DIY LED light kits?
 

Yesterday I purchased 4 new orchids at the Franklin Conservatory's annual orchid sale (including my first cymbidium! Yay!). All of the plants are extremely vigorous and healthy looking and I want them to stay that way. I've been thinking for a few months now that I want to add a new bank of lights to my shelf setup, and I think now might be the time to do it since all of the new orchids I purchased will require high light.

I've been looking at LED fixtures since I've heard a lot of good reviews about them, especially on their long life and energy efficiency. However as nearly-graduated college student these fixtures are pretty expensive for me, so I've been thinking about getting a DIY kit or assembling one from scratch (I have some tech-savvy friends who could help me out) to lessen the cost.

Has anyone here ever assembled their own LED light fixtures or purchased a kit? One other thing: I've read a lot of conflicting info about how far above the plants you need to hang fixtures, as well as how much area is covered by the lights. Can anyone give me some tips on this as well?

LEDs still are not much more energy efficient than T5 High Output fluorescent lights (unless the LEDs are run at very low power levels) and LEDs are a lot more expensive.

The latest Cree LEDs that I have seen produce 1000 lumens at 10 watts (100 lumens per watt) and cost in the range of $10-$20 per unit for just the bare LEDs. A two bulb, 4 ft T5HO fluorescent fixture will produce 10,000 lumens at about 93 lumens per watt and cost $100 or less.

I have one of these T5HO fixtures:
48" Wet Location Fixture - 54W T-5/2 - TekSupply