Tryguy
Member
For the budgetary reasons it might become handy to talk about real cheap growlights. Everywhere you look at the internet the only brands talked about are Cree, Citizen and Vero. The best? Yes! Cheap? no...
I fully understand that better efficiency results in lower power bills and better growth. But for self-use of your ladies a cheap light for as little as 3 USD can give good results. Maybe not the best, but hey, for a few bucks growing can become in reach for that smaller wallet.
All links are examples and I do not endorse the sellers, it is always best to take the name of the lamp/part and double check into Ebay to find out if you can get it any cheaper or even better, but this way I can guide you into how it looks. If it is against the forum rules please tell me admins.
At first I would like to show you that some guy at a Dutch forum tested real cheap LEDs for the vegetative state of 6 plants. Be amazed of the outcome. I ran it through Google translate to show it in English. You can read all about it: Here
The conclusion is that a 3 USD LED is the winner. For the beginning diyselfers this is an easy lamp with a srewbulb, minimum technical capabilities required. So I went on the big big internet and found these biggies. They need a cooler and an external adapter. So for a few dollars more you can get the adapter anywhere. 36 volts @ 50 watts in my case.
There are also more sellers who sell sets at ebay. For a colour temperature of 3000-3500K you would be allright when you prefer to go for a white light. (or mix them with blue/red lights)
However take note that these lights are in fact Factory rejects, they can be handy for growing. Some miss a single line out of ten lines of light or they do not light up evenly. When the lamp is horrific bad you can send them back under warranty or you lost a few bucks. Mine were 90% allright. One out of ten is missing just one line, but I don't care. They all light up unevenly but when you look at the spec sheet of the more expensive stablehorse from Citizen they claim that that is normal.
So it is best not to put them in parallel but let them run on a single adapter to avoid resistance differences and burn a few out.
But on a real low budget it is a cheap way of growing your ladies in winter time!
This subject is not intended to be a better way of growing but a different way as an approach to the more expensive parts that are being sold. The choice is yours, if you want high yield and the lowest possible power bill you better go for the A++ models from Cree/Citizen/Vero.
One last warning about working with High Power leds. They act as lasers because of the bundled characteristics of the leds so always wear protective eyewear when working with cobs.
Cheers!
I fully understand that better efficiency results in lower power bills and better growth. But for self-use of your ladies a cheap light for as little as 3 USD can give good results. Maybe not the best, but hey, for a few bucks growing can become in reach for that smaller wallet.
All links are examples and I do not endorse the sellers, it is always best to take the name of the lamp/part and double check into Ebay to find out if you can get it any cheaper or even better, but this way I can guide you into how it looks. If it is against the forum rules please tell me admins.
At first I would like to show you that some guy at a Dutch forum tested real cheap LEDs for the vegetative state of 6 plants. Be amazed of the outcome. I ran it through Google translate to show it in English. You can read all about it: Here
The conclusion is that a 3 USD LED is the winner. For the beginning diyselfers this is an easy lamp with a srewbulb, minimum technical capabilities required. So I went on the big big internet and found these biggies. They need a cooler and an external adapter. So for a few dollars more you can get the adapter anywhere. 36 volts @ 50 watts in my case.
There are also more sellers who sell sets at ebay. For a colour temperature of 3000-3500K you would be allright when you prefer to go for a white light. (or mix them with blue/red lights)
However take note that these lights are in fact Factory rejects, they can be handy for growing. Some miss a single line out of ten lines of light or they do not light up evenly. When the lamp is horrific bad you can send them back under warranty or you lost a few bucks. Mine were 90% allright. One out of ten is missing just one line, but I don't care. They all light up unevenly but when you look at the spec sheet of the more expensive stablehorse from Citizen they claim that that is normal.
So it is best not to put them in parallel but let them run on a single adapter to avoid resistance differences and burn a few out.
But on a real low budget it is a cheap way of growing your ladies in winter time!
This subject is not intended to be a better way of growing but a different way as an approach to the more expensive parts that are being sold. The choice is yours, if you want high yield and the lowest possible power bill you better go for the A++ models from Cree/Citizen/Vero.
One last warning about working with High Power leds. They act as lasers because of the bundled characteristics of the leds so always wear protective eyewear when working with cobs.
Cheers!
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