt even the 180 watt number for the ebay "300W" LED fixture.

I would still be interested in seeing photos of the power supplies in these units. I wonder if they are even certified by the appropriate testing laboratories? If not then you may want to include a fire suppresion system as part of your installation.

Here is a photo of a good quality, Taiwan made, LED power supply.

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by littlefrog

. Second, the only 'growlight' style tubes I can get (red and blue) are not particularly powerful. The white ones are bright as heck (easily the same as a T8 bulb).

This is probably an artifact of the sensitivity of human eyes to different colors of light. Human visual sensitivity peaks at a wavelength of 555 nm (green). The eye is 16 times more sensitive to 555 nm light than it is to 660 nm light (deep red) and 250 more sensitive to 550 nm compared to 420 nm (blue).

Most inexpensive light meters are also made for measuring illumination for human use and have a green filter to make them a closer match to the sensitivity of the human eye.

Luminous Efficacy

[littlefrog]

Actually in this case I meant wattage, not visual intensity. The red/blue 'tube' leds are sold as 10W (sometimes 15W), but I've never had one draw much more than 5W. I don't have the equipment to validate my assumptions, but I usually assume given the same wavelengths (ish) that the more wattage the fixture draws the more light I'm getting. I'd really love to get the tubes as true 10W, or using a different chip, but I'm limited to what I can purchase.

That said, I still use them. I'm mixing them 1:1 in fixtures. White and color. It does seem to be a good solution, white is nice for viewing the plants, and the color is there to add to the growing spectrum. It is just one of many setups I'm trying...