Need lighting advice

Grow room size is 8x11
I was told by local shop that the Rolaedro 1200 w were good and 4 were enough for my grow area. Since then through reading and a lot of communication with others I don’t have nearly enough light. The 4 rolaedro pull 225w each. Have been told to look into quantum boards but from what I can tell I’d need a lot of them.
been told to go with. Spider farms or Kingbright. Also been told to go with something like Phlizon Cree Cobb Lights. I am at a loss somewhat other than I need more light. Also been looking at building own qb but don’t know where to source.
I am a first time grower since I got my card 2 months ago. I am six weeks into northern lights 9 plants in fox farm. Also been told if I don’t add lights now my blurple rolaedro’s will make for poor yields
Help.
mom alibaba I found some qb I could buy 2 sets for 515 after all costs. Claim is 5x5 veg for each.
on amazon two phlixon for similar area is 800+ for the 3000.

Also, I am trying to stay around 500 to add enough lighting if it’s even possible. I have spent a lot on this grow room and I have wasted a bit trying to it right but choosing the wrong contradictory opinion. Example is spending 7-800 on lights only to find they are not enough by a fair margin and the same money would have been better spent on either QB or Cobb/Qb/Led mix.
didn’t go with other proven lighting options due to heat concerns and high energy usage concerns.

Bottom line is you desperately need watts. HID will be the cheapest you have 88 sq. 88×40 (W per sq ft.) You need at least 3520 actual watts.

Yep.
I may just have to go that route due to cost. Find some way to cool the room. Have 8” intake and ventilation.

It will depend on your climate as what is best for you, initial cost vs production.

If you go with HPS you can remove around a 3rd of your heat by air cooling. But that doesn't help if your already living with ambient temps close to desire grow room temps.

Sometimes it seems like the rest of the world gets charged a lot more than we do in Europe.
But to give you an idea of cost. I can pick up a complete 600w HPS kit, ballast bulb and reflector for around £50-£60
Lets say you fill your room with practicality in mind, 3x600w hps covering 8x4 on one side and the same on the other with an isle down the middle.
That gives you 6x 600w HPS for £360 and covers 64 square feet using 3600w of power just on lighting..
You could also go minimal and use 4x 600w hps but that is stretching it and 4x1000w hps would crush it in that sort of space.
That doesn't take into account you will likely want to air cool the lighting which will double the budget.

Then lets consider LED, say you went with kingbrite 240w board kits, the basic ones work great, you could last I checked pick up the v1 240w kit for around $100-$115.
You would need 4 of them per 8x4 so 8 total, plus shipping and any tax that may apply in your country.

Or you could look at building your own set up using strips and L or U shaped aluminium as heat sink and frame, if you wanted to save more you could use a meanwell lrs power supply which are cheaper than a hlg driver. You can probably build for around 50-75cents per watt.
Outside of that it would be hard to build something cheaper than kingbrite offer the whole kits for.

These options I offer up are mostly due to the fact you were sold down the river with your initial lighting plans and I don't think you were expecting to have to pay several thousand more dollars to properly light up your room. So I have kept budget in mind.

Bottom line is you can shave off 1/3rd of your power consumption by going LED, you can reduce heat but that can be done with HPS by air cooling.

None of that matters if your climate is already too warm and then you need AC to cool the room. If you have room to work with (can afford some temp rise) then its a matter of how much airflow you use to keep the room at ideal temps.

One other thing to consider is growing under white LEDs you want a higher room temp overall. Where growing with HPS you can afford to be lower.

Anyhow that some basic stuff to consider.
If you have any specific questions just hit the reply button.

Good luck!

With high end leds you only need about 400 to 500w per 16sq feet to get over a lbs in that area. ( real wattage) You do get what you pay for. There are plenty of decent lights on Ali. Just hope not to get a quality issue. For reference A 400 to 500w high end light should be about 750usd to 1000usd hope it helps

Good site to bone-up on info.

Rollitup peeps will get you on the road to harvests.


Me. I might consider adding a 4 pack of 315w CMH.

Ive also been looking into a new light and have been leaning towards the spider farmer sf4000 for my 4x4. Anyone have any input or experience with this light? I've watched reviews saying it's a good light for the price ($599 on Amazon)

OGBudz said:

Ive also been looking into a new light and have been leaning towards the spider farmer sf4000 for my 4x4. Anyone have any input or experience with this light? I've watched reviews saying it's a good light for the price ($599 on Amazon)

Click to expand...

Lean, but don't leap until you do your homework.

CHECK OUT ON YOU TUBE THE electric sky es300 full spectrum with a full body aluminum heat sink has no fans with a 3 year warranty also es160 I think es300 $660.00 with a savings code this light I very power full

Wow guys, thank you very much. A lot of good information. For the time being I've combined my current grow into a smaller area and an aquaintance of my oldest son is selling me his philzon unused for half the cost, a guy my son knows that grows a lot. Come December I wil add more lights and will be going with more LED simply because I already have cooling issues without going to hps etc.
I looked into the alibaba led panels and will see but they've kinda spooked me with the pressure sales stuff.
This is the second time in the last week that I've been told to grow with white light; I wish I had run across that prior. I did a lot of reading and light reviews but unfortunately when I set up I had not joined any sites like this.
I like the idea of building light set up...I've looked into it some and it could be a lot cheaper option and more flexible as well.

