What's the interest in growing with retail store LED bulbs?

neW Doctor'C

neW Doctor'C

Member
PetFlora said:
I am familiar with pll, but never grew with them.

Time for me to move on. If you have more questions use my threads
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Sounds like you all have pretty good insights on led's! i recently inherited a lumi grow 325 haven't recevied my 4x4 tent yet but really wanted to increase lighting and was curious about adding retail led's or cfl's, Thanks in advance
 
nfhiggs

nfhiggs

Well-Known Member
brotherjericho said:
Well, I want to look at this with numbers, and I'm about to make some assumptions. Let's assume that these LEDs are more efficient in getting the light to the plant where it is needed so only 75% of the lumens is needed. Looking on Home Depot's site, an average 13w LED spot or flood light (Philips) is ~$35, and puts out 850 lumens. The same company's CFLs cost around ~$3 a bulb for 23w, with 1655 lumens. Let's say I build a fixture with 8 23w CFLs, that would be a lumen output of 13240 and a bulb cost of $24. To get 75% of that from LED, I'd need ~12 LED lamps with an initial investment of $420!

Rated life of CFL is 12k hours, LED light is 25k hours, so a little more than twice as long. So I would have to replace the CFLs once, let's go twice...and it would cost me a total of $72. That's still no where near the original estimate of the LEDs of $420.

Even if we assume 50% lumens needed, that's still 8 LED lights at an investment of $280. Still being beat by CFLs at $72.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around this, what is the appeal?
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$35 for a 13W LED Spot/Flood is ridiculous. Get out of Home Depot. Try looking at Batteries+Bulbs. $9.99 for 16W 1500 lumen bulbs:
https://www.batteriesplus.com/light-bulb/led/a-shape-(a)/e26?facets=Watts:12.5~16~17
And when you remove the diffuser, the intensity increases significantly as it's much more directional.

B+B also frequently has rebates on the multipacs - last summer I got 2 pacs for 1.99 per bulb after the instant rebate.

Edit: LOL, didn't realize this was a 4 year old thread...
 
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Flanigan

Flanigan

Well-Known Member
I'm just wandering can anyone tell me if the 60 watt with 800 lumens times 4 bulbs will do okay for starting pants a few weeks?
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
sure but the "100W equivalent" 14-15W/600-1700 lumens are 5 bucks a piece and more efficient per watt. make sure to pop the covers off
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
yeah theyre all the same. jam a screwdriver straight thru that plastic globe and out the otherside and pop it off. the leds are on a flat plate down in the base
 
Frank Nitty

Frank Nitty

Well-Known Member
brotherjericho said:
Well, I want to look at this with numbers, and I'm about to make some assumptions. Let's assume that these LEDs are more efficient in getting the light to the plant where it is needed so only 75% of the lumens is needed. Looking on Home Depot's site, an average 13w LED spot or flood light (Philips) is ~$35, and puts out 850 lumens. The same company's CFLs cost around ~$3 a bulb for 23w, with 1655 lumens. Let's say I build a fixture with 8 23w CFLs, that would be a lumen output of 13240 and a bulb cost of $24. To get 75% of that from LED, I'd need ~12 LED lamps with an initial investment of $420!

Rated life of CFL is 12k hours, LED light is 25k hours, so a little more than twice as long. So I would have to replace the CFLs once, let's go twice...and it would cost me a total of $72. That's still no where near the original estimate of the LEDs of $420.

Even if we assume 50% lumens needed, that's still 8 LED lights at an investment of $280. Still being beat by CFLs at $72.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around this, what is the appeal?
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CFLs for me all day
 
Flanigan

Flanigan

Well-Known Member
So if I pop the covers off how can I expect my little plants to do with 240 Watts?led like I took picture of?
 
Flanigan

Flanigan

Well-Known Member
Frank Nitty said:
But how far do the lights penetrate
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Kinda I don't understand. In planning to put the 4 plants in peat pots inside a small bowl to catch runoff inside a small cage,not like the one im using for protection outside after the 2-3 weeks trial and placing the 3-60 watt lights about a foot or a little less above the peat pots using the cage to have som
 
Frank Nitty

Frank Nitty

Well-Known Member
Flanigan said:
Kinda I don't understand. In planning to put the 4 plants in peat pots inside a small bowl to catch runoff inside a small cage,not like the one im using for protection outside after the 2-3 weeks trial and placing the 3-60 watt lights about a foot or a little less above the peat pots using the cage to have som
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What I'm meaning is how do the sides and bottom of the plants get light???
 
NoTillPhil

NoTillPhil

Well-Known Member
Penetration should be better based on the directional output of the led alone. They are essentially 15 watt cobs that get about 120 - lm/w. The real penetration comes from the fact that more light sources provide many overlapping light cones. So more light finds its way into the lower plant zone.
 
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