Indoor lighting whats the best bang for the buck?

[Avoman]

Yes that would be nice to get a green house tour.. all im using now is t-8s in 4 foot double tube shop lights the lights are about 2 feet above the plants and they grow but im wondering if i might get better faster growth with the COB type lights, i,ve also been using what i call an octopus floor lamp it has flexable arms to each lamp that can me moved in direction of light you that one prefers,  in each of lamp sockets i have 40 watt eqivalent LED lights, it can be bought at home depot for 20 dollars so cost is low , guess ok for home use but not a professional large green house set up, i plan to have at least a 20 by 40 green house so wonder if i daisy chain COB light system would be idea and what size of circuit breaker box i will need and i wonder if i will need 20 amp outlets or if better off to get even higher amp outlets.

[brian]

I used those octopus lights with CFLs back before LED was common.  They work well for trees because you can adjust the arms to be just the right distance from branches.  Your current setup may be just fine.  I dont know anything about PAR rating of plain old indoor lighting LED bulbs though

[Avoman]

True im not sure the common house type screw in LED loghts are very good for growing, i researched some of the higher rated COB type and looks the better ones are in the 250 to 350 dollar range and high rated ones show unavailible on amazon, including a picture of 1 i saw if anyone uses that model and likes it let me know.

[spaugh]

Try rapidled.com or timber grow lights. 

Rapid used to sell vero29s which makes the lamp quite a bit cheaper.  They stopped selling them after the trade war started now they only have cree.  Timber only sells vero29s.

[ElJefeLoco]

Yes that would be nice to get a green house tour.. all im using now is t-8s in 4 foot double tube shop lights the lights are about 2 feet above the plants and they grow but im wondering if i might get better faster growth with the COB type lights, i,ve also been using what i call an octopus floor lamp it has flexable arms to each lamp that can me moved in direction of light you that one prefers,  in each of lamp sockets i have 40 watt eqivalent LED lights, it can be bought at home depot for 20 dollars so cost is low , guess ok for home use but not a professional large green house set up, i plan to have at least a 20 by 40 green house so wonder if i daisy chain COB light system would be idea and what size of circuit breaker box i will need and i wonder if i will need 20 amp outlets or if better off to get even higher amp outlets.

From what I've read 2 feet is way too much.  Lights like that are typically supposed to be 6" from the plants.  You'll get faster and better growth just by lowering the lights!

Or are you really just looking for a new toy?

[nullzero]

2ft above you are going to need COB lights with a true +300w usage from the wall. 4 cob array pulling 80 to 100w each.

[spaugh]

Heres some pics of a 3 x 100 watt vero29 lamp.  I bought the parts on rapid led and some 1" aluminum angle stock on mcmaster.com

[Avoman]

In reseaching COB for top rated some get high marks except for nosiy fans must be a callenge to get silent fans and some it seems dont use fans to cool down at all but use some kind of heat sink instead, i dont know too much about vero 29 model, the cree made brand apears to have a very good reputation, its the cree 3590  model,,  guess my biggest complaint is COB units dont cover a very large square foot area, so paying 200 to 600 dollars to cover a 2 by 2 foot area or even a 4 by 4 foot area is pricey if trying to use very many units, i suppose most growers just have their prize favorite plants under COB and not try to cover an entire large greenhouse. Does any one have a par rating they can post of diff COB models or even how COB( PAR) numbers compares to other light types, i guess the blurpie prob has a high par number but that sounds like you turn it on then get out of area fast.

[Avoman]

I,ve seen this model i think it might be like the 1 walmart sells the price is right but i dont know what kind of quality anyone have that model and like it ?

[spaugh]

The timber website has all the ppfd values for each lamp and a par map.  The Vero29s are around 900umol/m2/s at 18" above canopy. 

In a greenhouse setting, you are adding supplemental light, it's not the same as growing indoors.  So you can cover more area with the lamp. 

The lamp I posted a photo of is more or less waterproof.  Condensation or being sprayed with the hose is not a problem.  There's no circuit board, just a sealed power supply and the cobs.  No fans to rust, no circuit boards to get wet or dirty. 

[SeaWalnut]

I,ve seen this model i think it might be like the 1 walmart sells the price is right but i dont know what kind of quality anyone have that model and like it ?

At that price for 200 watts its dirt cheap.
It also has lenses to focus the light better wich is a big plus for leds such big.

[Avoman]

Looking at test for diff brands of COB makers. It shows efficeny per watt in pictures

[Avoman]

Im not seeing many makers of COB lights using Luminus brand for some reason for fixtures and not sure why since Luminus scored the highest for the per watt test ...
so not sure if its because luminus cost more or because that model of luminus is so new to the market, it would be nice to see more makers using heat sinks instead of fans and more units being made water proof or at least high humid resistant, the vero 29 sounds like they excell in that area. Does the vero 29 use mean well brand drivers? are the vero 29 models dimmible?

