I AM NOT AN EXPERT IN ANYTHING LIGHTING CANNABIS OR LIFE RELATED! TAKE EVERYTHING HERE AS SIMPLY ME SHARING MY LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO POSSIBLY SHORTEN YOUR LEARNING CURVE. I'M NOT ATTEMPTING TO GIVE BAD, OR SELF SERVICING ADVICE! ALL GROWING METHODS ARE COOL I'M JUST TRYING TO SHARE MY EXPERIENCE
So i made the thread title "documenting every learning step" and i haven't exactly stayed true to that, it's a lot of work to rethink of stuff you learned even a week ago and the process you had of learning, but i'll give it a shot.
So first of all, as some of you guys know i started growing with a 315 watt LEC, and even though it's way more efficient than a hps/mh system it still produced a lot more heat than I'd like, and you really only have 2 major spectrum to work with, and limited setups (mainly 315w or 630w.)
(I'm getting very interested in general gardening though i haven't done much with that interest... hopefully in the future i'll further pursue other growing ventures) But for now and the foreseeable future i see myself growing cannabis, and i also have became a much bigger stoner than i thought I'd ever turn into, so i realized one plant in a 25g pot wasn't going to be enough if i wanted to supply myself.
Since my 315 LEC had plenty of room for one plant but nowhere near enough for 2 i was considering getting 3 of them for a 4x4 or 5x5 area. I started playing with configurations in my room and just couldn't figure out anything i liked, so i looked into cheap (shit) quality LED's where i eventually found a youtube channel called GrowMau5 i believe.
Growmau5 gave me a general concept for DIY LED builds with Chip on board (COB) style lights and lighting. After watching his videos and many others i decided Vero29 C COB's were the way i was going to be going. I got onto another forum that almost specializes in LED builds and they directed me to bridgelux's EB2 strips, and Samsung F Strips (as well as quantum boards but the price gap gets pretty huge so primarily the strips.)
I really wanted to go with the Samsung F Strips, they're just sorta the "gold standard" or "mainstream" whatever, I'll be completely honest, Samsung has a bigger name than Bridgelux.
Doing alot of addition research the samsung strips cost more but can be driven harder. They create more heat because of this so they are highly recommended to purchase heat sinks with them (you might as well add 25% cost to the strips. maybe more maybe a little less.)
The Bridgelux EB2 series strips cost around half as much but they're able to take less current and they have less diodes per strip. Because of the price gap you can purchase almost 2 of the bridgelux strips for the price of 1 samsung strip. If you drive the Bridgelux's soft enough you won't need to purchase heat sinks because they run a lot softer.
A standout advantage between the two (in my eyes) is you can double the "effective" light coverage with the bridgelux strips. This is crucial because when running the strips soft some people will run as close as 6" from their canopies in flowering so light blockage would probably become a huge issue.
Another Plus for the Bridgelux is their price and not needing heat sinks...
For me i have 20 1" wide by 44" long strips over a structure that's 44x46" with spacing between them that's less than 1.5" between strips and probably 2" maybe 2.5" between diodes (they're on the center of the strip). Moving from my LEC to this LED i notice i have nearly no shadows which means i'm getting great even penetration. Since I've never used Samsung strips i don't know if they would have the same penetration as the bridgelux's (maybe somebody here has them and can chime in!)
I'm sorta running out of steam to keep this going and i'm about 3 joints into some good kush so i may no longer have any coherent thoughts but fuck it right?! lol
So my knowledge of PPFD (commonly read as PAR) and L/W (Lumens per watt) is minimum. But the process you are looking for with lighting is running less current through the strips (the softer you run them the less light you will produce but the better quality of light your plants will receive.) There's a huge diminishing return on this and there's many sweet spots, but just know the softer you drive them the better quality light your plants receive, and if you have issues with heat the softer you run them they will run substantially cooler.
In order to combine all the components you absolutely need to do some DIY stuff, and if that's not a normal thing for you, there's going to be a learning curve! Chip at it over a few weeks and be patient and do your research before making any orders, and don't go over the top! If you're currently growing and you're interested in switching to LED's take your time, especially if you're budget limited!
The thing about the DIY LED builds (that i haven't explored but plan to soon) is that you can do as much or little as you want. You can add some 620nm reds for dirt cheap to kick in a little better flowering period, or build a 100 watt seedling build for probably $150 (i figure about 125 for a nice setup including $25 for a misc learning curve of stuff you don't need.) Once you build one system you'll have the idea of what you need to do. From there your only limits are your budget and of course time!
One thing I'd recommend is learning parallel versus series wiring, there's many videos on it and there's a few based on LED stuff strictly that may help you wrap your head around it a little faster. Once you've done enough research you'll know have an idea of what you want for what you're doing rather than what somebody else tells you to want.