What led to buy amazon leds

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growingforfun

Well-Known Member
I'm looking for some leds that will screw into a regular socket (not interested in diy cobs) and have about 100 amazon bucks to spend. I'm looking at the 15-18 watt range, for veg. I'd like to spend "a smart amount" as in not the cheapest junk but not overpriced for the sake of marketing. If any of the vendors here have products on amazon feel free to link them for me.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Don't waste your money. Quality leds are considerably more upfront, but will pay for themselves with better yields and better quality over time
 
Mellodrama

Mellodrama

Well-Known Member
captain morgan did a lot of experimenting with Home Depot LED bulbs. A couple of years ago. Around that time there was a fair amount of activity with guys removing the protective globes and taking them out for a spin.

I don't know about spectrum, but most off the shelf LED light bulbs are roughly equivalent to, or slightly better than, CFL's for lumens/watt. Whatever you find at the store is going to be several generations behind the latest as far as efficacy. Or is it efficiency? Anyway, I've looked at the fine print on lots of HD bulbs. Don't know if I've ever seen one claiming better than 100 lm/w. Hang around these forums and you'll find guys who are driving their LEDs softly and approaching 200 lm/w.

We're in a tech race with these LED's. If you're using 3 or 4 year old tech (store-bought bulbs) you're missing out.
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Op, You won't find anything of quality (as far as LEDs go) on Amazon with that budget. I recommend that you look into a decent T5 fixture, instead.

Or, save up some money and wait until you can get your foot in the door with some real COBs -Cree CXB 3590s, Bridgelux Vero V7, Citizen, etc.

The screw-in bulbs -like the ones that Cree, Feit, etc. make for your home lighting will work very well (at close-range) for seedlings and on very adolescent plants. Also, they make some reflector bulbs -for yard/security lights and stuff like that. They are more expensive and since they are a reflector bulb, they are more directional, so you would have to mount them in the appropriate fixtures and place them accordingly...which would probably involve some DIY, anyway.

Just get a Timber Framework light, man, and quit "screwing" around! ;)
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
growingforfun said:
but for this I want something that will be used one light per plant, in a 6 inch x 6 inch space, for the first 3-4weeks of a given plants life after germination. I've done a test already and can see they stomp other light. Just looking for a good brand of led to get at this point.

Looking for off the shelf 14-18 watt leds in the 3000k range.
Click to expand...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-120W-Equivalent-Bright-White-3000K-PAR38-Dimmable-LED-45-Degree-Flood-Light-Bulb-SPAR38-1503045TD-12DE26-1-11/207178487
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
These are very good bulbs
Not sure if on Amazon
http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60W-Equivalent-Daylight-A19-Energy-Star-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-A810SS-Q1D-04/206047105

Also look up this thread
https://www.rollitup.org/t/got-my-ge-brightstiks.896869/

Also if a LED is directional, you can just pop off the diffusser, like the Brightstik thread.
Will make it a bit brighter + it only has to shine downwards anyway.




Do you have a T8 fixture?
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-456608-Instantfit-Equivalent-5000K/dp/B01439I37K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483037759&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+t8+led

Phillips T8 LED bulbs, the current generation are great.
They do require a ballast.

These ones supposed to work without.
https://www.amazon.com/10-Pack-Fluorescent-Replacement-Connection/dp/B0163D7CP8/ref=pd_cp_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FQQ1N2R9Q2A8QVM7SEFQ
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
growingforfun said:
Forgot to mention I'm trying to buy up to 5 bulbs, but I do see many of these bulbs cost more than $1 per watt.
Click to expand...
How important is that they are in the 15 watt range?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GE-Bright-Stik-LED-60W-Soft-white-General-Purpose-Light-Bulb-12-Pack-/331988044434?hash=item4d4c078a92:g:d98AAOSwLnBX8LEh

They're 9 watt each, 24 dollar (exclusive shipping) for 108 watt.
I assume you're from the US.

Pop off the diffuser and they're pretty efficient lights.

You could get more sockets, they're cheap per watt anyway.

Edit: They're soft-white though, 2700k isn't very ideal for pure vegging.
Sorry for that.
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
Mellodrama said:
captain morgan did a lot of experimenting with Home Depot LED bulbs. A couple of years ago. Around that time there was a fair amount of activity with guys removing the protective globes and taking them out for a spin.

I don't know about spectrum, but most off the shelf LED light bulbs are roughly equivalent to, or slightly better than, CFL's for lumens/watt. Whatever you find at the store is going to be several generations behind the latest as far as efficacy. Or is it efficiency? Anyway, I've looked at the fine print on lots of HD bulbs. Don't know if I've ever seen one claiming better than 100 lm/w. Hang around these forums and you'll find guys who are driving their LEDs softly and approaching 200 lm/w.

We're in a tech race with these LED's. If you're using 3 or 4 year old tech (store-bought bulbs) you're missing out.
Click to expand...
Spectrum should be very compareable to typical phosphor cobs at a similar colour temp.

23 watt CFLs tend to have around 70 lm/w.
23 watt ones tend to be the most efficient iirc. (lower wattage ones are less efficient)

They're omnidirectional though, so they need reflectors. So there are going to be some reflector losses too.
So you can assume they're in practice 60lm/w at most.

Most LED bulbs are directional once you pop the diffuser off.
80-90 lm/w is something that should be relatively easy to find these days.
Removing the diffuser should make them a bit brighter + removing the need for a reflector.
So I think you can assume that a quality led bulb is at least 1.5 times as efficient as a 23 watt CFL.
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
growingforfun said:
Well I'm looking in the 14-18 watt range because that's going to be giving me more lumens. I only have space for 1 bulb per given area, maybe I should have mentioned this is a micro area. The space is about 6 inches by 8 inches for each plant, that has its own area. So really only space for a single bulb. That bulb needs to be sufficient to take it to week 3-4 veg, so I'd prefer 1200+ lumens.
Click to expand...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-100W-Equivalent-Daylight-A21-Non-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-5bSA1600SSQ107/206668052

5000k
14 watt, 1600 lumen.
4 pack, 31 dollars. Less than a dollar per watt

That's roughly a 23 watt CFL bulb. (More in practice)

The philips one has 100 lumen less but same 14 watt
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-100W-Equivalent-Daylight-LED-Light-Bulb-8-Pack-462002/207066148
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
growingforfun said:
I fully agree with frica on this, on my test run I popped the diffuser off a 18 watt 1200 lumen flood led 3000k, and it works well. The diffuser was nearly 1/2 inch thick so I know it was blocking a ton of output. Compared to florocent tubes the test plant results are night and day difference. The led is hands down better and looks like it will be the ticket.

I'm kinda getting the vibe that people here aren't really using them though and there isn't a standard choice of brand. Think I'll just scoop the Duracell 15 watt 1500 lumen 3000k bulbs that are 8.50 each locally.
Click to expand...
Those seemed really good to me too.

People really like to push the Vero/CXB/Citiled COBs at everything, but sometimes people just want/need to use regular lightbulbs.
You can get quality led bulbs for less than a dollar per watt anyway, it's not a big ripoff like overpriced blurple panels.
Sometimes even costing about as much as a 1000 watt SE HPS system per watt, and cheaper than a DE Gavita.

It's one thing to push COB panels if somebody is thinking about buying some overpriced growlights.
Another thing when somebody just needs to buy a few cheap bulbs.
 
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