Need Help Choosing Led For Long Skinny Closet

[Perception]

Hey everyone - I am trying to find an LED setup for a long skinny closet that I am using for vegetative growth. The footprint of my closet is roughly 6' x 2', but I haven't seen many long skinny LED setups.

I recently purchased a 4' x 2' Sun Blast T5 HO light for the closet, which fits beautifully, but I'm not happy with how much heat the T5's put out. I can mostly keep the closet around 80deg with my 4" 170cfm fan, but after about 12 hours, the exhaust heats up the whole bedroom to the point that closet temps start rising. I flower in the bedroom, so need to be able to control temps.

I'd like to replace the T5's with LEDs to hopefully keep the temperature down. It seems like most LED's have a square footprint for how they cast light though. Are there any long, rectangular LED lights out there? Or some budget friendly LED's that I could buy two of? My budget is around $200.

Seems to me that I'd need two LED lights in the closet to take up the long skinny space. Thoughts?

 

[AvidLerner]

LED's make heat also. you will still need to remove heat, ei5ther way. You can build a diy using vero's or CXB, both are pretty cheap right now, cxb3590 $35 with holder and pad. peace

 

[Perception]

Thanks! I've considered the DIY LEDs - I've got a lot of electrical wiring experience. Maybe I should have asked this first though:

Do LED's generally produce less heat than T5's?

 

[Freshone]

Pacificlightconcepts.com
Check out their cxp-250,its a 4 cob bar that will work good in that space.great quality and he will even sell you parts to make your own I think.The owner might even be a member here.

 

[rmoltis]

Running the AC in your room seems like an easy fix. Heat will always be an issue. Other option is venting directly outside.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Good news Transcend Lighting makes drop in led t5s for 4ft fixtures

I have veged from seed and flowered under it

 

[Funkadelic]

Good news Transcend Lighting makes drop in led t5s for 4ft fixtures

I have veged from seed and flowered under it

Been curious about t5 leds

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

http://www.vozop.com/index.php/5m-3...led-strip-red-blue-hydroponic-grow-light.html
Always wondered what a closet lined with these woud do.

 

[Perception]

Those look similar to neopixels. I worked with neopixel LED strips recently for a job at work - they can get pretty darn bright. The ones I used (bought from adafruit) pulled a decent amount of current though. Although, I wasn't doing any calculations on how much light we were actually generating. Not sure if it was efficient or not (we had a lot of lights running). But they definitely get bright.

The neopixels by adafruit have red/blue/green, and you can program whatever color spectrum you want.

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

http://www.vozop.com/index.php/5m-3...led-strip-red-blue-hydroponic-grow-light.html
Always wondered what a closet lined with these woud do.

If you put the strips vertically and cut them to fit your space I think they might do really well in a small space. The question is, how many strips can you get into the space without overheating it. The cost of electric will be very little because they are 12v dc, similar cost to a phone charger for each strip.

 

[germinator]

http://www.suncloak.com/Suncloak-4416-Grow-Light-System-p/ss-4416-48h-200w.htm

Expensive but cutting edge, I have seen semi trailers with these systems.

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

http://www.suncloak.com/Suncloak-4416-Grow-Light-System-p/ss-4416-48h-200w.htm

Expensive but cutting edge, I have seen semi trailers with these systems.

These are brighter and much cheaper
https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...ith-137-smds-per-ft-1-chip-smd-led-3528/1046/

 

[germinator]

In my experience.......Brighter n cheaper usually means hotter operation.

 

[Perception]

Thanks for all the replies!

It's funny, I totally neglected the fact that I recently assembled a pretty large LED system for a custom arcade machine. Never really considered using them for growing.

For the time being, I found a bigger exhaust fan at the local pawn shop, and will be venting the heat out of the room that the closet is in. BUT, I'm going to keep doing some research on these LED strips for growing. It's really not that hard to put them together. Just make sure you calculate your wire gauge correctly, and your input power! We definitely experienced a few unwanted firework shows while assembling our LED strips.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Check out Graumau5 YT videos. He developed a great DIY available through Cutter

In that tight space consider 3-4 Cree 3070 CoBs which will light it up just fine

 

[Perception]

Thanks PhatNuggz! I gave a quick glance at the following Graumau5 video, and it looks very informative. I'll give it a thorough watch tonight. Lots of other good looking vids too.

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

If you want one that will for sure pump out dense nugs up to two weeks sooner than hps then go for the full spectrum COB LED
http://www.ledlightplant.com/cob-64...grow-reflector-cup-light-veg-flower-p-91.html

 

[Perception]

That video above was a great intro tutorial. Definitely want to try a COB build.

 

[PhatNuggz]

That video above was a great intro tutorial. Definitely want to try a COB build.

Before you buy all the parts, check out Amare Technologies Pro 3, or Pro 4 which uses highest quality materials. Unfortunately, they have an issue with their site

https://allgreenhydroponics.com/col...s/products/amare-solarpro3-cob-led-grow-light

https://allgreenhydroponics.com/col...s/products/amare-solarpro4-cob-led-grow-light

These will rock your space for many years to come

 

[Perception]

Those are definitely nice. And I did start thinking about how much time I would spend building a 4-COB light. I figure about 20 hours.

But I also figure that I could build a light with 4 COBs using "decent" parts for about $250. Which would save me at least $500 compared to one of those lights. $500/20=$25. At $25/hr, it would be worth my time to build. Now, I just gotta find the time between ALL my other misc life projects!