Let's see your lighting setups!

[Foogoo]

naoki, that's exactly what I'm trying to do, thanks for the great suggestions! I'm also looking at that light (from a different seller), do you have any experience with it? Based on the lumens data, I'm thinking the 50W may be too much for phals.

[naoki]

Foogoo, the ebay 30W COB LED I got should be similar to these flood lights, and I'll measure fc once the replacement arrives. Since my reflector will be a tuna can for now, the prebuild flood light with a proper reflector will be much better than my crappy one. I'm pretty sure 30W should cover about 2-3 sqft of growing area for Phals (possibly 4 sqft). If you have a larger area, 50W may be better. But if you have more rectangular growing area, 2x 30W may be more usable.

(update): I just posted the measurement here.

Also, you are aware that there is a risk that these cheap LEDs might not last, right? I've heard that a few people has successfully used it for growing plants for a year or so, though.

I don't know how the flood light version is dealing with heat, but I think it is passively cooled (i.e. no active fan). DavidCampen mentioned in another thread that heat management does influence the efficiency of LED quite a bit.

[Laserbeak]

In my experience, the cheap LEDs from eBay are so dim that I doubt even Phals would survive let alone thrive with them alone.

[hcastil3]

great info in this thread Thanks everyone

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by naoki

DavidCampen mentioned in another thread that heat management does influence the efficiency of LED quite a bit.

For a typical example, on page 10 of this datasheet for a deep red LED, you can see that at a case temperature of 100 degC the efficiency drops to about 65% of what it is at a case temperature of 25 degC.

http://www.ledengin.com/files/produc...LZ4-00R200.pdf

[Andre]

Well I have gone from T8's,to T5's, to Metal Halide, to LED, and now I've gone back to HID.
My lights were changed up quite a bit over the past 13 years depending on my indoor growing space. I'd have to say the Metal Halide lights have been the best... I use a bulb skewed to have a bit of the red spectrum.
Right now I have a 1000 watt digital ballast, that can burn either MH or HPS... A cool feature of this ballast is that you can dim the light intensity from 100%, 75%' down to 50%. I have a good quality reflector on pulleys to easily adjust the height of the fixture.
It's only been a couple of weeks and roots are starting to grow like mad on my Vandas, and Epidendrums... The setup is a work in progress. I am still moving plants around.

[Andre]

[blackvine]

Oh, I LOVE this thread!! Just what I needed, having some trouble with lighting. I will post my set up tomorrow after all the hubub today is over. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanuka, Happy Kwanzaa, and all those. (I probably murdered spelling of the last two, but the sentiment is there . . .)

[Purple_phal_gal13]

3 tier shelving with CFLs


3 tier black shelving unit found at target with two 6" aluminum spot light housings and a 3 light tree.

All the lighting is CFLs, with a combination of daylight bulbs and the warm range. The light output of each bulb is above 1200 lumens. I've had good success with getting a few orchids to rebloom under the improved lighting. I've recently enclosed the shelving with Reflectix. Essentially insulating reflective coated bubble wrap. It has a decent fire rating as well which is comforting. It is humidity and mold resistant due to its material make up. Non toxic and the most ingenious thing.

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk

[jeremyinsf]

Here's mine.

Four racks total (currently haha). T5HO with either one or two bulbs. Two racks wrapped in 95% reflective vinyl. One sits next to a frosted window, with one light on the bottom for the multi-florals. One outside for the Masdevallia's and some besseae.

I have quite a few plants (psychopsis and phrags) in the living room in front of my bay windows, not pictured.

The point being, I have plenty of room for more plants!