420SA Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 This is for the LED gurus on the forum. I know very little about LED's. I know about PPFD and PAR but that's about as far as it goes. I've always been using HID and for a number of reasons have decided its time to invest in LED for flower. I have a 1.5m x 1.5m tent so what are my best options? With my limited knowledge its looks like the HLG 550 is a good option but is it possible to DIY for a lot less? Are there any other options? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeradix Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Have you considered other brands? DIY can be fun, but if it goes wrong midway through your grow you risk losing a lot of time and money anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 52 minutes ago, 420SA said: This is for the LED gurus on the forum. I know very little about LED's. I know about PPFD and PAR but that's about as far as it goes. I've always been using HID and for a number of reasons have decided its time to invest in LED for flower. I have a 1.5m x 1.5m tent so what are my best options? With my limited knowledge its looks like the HLG 550 is a good option but is it possible to DIY for a lot less? Are there any other options? Look at my build it covers a 1.5x1.5 100%, and cost me a fraction of the price. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 10 minutes ago, Aeradix said: Have you considered other brands? DIY can be fun, but if it goes wrong midway through your grow you risk losing a lot of time and money anyway What exactly is going to go wrong ? Mount strips, hook up wires, connect driver, plug into power outlet. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1000Hills Nursery Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Nice topic Captain. I'm also considering the move. My only concern is yield. Could an hlg 550 or similar yield as much as a 1000W in a 1.5m x 1.5m tent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 1 minute ago, Mambawana said: Nice topic Captain. I'm also considering the move. My only concern is yield. Could an hlg 550 or similar yield as much as a 1000W in a 1.5m x 1.5m tent? You need to measure the umol and PPFD from each light, I don't know what HPS you run.. An HLG 550 2.3umol/J is able to replace a 1000W SE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkunkPharm Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 If you just work on half the price you could probably build a 630w light. There are a company/ guys on FB building these lights. They look really good. Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1000Hills Nursery Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 22 minutes ago, greenkush said: You need to measure the umol and PPFD from each light, I don't know what HPS you run.. An HLG 550 2.3umol/J is able to replace a 1000W SE. What are the average yields per HLG 550 or equivalent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 4 minutes ago, Mambawana said: What are the average yields per HLG 550 or equivalent? No idea, I've never bothered about the yields per light, I go based on heat, form factor and electricity consumption, of which the LED wins hands down. That being said if you check the international forums you will see people doing pretty impressive yields, growmau5 had something stupid like 1.9g per watt or something, but to reach those types of results everything in your grow needs to be perfect and most likely supplement CO2 as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 The HLG 550 is a nice light, although for a 1.5 x 1.5 I'd want more than 4x QB288'sI don't feel it's worth buying the original HLG either. I'd consider importing. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DankFiend Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 3 hours ago, Mambawana said: What are the average yields per HLG 550 or equivalent? Yup..interesting topic - which is kind of swaying to the debate LED vs HID. I am running a similar light in a 1.5x1.5 tent - Fluence YPRx plus rated at PPF: 1190 μmol/s. It my first grow with the light so I can't say anything for sure, but the results so far seem to me comparable to HID. However it is a damn nice light, and with a clever design to keep it cool (although switching to LED doesn't mean temperature management ends). its more expensive than the HLG 550 and you need to buy the dimmer separately. GThydro just dropped the price (as I think fluency is bringing in a new range). HLG 550 is probably better suited to your tent. To the bigger question...At the moment the message I am hearing is that the new generation of LED's are giving comparable results to HID in terms of yeilds. But this is where stuff get complicated, because yield is dependent on many things - and probably the most important being the grower. In my opinion, the light you want depends on what you growing for. For a home grower just starting out, I would suggest HID (and I can defend this). for a home grower with some cash, go LED (its like buying an apple computer - a PC is cheaper for the same specs but Macs come with so much more ease). But if you grow commercially, LED might make more sense as you do probably get a better yield per unit of electricity consumed (especially since you have to run less aircons and such) and assuming space isn't a big problem). As an aside, I have read that when growing with LED, you should run your temps higher than when growing with HID if you want comparable results (won't offer an explanation but I posted something about it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeradix Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 8 hours ago, greenkush said: What exactly is going to go wrong ? Mount strips, hook up wires, connect driver, plug into power outlet. Electronics are by no means perfect, otherwise there would be no reason for warranties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 2 hours ago, Aeradix said: Electronics are by no means perfect, otherwise there would be no reason for warranties. Yes obviously, but it’s still far cheaper to change a strip or driver. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 9 hours ago, PsyCLown said: The HLG 550 is a nice light, although for a 1.5 x 1.5 I'd want more than 4x QB288's I don't feel it's worth buying the original HLG either. I'd consider importing. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk Agreed maybe 8 dimmed down, or strips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 5 hours ago, DankFiend said: As an aside, I have read that when growing with LED, you should run your temps higher than when growing with HID if you want comparable results (won't offer an explanation but I posted something about it). Yes its got to do with IR and LST. