MW7945
- 3,269
- 263
On my website I have some new Deep Red 700nmnm/Royal Blue 460nm and Far Red 730nm/UVA 385nm boards using lumileds SunPlus 20 diodes top horticulture diodes in the industry to date.
Ahh, now your posts make more sense.
On my website I have some new Deep Red 700nmnm/Royal Blue 460nm and Far Red 730nm/UVA 385nm boards using lumileds SunPlus 20 diodes top horticulture diodes in the industry to date.
OK, so I did a bunch of research based on some of the suggestions you guys made, and here is what I came up with.
First, I found these articles very insightful:
WHICH IS BETTER: UVA OR UVB?
https://www.blackdogled.com/blog/which-is-better-uva-or-uvb/
HOW TO COMPARE DIFFERENT GROW LIGHTS
https://www.blackdogled.com/blog/how-to-compare-different-grow-lights/
ABOUT 1, 3, 5 AND 10-WATT DIODES AND COB OR "INTEGRATED" LEDS
https://www.blackdogled.com/blog/led-types/
Some of my take-aways from these are:
So, narrowing my constraints with this information, I have narrowed my choices down a bit. Here are some of them, not necessarily in any order:
- I think the 5w and or COBs are where I want to be, as it seems these types of lights are the best at "canopy penetration", and in my case, shining through water and seaweed.
- I am going to try and stick to lights that can do UVA and NIR (365 - 750)
- Of course these are from Black Dog who are trying to sell their products
- I would love to have Black Dog, but they are just too expensive and too large for my needs
Optic 2 COB 3000K & 5000K
- Very close to what sixstring was recommending + with added UV and IR
- Cheap for what they are @ $300
- A little powerful for what I need @ 205w, not dimmable
- Spectrum is really good and 380-780
- Not sure where they are made or how reputable this company is
Amare SolarSPEC 100 CREE
- All 5w LEDs, spectrum is 410-760, not great but good
- Pricey at $395, but probably a get-what-you-pay for deal
- Power consumption right where I want it at 100w, they have a slightly larger 150w too (same price)
- Seems like one of the more reputable brands
Advanced LED Diamond Series XTE 100
https://advancedledlights.com/products/led-grow-lights/xte-100/
- A combination of 5w and 3w LEDs, same spectrum as the Amare
- Great power consumption at 80w
- Obviously a good brand
Those are the main three I currently have. I do feel compelled to note some honorable mentions here, even though they are in the Chinese LED category, they seem to be the "better of" those:
VIPARSPECTRA High Penetration Series HP300 or PAR450
- The first one is just $89 and the 2nd $189, that is so cheap even if they only lasted through the 3-year warranty and broke, they would not owe me anything
- These are all 5w LEDs (Bridgelux/Epileds), first one 130w
- The 450 is a bit big at 210w, but it looks like it is well cooled, which is the main problem with 5w LEDs, especially from a Chinese source, and it is dimmable
- One downside is they have IR but not UV
So, aside from these choices, I really do like the Timber COBs lights and kits. Looking at the spectrum, it looks like if you did put say a 3000K and a 5000K together, you would get between 410 and 750 or so. It would be great though if someone could help me add strips that added 365 to 410, actually that is probably all I would need since 750 is probably high enough into NIR. I don't see much difference between the three different types of COBs though. I could even go with three, and do 5000/3000/5000K in a line or something.
Think I am on the right track?
-JCL
On my website I have some new Deep Red 700nmnm/Royal Blue 460nm and Far Red 730nm/UVA 385nm boards using lumileds SunPlus 20 diodes top horticulture diodes in the industry to date.
Pretty much all of the lights you mentioned are made in China. You can literally just get COBs and buy a reptile bulb or two for $10 for UVB. I'd go with Timber. Or, you can always check out Quantum boards.
here is a link on my7 blog about the GG 200w boardsDo you have some links you can share? I was looking here: https://growgreenled.wordpress.com/ and I see some mention of this. I would like to see some pictures or something.
Looking around, it looks like there are some good options from some of the Chinese suppliers:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10p...id=12c7516e-0c8d-46c0-8218-662330049787&tpp=1
Lots of other configurations available, including even some all-UV COBs. But, I see some issues with this:
- Sunlight only contains a very small amount of this light, even the commercial LEDs with this spectrum have like 1-4 3w or 5w LEDs out of an array of 40-90 others. Not sure how I would get the "right" amount of this light compared to the COBs I might pair them with. Especially if you get into dimming, not sure if "excess" light in this frequency range is a problem, possibly. I guess that is an advantage with the Optic 2's
- Frequency range - looks like each LED has a range of about 5nm, so to cover 365-410 would require 4-5 LEDs, and if I only need a total of 3-4, I guess that would work if I put them in the center.
- Then I would just need to figure out how I setup the drivers and such. Be nice if I could get a kit or something close to plug and play. Maybe I will call Timber and see what they say.
What I may do is just get the Timber's and see how it goes, see what the results are and see if I really need the UV's that much anyway.
-JCL