Changing to LED

[KC]

23 minutes ago, Hazeytones said:

I always thought that cmh was supposed to be really good for veg

They are but so is a metal halide and like I say with the bulbs I was using they're very similar colour temperatures. I did want an led for veg but I bought va spare bulb when I bought my cmh so there's a few years worth of bulbs to use, they lay way longer than normal hid ones (thankfully). 

[cortez]

17 hours ago, Hazeytones said:

You just need to look at things a bit differently, swapping your extraction around is a good start so your intake is up high and your filter is on the floor. 

 

My new space is the same size as yours, well nearly 1.2 x 1.5 custom built room made with timber frame with 50mm insulation board, make sure you insulate if your going to go with leds. I have a 3x3 bed under a par+480 and my filter on the floor in the gap infront of the bed, the 480 covers the bed no problem but I'd rather have the bar leds wall to wall for better coverage and efficiency. If it was wall to wall strips I'd be able to run the light closer to the plants dimmed down a bit more saving another bit bit on electricity.

My room is well insulated but I was originally running HID's, so my extractors up high above the light, and my intake low, but I'm planning to change the layout once I'm on LED's.

I have the temp well balanced at present during the winter with fan controllers, so the intake only kicks in when temps get too high. 

[cortez]

17 hours ago, KC said:

 

 

Are you certain? I swopped my 400w hid to a 315cmh (thats a cdm right?) and don't notice much difference. Apart from the ridiculous price of bulbs It's only for the veg tent, I don't know why I bothered really.

Yep, I was running 600w and dropped to a 315 cdm, which considerably reduced the temp and running costs. 

[cortez]

13 hours ago, thekingofobsolete said:

Chuck your led in the bin,then buy a decent lamp called a HID  led lamps are crappo trust me I've tried a few  halide for veg,HPS for flower and i stand on this statement 

As always, everyone's opinions vary, which is why it's good to get as many as possible 

[Slippy One]

If you're running a nursery/bonsai mum chamber I don't recommend LED's with deep red or IR diodes. I was wondering why my mums were flowering at 20:4 lights, turns out they prefer plain LED's without reds from 3500k-5000k. Flowering LED's love deep red diodes just no go for the nursery.. 

 

Another tip with LED is to heat the room 1-2 degrees more than normal. I set my day temps to 28 (instead of 26), and this help keep the leaf temps up (in the absence of HID infra-red). 

 

 

[KC]

1 hour ago, cortez said:

was running 600w and dropped to a 315 cdm,

That would explain it, I bet if you tried a 630w cdm you would find it's just as hot as your old 600 watter

[catweazle1]

6 hours ago, Hazeytones said:

I'm surprised, I was going to change to cmh a few years back after wasting my money on crap blurple leds at the time. I always thought that cmh was supposed to be really good for veg. I held off and changed to led about 5 years ago and haven't looked back. There was a bit of a learning curve at the start but once you see what these lights can do and the quality in the end product, there's no going back for me.

I'm going to stick a cdm and hps in the middle space of my Aray 4x4 next time; cdm in veg and hps or cdm in flower. Hps will be on full and the LED will be setup to make up the difference in my 1.2m. You will likely see the results of my efforts in the middle of next year.

[Hazeytones]

@Slippy One do you mean full on flowering? I keep my mums and cuts under a migro aray and don't have any issues at 18/6 or 24/0 when im starting seeds. The mums put out preflowers but they've always done that whatever light I use. There is a lot more red in the migro and I'd rather use my spare scope as its more blue but it only dims to about 70watts and I can get away with less than that to keep my mums ticking over.

[catweazle1]

5 hours ago, KC said:

They are but so is a metal halide and like I say with the bulbs I was using they're very similar colour temperatures. I did want an led for veg but I bought va spare bulb when I bought my cmh so there's a few years worth of bulbs to use, they lay way longer than normal hid ones (thankfully). 

I'm not sure I'll mail order a cmh bulb again. I had two broke in succession in transit. The inner bulb is far too close to the outer bulb and it's springy, so touches together fairly easily when knocked sufficiently.

[Slippy One]

1 hour ago, Hazeytones said:

@Slippy One do you mean full on flowering? I keep my mums and cuts under a migro aray and don't have any issues at 18/6 or 24/0 when im starting seeds. The mums put out preflowers but they've always done that whatever light I use. There is a lot more red in the migro and I'd rather use my spare scope as its more blue but it only dims to about 70watts and I can get away with less than that to keep my mums ticking over.

Just my observations. I 'upgraded' the veg cabinet to fancy Samsung Horticultural LED's with far red and infrared and found 3 light sensitive mums were stunted and showing pre flowers (plus 3 pronged leaves etc), which I fixed with some 5000k LED strips without the deep/ir red diodes.

 

[Hazeytones]

What 5000k are you using? I looked at one from Adam at diyled a while back but he shut up before I got the pennies saved.

[BilgePump]

@Slippy One i think you've just cracked an issue for me... Ive had an unhappy mum cab for a while, im gonna try unplugging the red heavy full spec strips and just leave the blues on for a bit, see how it rolls, cheers for that

 

[Slippy One]

50 minutes ago, Hazeytones said:

What 5000k are you using? I looked at one from Adam at diyled a while back but he shut up before I got the pennies saved.

SL-B8R4N90LAWW - there's a few colours, def go for the 5000k one if used solely for vegging. 

 

"LED MOD H INFLUX LNR STRP 5000K"

 

Digikey is your friend, not cheap like £22 each plus VAT (x4) but worth it if your semi autos or light sensitive mums start spazzing in the veg cabinet.

 

I still love my DIY style LED strips, thanks to Adam. I can upgrade/swap the spectrum as technology evolves. 

 

[Hazeytones]

I've definitely had the more sativa strains start to throw out a lot of preflowers under the migro but I dimmed the light way down and it seems to help a bit.

 

I'll get a look mate, can I just swap these on to the heat sink of my scope and use the same driver?

[Slippy One]

Yep, from memory Adam just used screws on the strips. Get a little tricky when you've used double sided heatsink tape like me, but thin plastic scraper is fine to lift the old strips. 

Red reds: sad plants with 3 pronged leaves and too many hairs for vegging. Plants don’t actually flower per se, but sure want to under the reds. I’ll use these strips for any future flowering boxes or backup as needed. 

 

new 5000k strips delivered: 

 

here they are on the old Scope V1 heat sinks. Swap took 20 mins and was an easy swap using the same driver and wiring.  

Edited December 2, 2023 by Slippy One