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Green Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I have a friend who replace 3x 600w hps with 2x HLG 550's and got 960g off his first harvest. He is buying another 3 HLG 550's this week all of them R spec. He is happy as a pig in shit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1000Hills Nursery Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, Dr. Green said: I have a friend who replace 3x 600w hps with 2x HLG 550's and got 960g off his first harvest. He is buying another 3 HLG 550's this week all of them R spec. He is happy as a pig in shit What is the size of his canopy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Green Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 3m x 1.5m he still had loads of space in the area and there is 2 x dehumidifiers in there too. His biggest compliment is penatration he hardly got any Popcorn. He also doesn't veg long clonse straight into flower. He got the biggest buds off his big buddha cheese yet and have been growing that strain for 3 years 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1000Hills Nursery Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 26 minutes ago, Dr. Green said: 3m x 1.5m he still had loads of space in the area and there is 2 x dehumidifiers in there too. His biggest compliment is penatration he hardly got any Popcorn. He also doesn't veg long clonse straight into flower. He got the biggest buds off his big buddha cheese yet and have been growing that strain for 3 years One more R spec and he's gonna hit it out the park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenkush Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 35 minutes ago, Mambawana said: What is the size of his canopy? As @PsyCLown if you have relatively large surface area to cover then you'll need a few boards, the ones from alibaba specifically meiju are very good, I currently run two boards per side in my 2.4x1.2, effectively 600 watts per side. I have now recently purchase an extra 240 watt per side bringing it up to 840watts (true wall watts). The reason for my expansion was due to form factor of my boards not covering the edges are they are rectangular. Don't get me wrong these boards have done an amazing job at producing solid hard nuggets, but the hanging is a pain and as you can see in the corner and the center there are dark spots, however that is nobodies fault but my own. So I recently purchase two sets of the following boards These boards are the LM301B spec didoes and the previous are LM 561 C . I will be looking at upgrading my LM 561 C boards to LM 301B/H when funds and time permits. The nice thing with these types of boards (I am more specifically referring to samsung diodes) is that you can run them cooler and softer and still get amazing results due to their efficiency per watt. You've got to stop thinking in terms of wattage and just because you have 10,000 watts you're better off, because that is nowhere near the case, it boils down as to how effective your fixture is at converting watts to usable light and that is where the umol/J factor comes in, a standard HPS is 1.4-1.8 umol/J, HLG 550 v2 Rspec is 2.6 umol/J. So immediately you can see that the HLG will outperform the HPS. The only draw back of LED is it does not have the same canopy penetration as HPS, but if you scrogg or whatever you'll be fine, even so you will still get huge colas if you don't scrogg. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I agree with what @greenkush has said. Another thing to keep in mind, if you want to compare LED lights between one another is whether the manufacturer provides the average efficiency or just the peak efficiency. Majority provide the peak figures, I feel the average is more accurate as majority of people do not grow a single plant directly under the light and often have multiple lights to cover a certian area. Having the individual QB288 boards will provide you with more flexibility in terms of controlling your spread, you can move the lights around as needed to try and maintain an even PPFD throughout your grow area. It also provides you with the flexibility to increase the height on an individual board if you have a part (or few) which are growing much taller than the rest. Heatsinks are often an issue due to their weight, makes the shipping crazy expensive but you can get creative and find DIY ways to cool them cheaply without issues. In fact cool them better than the original heatsinks the manufacturers provide (active though, but still... can always add some redundancy if you'd like). 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
420SA Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 17 hours ago, Aeradix said: Have you considered other brands? DIY can be fun, but if it goes wrong midway through your grow you risk losing a lot of time and money anyway Have not fully considered other options so more than willing to consider other brands, provided they have a good backing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
420SA Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 17 hours ago, greenkush said: Look at my build it covers a 1.5x1.5 100%, and cost me a fraction of the price. Could you maybe list every component that your build consists or maybe a link to a thread that does? I need to try and get a better understanding of the components and what they cost individually. As mentioned I know very little about LED's so when you guys start talking QB76464 and LM76587 diodes I haven't the faintest clue what you're on about Basically what I know right now is that you need a driver, lights and heatsink Are meiju reputed? What happens if a diode or two goes, what kinda replacement costs are we looking at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GGG Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I bought my QB320's from growopz and I'm supper happy, I avg 1,2g/watt and can do much better, like someone mentioned its all up to the grower. 2 X QB320's will be more than enough for 1,5x1,5 but I think they have a QB440 that should cover that also. I don't know where to start looking to DIY so decides to safe up and buy. Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Could you maybe list every component that your build consists or maybe a link to a thread that does? I need to try and get a better understanding of the components and what they cost individually. As mentioned I know very little about LED's so when you guys start talking QB76464 and LM76587 diodes I haven't the faintest clue what you're on about Basically what I know right now is that you need a driver, lights and heatsink Are meiju reputed? What happens if a diode or two goes, what kinda replacement costs are we looking at? So an LED build generally consists of the LED's (in this case, strips or quantum boards.... I vote quantum boards), heatsinks / cooling and a driver.Then wires to wire it all up and that's really it.When it comes to LED's, they're not all the same. The actual LED diode itself makes all the difference.In terms of costs if a diodes die, pretty cheap. You'll probably pay more on shipping.I haven't actually tried to source the individual diodes locally but I'm sure one could get then without too much fuss.In terms of replacing the actual diode, if you can solder and you're comfortable with SMD then it won't be difficult at all. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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