Consumption

Maddog

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In the winter you're simply heating with electric heat when any lights are turned on.

Every bit of grow light gets "put to use" - either into growing veg or dissipating as heat wherever it lands off the plants.

I wouldn't sweat the cost of grow lights in the winter.


too cold to sweat in the winter . . .

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Unfortunately you cant really measure lumens with blurple lights, because as the saying goes "lumens are for humans", its basically a measurement of how the human eye PERCEIVES light, but because of the wavelength of the red/blue lights, it doesnt work at all with those. You can measure PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) but need a fairly expensive tool to do this.

unfortunately there is a conversion for lumens to watts
 


Lycanthrope

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too cold to sweat in the winter . . .
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unfortunately there is a conversion for lumens to watts

Any conversion for lumens to watts would be an estimate at best, and would only work with white lights. Even with white lights I dont know how it could be even remotely accurate, as efficiency is greatly variable, even when using the same technology. There are white LED lights that will only produce 60 lumens/watt and there are LED lights that will produce over 200 lumens/watt...
 
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Maddog

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Any conversion for lumens to watts would be an estimate at best, and would only work with white lights. Even with white lights I dont know how it could be even remotely accurate, as efficiency is greatly variable, even when using the same technology. There are white LED lights that will only produce 60 lumens/watt and there are LED lights that will produce over 200 lumens/watt...

Power is power. It takes amps to power an electrical device. The amp draw at the voltage required is power. Easy conversion to wattage. He gave the power in watts..

Carry on. Don't think I missed anything as he didn't give any thing in lumens. ?

I googled and they gave a conversion rate for lumens to watts. I agree with your statement about the efficiency of different lighting devices to give different levels of lighting per power supplied.
 
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Jiffy

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yes BUT how many lumes do you need to grow a pound of mexican bam bam?
 


eyexer

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again... you guys know they sell beans at the store right? ;)
For now they do

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Nice job but that light is going to be inadequate for lush growth. Im a bit of a light expert and have been growing indoors for years. If you are interested and can work with simple electricity I can point you in the right direction as far as building some good lights that will outperform those blurple ones by 10x.

I just built this new light 2 weeks ago, the power supplies are adjustable, at its lowest setting it uses about 250 watts at the plug, full power it takes 650 watts, it is a BEAST.

IMG_6563.jpeg

IMG_6563.jpeg

Price breakdown:
MEAN WELL USA Inc. / HLG-320H-54A x 2 = $233
QB96 Elite V2 Engine × 4 = $252
24x30 sheet scrap aluminum = $10
20ft white extension cord = $14
Misc parts and wire approx $20
Total= $529
You can build quality lights cheaper, but really you get what you pay for, as with just about everything in life. For a couple hundred bucks you could get those beans growing really well though...

Also I saw you are growing at around 75f, that works fine with HID, but with LED youll likely end up with some deficiencies at lower temps, while its good to keep your nutrient temps cooler, ambient temps in the 85 range will probably work better. You can still let your grow area cool down at night, but while the lights are on, warmer temps will make your plants happier.
The wiring part isn’t a problem. Have wired many homes from start to finish. The reason I went LED is I didn’t want to pull so much power and in such a confined space I was afraid it would be too hot. And I also don’t have a lot of height. In fact right now my damn pea plants are damn near to the ceiling. So I may run into some issues in that regard. All the plants are doing great except tomatoes. They took off good then quit growing and don’t look healthy at all.
 

Rowdie

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GOOD JOB, now it won't be so obvious when guys want to start growing weeds.
 

Lycanthrope

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Magnesium and calcium deficiency are common when growing under LED, I often have to supplement for that. Tomatoes like heat, that might be part of your problem if you are keeping it cool. These strips are great if you can handle basic electrical.

If you use thermal tape and tape them to aluminum strips, you can push them at 1.4 amps easy, probably even higher, you just need to keep them relatively cool, meaning if its too hot to touch, its too hot basically. You can run them without any heatsink if you wanna keep them at 700ma.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bridgelux/BXEB-L1120Z-35E4000-C-B3/7907661

My led lights more than heat my grow area, I have an exhaust fan that kicks in at 86.5f and brings it back down to 85 but I try to set my light timer so it doesnt have to run more than needed. Im starting a bunch of juneberries and also some persimmon trees from seed, also growing some succulents just for fun...

20220113_085858.jpg
 
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Davey Crockett

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[QUOTE

The wiring part isn’t a problem. Have wired many homes from start to finish. The reason I went LED is I didn’t want to pull so much power and in such a confined space I was afraid it would be too hot. And I also don’t have a lot of height. In fact right now my damn pea plants are damn near to the ceiling. So I may run into some issues in that regard. All the plants are doing great except tomatoes. They took off good then quit growing and don’t look healthy at all.[/QUOTE]


Since you don't have the height , I'm guessing you will eventually wind up putting the grow beds on the floor.
If you do , there are cheap little float valves to regulate the water level in the grow beds and they work like a charm. Set the water level you want and let it gravity feed from the holding tank. easy peasy and cheap

https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-Plastic-Livestock-Aquariums-Aquaculture/dp/B08GX6TN1D/ref=sr_1_31?crid=23MOQ7LU1QSXC&keywords=aquaponic+float&qid=1642782548&sprefix=aquaponic+flat+%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-31
 


WormWiggler

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Do you regulate the lights in a particular time from like 12/12 or 18/6, or are they on all the time?
 

eyexer

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[QUOTE

The wiring part isn’t a problem. Have wired many homes from start to finish. The reason I went LED is I didn’t want to pull so much power and in such a confined space I was afraid it would be too hot. And I also don’t have a lot of height. In fact right now my damn pea plants are damn near to the ceiling. So I may run into some issues in that regard. All the plants are doing great except tomatoes. They took off good then quit growing and don’t look healthy at all.


Since you don't have the height , I'm guessing you will eventually wind up putting the grow beds on the floor.
If you do , there are cheap little float valves to regulate the water level in the grow beds and they work like a charm. Set the water level you want and let it gravity feed from the holding tank. easy peasy and cheap

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GX6TN1D/?tag=nodakangler10-20[/QUOTE]
I can’t lower it. It’s an NFT system constant water flow so I have plumbing to drain back to my tank. I would only have a few inches to work with
 

Lycanthrope

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Do you regulate the lights in a particular time from like 12/12 or 18/6, or are they on all the time?
I just use a cheap grounded timer from menards, the mechanical type that has a dial you can adjust for time on/off. Everything plugs into a GFCI outlet so I dont accidently burn my house down. I dont have a fixed "night" because I dont want my plants to get too cold and I use my lights to heat that area. I think I have mine set right now to cycle about 2 hours on, 30 minutes off, roughly.
 

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