First-time Grower - help me with lights (no DIY) and tent size, please!

friedguy said:

I like to have 2 square feet per plant. Some prefer more or less. 2 give the plants enough room without crowding and without too much unused space. It depends on your grow style too.

For lighting, I like 250W (approximately) per plant.

I hate to say it, but DIY LEDs aren't hard and you'll save a bunch of $$$.

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coreywebster said:

I get where you are coming from with DIY, it is very simple but obviously I understand your concerns.

Something worth knowing, not all LEDs are more efficient or give off less heat. It has been said for example that MARS lights are only 22% efficient so less efficient than HPS which is about 30% and possibly slightly higher, so a cheap LED would give off more heat.
Although it may not seem that way because they are built with fans in which keep the light cooler, however the heat is just been dispersed into your grow room faster so it is still pumping up the temps of your grow space, even if the light only feels warm to the touch.

So if you went with a cheap LED for the low cost and less heat, which is the common reason you would be disappointed. In a lot of case you might find that it is manageable but that is really due to the fact that the light is no where near the wattage it is advertised at. For example a mars 300w is about 130w in reality. So yeah it might not produce lots of heat but nor will it produce lots of light.

I'm reluctant to recommend COBs due to you wanting to stay away from DIY but I don't think your budget allows a pre made unit
so I will meet you half way and suggest a couple of kits.

1, timbergrowlights 4 citizen 1212 200w light http://timbergrowlights.com/200-watt-citizen-clu048-4-cob-grow-light-kit/

Comes Pre wired and assembled but you do need to buy some aluminium angle for the frame. $299 you could cover a 2.5ftx2.5ft area, possibly 3x3 at a stretch so a 3x3 or 1m2 tent would work.

2, quantum boards sold by northerngrowlights, https://northerngrowlights.com/collections/all/products/90w-board-kit?variant=28170852744
2 of theses would give you 180w and cost same as above. Again its a kit and you would have to assemble but If I understand correctly its very simple to do.

Both are slightly over your budget but both would be efficient and great for plant growth and both would kick the shit out of a cheap LED light like mars or vipar.

Anyway it may not be what you wanted but I figure both are excellent for the money your looking at spending. Plus with both companies been members here on RIU you can ask questions and buy knowing they are not going to disappear into the night with your money, plus if anything goes wrong you are not having to send your purchase back to china to be repaired, Cheap LEDs are known to burn out when ever they feel like it. COBs or Quantum boards should last a very very very long time.

Do a bit more reading and speak to both companies for advice, they are very helpful. There are lots of other companies on here who also have amazing light fixtures too. I'm not biased towards any of them, just different products suit different peoples situations and budgets.

Good luck.

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Plant Lobbyist said:

If you are willing to tinker around a bit with premade fixtures, just find the cheapest chinese panel and get as many you can afford. Then open them up and underdrive them. Later on you can re-use the parts to upgrade.

You can also go with a bunch of e27 LEDs to start and upgrade when you have the funds. Bonus is you can re-use those bulbs elsewhere.

Or as people said, buy a pre-made kit.

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gunoges said:

I didn't realize they had these pretty much already assembled and just needed a mount Thank you! Is there a recommended mounting device for these? Specifically the timbergrowlights.

Also, I notice this one is 200 actual wats. How does this differ from 2x 130 actual Marshydro? that part is a little confusing to me.



Thanks for the info!

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coreywebster said:

Timber sells frames but from what I can see they seem to only sell them with the cree 3590 set ups. Possible they would do the same thing for citizen 1212s too. @RainDan would be the man to ask.


As for the watt for watt comparison to mars, these should put out more light and COBs overall put out a great spectrum across the board, you should beat the mars in yield watt for watt. A big thing for me would be mars are known to burn out, sometime very quickly, COBs have a crazy long life span. Your plants would thank you in the long run.

I'm sure Dan will give you more info.

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