On another topic what does curling tips and faded leaves mean? My ph is too high; i've been using strips but have a better test kit coming in as well as one for soil and nutrients. I started cal-mag+ spray yesterday because of signs of deficiency there (spots) and am doing a nute mix of bloom:grow as of this last week as they were showing Nitro deficiency as well. Now I've got the tips curled and the ph off for some reason lately. Change in the water filter I am guessing. I am so close but so far to the end.
I'll add pictures tomorrow if that will help.

TintEastwood said:

Good site to bone-up on info.

https://ledgardener.com/category/builds/

Rollitup peeps will get you on the road to harvests.


Me. I might consider adding a 4 pack of 315w CMH.

TopoGrow 315W CMH CDM W/3100K 120V Vertical Grow Light Kit for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TopoGrow 315W CMH CDM W/3100K 120V Vertical Grow Light Kit at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Click to expand...

coreywebster said:

It will depend on your climate as what is best for you, initial cost vs production.

If you go with HPS you can remove around a 3rd of your heat by air cooling. But that doesn't help if your already living with ambient temps close to desire grow room temps.

Sometimes it seems like the rest of the world gets charged a lot more than we do in Europe.
But to give you an idea of cost. I can pick up a complete 600w HPS kit, ballast bulb and reflector for around £50-£60
Lets say you fill your room with practicality in mind, 3x600w hps covering 8x4 on one side and the same on the other with an isle down the middle.
That gives you 6x 600w HPS for £360 and covers 64 square feet using 3600w of power just on lighting..
You could also go minimal and use 4x 600w hps but that is stretching it and 4x1000w hps would crush it in that sort of space.
That doesn't take into account you will likely want to air cool the lighting which will double the budget.

Then lets consider LED, say you went with kingbrite 240w board kits, the basic ones work great, you could last I checked pick up the v1 240w kit for around $100-$115.
You would need 4 of them per 8x4 so 8 total, plus shipping and any tax that may apply in your country.

Or you could look at building your own set up using strips and L or U shaped aluminium as heat sink and frame, if you wanted to save more you could use a meanwell lrs power supply which are cheaper than a hlg driver. You can probably build for around 50-75cents per watt.
Outside of that it would be hard to build something cheaper than kingbrite offer the whole kits for.

These options I offer up are mostly due to the fact you were sold down the river with your initial lighting plans and I don't think you were expecting to have to pay several thousand more dollars to properly light up your room. So I have kept budget in mind.

Bottom line is you can shave off 1/3rd of your power consumption by going LED, you can reduce heat but that can be done with HPS by air cooling.

None of that matters if your climate is already too warm and then you need AC to cool the room. If you have room to work with (can afford some temp rise) then its a matter of how much airflow you use to keep the room at ideal temps.

One other thing to consider is growing under white LEDs you want a higher room temp overall. Where growing with HPS you can afford to be lower.

Anyhow that some basic stuff to consider.
If you have any specific questions just hit the reply button.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

The taxes are a bit of a killer here and with the trade war I am assuming; shipping is adding around 200 to cost to order out of country. Yes, the surprise cost for more lighting when I've already put over 4 into the room is killing me. I am in this for the long haul and am not going to back out now so I'll be ordering more after I do a lot more research and questioning. See response below for my temp solution. Cut grow area down to 5x6 without overcrowding my canopy too much... closer than I'd like but cannot be helped.

First time grower + LED = Good Luck Buddy!!

I'd second @coreywebster

Here's a rough guidline for some LED options, all data groupings are roughly equivalent to each other in light intensity, the space indicated by the <---> is the ambigous range between the 2 extremes.

LM561C S5
(76 chips/ft2) <---------------------> (152 chips/ft2)
(31.5W/ft2) <------------------------------> (27.3W/ft2)
(50.3% eff) <---------------------------------------------------> (58.1% eff)
(150mA) <------------------------------------------------------------> (65mA)
(156°F, 69°C) <-----------------------------------------------> (97°F, 36°C)

LM301B/H SK
(72 chips/ft2) <---------------------> (144 chips/ft2)
(27W/ft2) <---------------------------------> (24.6W/ft2)
(58.8% eff) <---------------------------------------------------> (64.4% eff)
(132mA) <------------------------------------------------------------> (62mA)
(131°F, 55°C) <-----------------------------------------------> (95°F, 35°C)

All temps besides the 156°F measurement are estimates.

The low chip count data sets (far left) will get hot without heatsinks/fans and as a result their lifespan will be reduced compared to cooler operating lights.

All other light options, QB288 ect should run cooler (dependent on chip density, but I think they're all fairly similar chip density) at 165mA per chip because they are inherently more efficient (most QB288s are populated with LM301B or LM301H, most QB304 are populated with LM561C).

I tested Alibaba QB304+'s (LM561C S5), with heatsinks, pushing 1200mA (150mA/chip, ~126W/panel) @ a stabilized temp of ~156°F. With fans mounted to the heatsinks, I was able to push 165mA/chip or 1320mA (~142W/panel) @ stabilized temp ~112°F.