[SeaWalnut]

Heatsinks like those of Spaugh are expensive and they would cost more than the lamp.
Noctua fans are really nice and quietest fans in the world but they also cost more than the lamp.
If you can source aluminum heatsinks from the junkyard you can DIY somme cheap and strong led lamps.
From computers junkyard you can find nice heatsinks even somme that have heatpipes in them.
But even if youd make a lamp with junkyard pieces you will still get more expensive than that 200watts lamp that costs just 50 dollars.

[Avoman]

Is that why most makers go with fans instead of heatsinks i like the ideal of a quite fan if im using in the house but if only using in a green house i guess a noisy fan is no big deal, i did  order that cheap 200w 59 dollar COB model i assume its full of very cheap china made guts inside but ill test it and give a reveiw over time see if my 59 dollars was a waste of money or not? What is a t5ho bulb ? And what a models  use them, i saw someone on youtube say that  the green photons in the color spectrum is not wasted by the plant but green light can penatrate to lower leaves of the plant.

[SeaWalnut]

T5HO are the best fluorescent tubes.They are thin and HO comes from high output.They are as economic as the big LEDs but the tubes need to be replaced after 10 months to a year ( depending on how much you use them for a greenhouse lighting they would last 3 years at least since you use them only for a few months in winter).
That 50 dollars/200watts lamp cant be dissapointing no matter how cheap its made if you got warranty.Its a good deal.

[Avoman]

Ok thanks for filling me in on thoughs  type of t-5 tubes the life seems short not sure a viable option to me, it seems like COB is likey the thing of future since such high quality wave length mimics sunlight  pretty well i guess, hopefully cost come down over time, that 59 dollar model i bought not even sure on warranty i thought for the price  i might just replace broken parts myself with higher quality brands internally if it fails in a short period.

[SeaWalnut]

Big leds,T5HO,HID( xenon) they all use same chemicals to make the light wich is sodium for yellow and mercury salts for blue .The efficiency its all the same ,and they are all similarly economic just that the LEDS are made of plastic and the T5HO and HID are made of glass .
Because leds are made of plastic they have really zero UV radiation (uvb and uvc ,the UVA they have a little but thats weak).
In the end leds last a bit longer ( just a bit longer not much) but they have lower quality light spectrum compared to the otthers.
The big leds wont die just like the T5 or HID dont die but they need replaced because they change the spectrum or because they become dimmer.When i change the HID bulbs they still work ,same with these leds.
If you look at a big led and see the yellow light making part,it is yellow because of the sodium .

[K-Rimes]

In my case, I wasn't willing to have fan noise since this light set-up is inside my house. The quantum boards are effectively just a COB light with a different lay out - instead of the diodes circling around a stalk and being reflected downward by the housing, the LEDs are directly facing down on a big fat panel. This is also good for cooling, since they aren't stacked all around each other. They are mounted to an extruded, anodized aluminum heat sink that gets better light distribution and cooling. A lot of the COB rigs are really expensive if you're buying them commercially a la Timber. Homebrew like Brad is pretty decent pricing.

With the two 260w boards I have, the boards and the heatsink barely get warm - it's just the driver that runs even slightly hot. It's kind of a bummer actually cause I wanted some ambient heating in my house from them...

There are so many ways to do this. You can even just buy some cheap fluorescent bulbs from Home Depot and have a bunch of little work lamp housings, which is probably sufficient and cheapest. I plan to use my lights for other endeavours later on, so I wanted something higher end than that, and also didn't want some weird aesthetic in the corner of my house... Though I guess it's still weird since it glows like the gotdamn sun. 

[Avoman]

Thats what i got now T8s in the house but i didnt know they perform so bad not sure they even would make the top 30 best plant rated lights on Migro on youtube, i got my first cob, a single, but light is unpleasent hue
 the picture brad sent the light appears white for his vero 29s i think mine is 3500k cob so im guessing brads cob lights could be 4000k or 5000k ? Im not fond of purple light on my eyes i guess the plants like it.it also makes the leaves reflect purple hue.

[Avoman]

The last 2 pictures i sent the color of light looks kinda white because i took picture with T-8higher up out of the shot if turned off picture would be all purple, the light seems kind of weak also but i have no meter to test so not sure.

[spaugh]

My COBs are 3500k color.  They just look white because they are real COBs with 80 or 90 CRI rating.  If you want your lamp to look like natural light it needs to have a high color rendering index.

[Avoman]

Oh great i think i got taken for a ride it must be a fake COB or the CRI rating is very low.

[spaugh]

The cri rating is not important for the plants at least.  Its just hard on the eyes.

[Avoman]

Yes hard on eyes i didnt know any cobs had this purple light i would not recommend the cf grow branded light a company named panda makes it in china