Just a little LED 'build'

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littlefrog

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So... It isn't art, and it isn't quite science, but I documented the most recent project I completed with LED lights. I've been using a fair number of the 'outdoor' LED floodlights for a year or two now. I like them. Are they perfect? No, but they are cheap and I was really happy with my flowering results last year. So, just yesterday I decided to replace some lights above another shelf with them. Looks like this:
bar_installed.JPG


Anyway, it is all written up here: Flood Bar Build. If you like it, let me know. If it needs clarification, let me know that too!

Enjoy!
 
Lets see........nice setup Rob, good way to get around the heatsink-problem. However there is only 180w installed, is that enough for growing? Have you measured the light intensity? (F.c.):)
 
Nice and detailed write up, Rob! You have been using LEDs for a long time; I'm not sure if you remember it or not, but you were the one who helped me out and gave me lots of info about the LEDs a couple years ago! Thanks!

By any chance, did you measure the actual energy consumption of these LED flood light? The reason I'm asking this is because of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbt2ojkXPuo
It looks like that most of yours have 5x6 surface mounted (SMD) arrays, but 1 of them is 2x10 COB (9th photo, 20W unit?). I think that the video is talking about the COB style (not the SMD style which you have). I personally think (about the video) that under-driving is better especially for the passive heatsink like this type of flood light, even though it is a false advertisement.

The video talks about the issue with the case ground, but it looks like that the 5x6 SMD ones have the ground wire attached to the case.
 
Thanks for the interesting info for using simple generic lights.

How wide is your bench that the single row of lights covers?

Have you measured the light intensity in FC or LUX, or what do you estimate it is?

It sounds like you got a mix of light color by chance, do you actually have a preference for one color over the other?
 
The number of lights is sufficient for paph growing, anyway. I've used a similar configuration for at least a year on other benches and the paphs bloom and grow fine. I don't have a light meter to measure lumens...

I actually ordered 10 of each color white, they just weren't marked. It was a choice... I have used a very similar setup (everything zip tied to the shelf above). In that one I had 30W 'bright white' and 20W red floods alternating. Excellent blooming on that bench, much better than benches using other configurations. My thought was that perhaps it would look a bit more natural if I used cool and warm white. This is something we used to do all the time with fluorescent lights, at least the T12 and T8 lights. I'd use two cool and two warm in the same fixture. Figured if it worked then, it might work with LEDs. We shall see this winter with the new way, but I can always rebuild the bars with red LEDs if it doesn't work out.

Bench is 30" wide and 8 feet long. Lights are a little higher than they need to be. I need to lower them about 6 inches I think, but I'm going to wait a few days on that.

Naoki, I have not measured power consumption yet... That is easy enough to do, I'll do it this afternoon. That 2x10 array is actually one of the 20W red lights. I just took a picture of it to show what it looks like with a plug. That is a demo unit that I bring to orchid talks, it is a lot easier to plug them into outlets than to bring out the alligator clips. All of the lights I've opened have had the ground attached to the case. I've had some bad luck with 50W units blowing out, I'm sure they are overdriving them... Replacing the drivers soon on those.
 
Oh, and the next fixture I built is 8' long with 7 lights. I think that will be better for the 8' bench. Turns out there is a little connector to join the steel support sections together. It makes a nice, rigid connection. I just cut 2' off another piece and joined it with a 6' bar.

To clarify why I need more fixtures... That first section is just 1/3 of my top shelf on that side of the barn. Each shelving unit is 8' long, I have three sections. I've been calling each section a bench in my head, even though it is really one continuous shelf...

One reason I like growing in the barn is that I have three shelves on that 8' section. One a few inches off the floor, one at waist height, and one at head height. That makes it a little hard to water the high shelf, but I have a long wand on the hose... So, in the greenhouse I might have had 8 linear feet in one section (maybe a few plants under the bench), in the barn I can get 24 linear feet in the same 8' footprint.
 
That's exactly how we did our LEDs over the Phrags. and
it's working out really well. My Randy McDonald finally has
a spike! The damn thing is HUGE and never bloomed until
the LEDs were installed. Thank you, DIY man.
 
I don't have a light meter to measure lumens...

For reference....

I have a light similiar to thesein my shop, 30w 6000K.
I set it up 28" above my work bench so I could measure the light.
Actually it was 28" from the meter sensor to the light. a few inches closer or farther makes a big difference.

center of the light measures 165FC
18" out from center is 113FC
The light falloff as the meter moves out seems pretty even across the bench.
This is just one light I dont know if having another one next to it with overlapping light would increases the intensity (FC) or not?
 
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