My new LED grow room. All home made panels.

Well this is my overhauled grow room. I swapped out all my 600 me and T's in the veg side and all 4k has for flowering. I made all the panels myself. This is just the mother plant area. The small flowering panel on the right is just a demo I made for the very first one. Let me know what you think.

Looking really nice, I wonder how much power you will be saving, nice set up cant wait to see a harvest picture!!

Just red and blue LED's? Brand? Generic? Power Usage?

Well, forgot some info. They are LED 's I got from ebay. I soldered them myself. I have run them for 3 months with nothing in the room. Just to see what the power consumption would be. Before with the other lights my electric bill was $540 a month. With my whole room set up it is now at $287, which is $40 more than what I use with no room at all. No fans. Did have to go buy a little space heater since the led give no heat at all. Lights are all the way up since the plants are getting used to the light. Yup, just red and blue for flowering. 75% red to 25% blue, and for veg just straight blue. Out of the 70+ panels I made, this is what I found is best since it produced the best results. In veg I get 1 1/4 inch growth a day, easily. Most often if I put the light to close and forget to check on them for a couple days I find they are touching the light. All are 3 watt, found that 5 watt was over kill. In the flowering room I have a total of 5k in watt from led. Complete overkill, buy they love it. I tried the other colors like the amber and yellow and whites. Found that they didn't do as good. If you have more question feel free to ask.

Nice. Looks like you've done lots of testing.

i like the reflector build. Is that a custom reflector or retrofitted a commercial one?

what nm ranges for blue and reds?

bud shots!?

If you like deep blues check out Steves Leds Luxeon ES M4R bin. I calculated it at 55% efficient (700mA 50c). That is probably twice the efficiency of generic blues and they are cheap ~$3. It is a very short list of LEDs that can reach those levels. The Luxeon M C5G bin is the highest @ 57.7% (700mA 50c) but they are 4X the price. The Cree XML2 U2 bin is 56.4% (700mA 50c) and that is a cool white about 2X the price of the Luxeon ES.

Let's see a bud shot That was my last batch.

I cannot justify spending $3 for an led when I get the same led for $.28, granted I am buying them in big bulk also, but they are are 700mA also and a high current also. My first test panel has been on for 5 years and 3 months now. I have tried Cree led's and fou d they did not like being turned on and off. About half burned out.

I forgot to answer the housing. I am a big believer in green, so I reuse the light housings from old schools and building when I get the chance. The reason why is that the housing is 2x4, which in a 4x4 tent is beyond awesome. Since I went out of tents my yields went up double fold. I think it is good. I love that I am able to reuse and item that would otherwise be thrown away.

Very nice, how hard was it to make?

mk3coupe said:

Out of the 70+ panels I made, this is what I found is best since it produced the best results.

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What....? Where are the rest of them?

I'm not to good electronicly, the hardest thing to overcome was the cost and buying a great light meter. These still are running a little to open to where if I put the plant under it without a easing in period, the plant will burn. They are kinda spendy, but the fact that my room doesn't get to 103 temp wise and I don't need ducting is well worth it. Plus I don't have to replace bulbs every 6 months.

Frosty buddage.

Love the reflector idea, been thinking of rigging one up

I've junked most all of them. Needed to to reuse the parts. Shit got spendy quick. A lot of them went to make small small light closet and computer box grows. I've thought about building them for a grow store here, but they want to mark it up way to much.

mk3coupe said:

I've junked most all of them. Needed to to reuse the parts. Shit got spendy quick. A lot of them went to make small small light closet and computer box grows. I've thought about building them for a grow store here, but they want to mark it up way to much.

Click to expand...

That is the most brutal commitment i have probably ever read about in a DIY capacity...