Build Your Own LED Grow Light

RedChin said:
As I get closer to pulling the trigger I this grow, one major concern still looms for me regarding these qb288's. Summer is coming up, so maybe not so much an issue there, but in the fall and winter months here, the temps range between 20 and 40 degrees. Am I gonna have to think of a heat source for my 4x4 tent since the leds don't put much heat off? Or should I consider bringing the setup indoors. Right now it's in the garage.
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They give off some heat, but not much and winter will be your biggest problem

You can't get below ambient temperature without AC, but if summers are hot you can run the lights at night.

During the winter you either have to move the tent inside the house, or build at least 100mm of insulation around the tent(top, bottom and all sides) and get a controller for the extraction fan, and maybe even add a heater (or a 600w bulb vertically between the plant :) )
But unless you only run autos with lights on 24/0 you have to heat the tent during lights off.

My advice is to move the tent in the house if you can, the temperature and humidity rises/drops in a garage is something you'll likely have to deal with, indoors temperature and humidity don't fluctuate as much.
 
A big problem in the garage will be the air temperature and humidity when it gets cold. The air will need to be pre-treated before you send it into your grow tent. You can use an insulated smaller tent for this during the winter. Some strains can take a light frost, but will show their displeasure at regular temperatures of 20°F by dying off. Even placing the tent against an outside wall in your living space can cause problems. I had to put rigid insulation between the tent and exterior wall to prevent condensation, even though the temperature in the center of the tent was over 68°F. During the winter I'd pull air from the living spaces for the tent. If you can, route the exhaust through a heat recovery ventilator to the outside. If you can't do that, try to exhaust into another room. It will give you savings on your heating bill.
 
Would it make any sense doing things backwards? Keep my light fixture high and have my plants on a table of some sort that's adjustable, lowering the plants instead of raising the lights. And have the scrubber/exhaust on the bottom of tent and passive intake at the top. Would this help the heat some?
 
Just use buckets, boxes, garden furniture or whatever you have lying around the house and raise each plant individually.
One adjustable table will be adjustable to all the plants at once, same as the light, and different strains grow to different heights.

About the extraction, if you trying to combat heat it should be the other way around since the temperature is lowest at ground level.
In winter the difference from letting in air at ceiling level won't be enough, but sure everywhere you can do something to raise the temperature half a degree will save you on heating expenses :)

Cannabis plants really don't like cold temperatures and frost can kill them.
 
The idea is to gain heat for the winter time knowing heat rises. Last night I brought the setup into the house and ran the lights for a lil while to observe the heat output. Room temp was about 74 and the air coming out of the duct was about 77. Above my fixture was slightly higher. The idea was to use the raised heat and maybe push it back down to the plants. I don't know. I won't be a problem till around September/ October. Plenty of time to figure out.
 
day 67 from seed, day 47 flower. the big tall girl and the other smaller one, are 10 days behind. SO the tall one is 57 days old, day 37 flower. They all showed on the 20th day from seed. also, the tall one, i have to lean over, because it barly fits under the light. she is 47inches tall.

Im super happy with this lil 250ish watt rig, i can tell ya that. i cant even get my hand around most of them, and they are rock hard already, very dense. by far my best run ever.

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My wife and I were injured in a collision. We were rear-ended twice by the same vehicle. The other driver's foot came off of the brakes and down hard on the accelerator for the second hit. We both have severe whiplash and assorted other sprains and strains. Dealing with the aftermath is proving to be difficult.
 
Old Salt said:
My wife and I were injured in a collision. We were rear-ended twice by the same vehicle. The other driver's foot came off of the brakes and down hard on the accelerator for the second hit. We both have severe whiplash and assorted other sprains and strains. Dealing with the aftermath is proving to be difficult.
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Aw man, I hope for a fast recovery for you both!
 
RedChin said:
...and at the same time hes trying to sell me his T5's he started with.....lol
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hey nothing wrong with T5s! That is all i have had to use for the last year, and all the regular seeds ive popped have turned out female. Probably wont get rid of it as my veg light so offer him 50 bucks and run lol

after reading through all 14pages, i dont know if i am going to bother building my own. I was really stoked looking @RETRIX and @PurpleGunRack s light builds, figured i could do it....

But after weighing out the costs of the light parts and the man hours i would have to put in, if i count my time as money, i think im better off going with a timber setup, just plug and play....

But im looking to fill out a 4x4 tent, would you go veros or qbs?

thanks in advance!

hope you guys are doing better @Old Salt
 
I'd go with Veros if I had to choose between the two. It'll be much less costly to upgrade when Bridgelux comes out with a new generation of products.

You may want to take another look at their Citizen offerings. They use less power per COB so you can have more to get a better coverage for your canopy.
 
dont sleep on Luminus, these babies rock,

I started from seed, 12/12, have 1 hanging to dry, another 2 more days, this one is only 48 days into flower, and 9 inches round colas. 250 watts.

2 days ago, i did start using my Perfect sun mini for some side lighting to harden up in the final days tho, why notttttt..

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but then again, it might also be the kickass nutes i use. ( MegaCrop )

can you believe the PPM is only 400 im using right now, and still got tip burn. also had some PH issues early on. Plus, learned to use cocoloco. they Love to dry out in this stuff, and when i started letting it dry out, the growth was awesome.

Probably going to get the lilangleian reflectors soon, just to see what kind of differance it makes. or going to make a reflecor for my light box,
 
Pjs420 said:
But after weighing out the costs of the light parts and the man hours i would have to put in, if i count my time as money, i think im better off going with a timber setup, just plug and play....
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If you want plug and play from Timber you have to get the 16 COB fixture setting you back $1600...

I spent less than 2 hours assembling 4 QB kits, DIY from scratch takes longer but it's worth it :)
If you ever wired a HID lamp you're over qualified for assembling DIY LED kits ;)

Pjs420 said:
But im looking to fill out a 4x4 tent, would you go veros or qbs?
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Definitely QB's, mid-power diodes have many advantages, I'd only recommend COBs if you were to DIY from scratch
(in USA), and then get the Luminus COBs for that, as far as I can tell it's the only worthwhile COB route to take,
in any other way mid power diodes are cheaper/better if not also up front, then in the long run, if you go for the best Cree, Bridgelux, Citi COBs available mid power diodes will be cheaper up front for sure.

Whatever you do just keep in mind that if you want to replace 1000w HID in a 4x4 tent you need a minuimum of 16 high end COBs (@ 35-50w per COB) or 1152 LM561C S06 Bin or better mid power diodes (@ 550-600w total).

I'll be doing both serial and parallel strip builds in the coming month, I'll show you how easy both ways are, once the heatsinks/frame are ready it's just as easy as a QB kit :)
 
Old Salt said:
My wife and I were injured in a collision. We were rear-ended twice by the same vehicle. The other driver's foot came off of the brakes and down hard on the accelerator for the second hit. We both have severe whiplash and assorted other sprains and strains. Dealing with the aftermath is proving to be difficult.
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S

Sorry to hear about your accident. If you want to know anything about whiplash just ask. Been living with it for over 2 years now... Very strange disorders from it.
 
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