noob to the LED game, looking to build multiple 4x4's

[randorson]

Im in the same boat, ive done diy cob fixtures before but am now trying to plan out basically the same thing as you lol needing to cover 4 4x4 scrog setups, just trying to piece together effecient strip lights found this site in the process too much knowledge to pass up, i was leaning towards 4 4ft samsung strips but am up in the air on doing 8 of the single diode strips over the same area so many roads to the same end lol

L. 8 single row 4 foot long samsung strips is appropriate for a 4x4 space even a 4x5

[randorson]

4 strips is not quite enough, 6 is needed minimum for spread, I usually suggest 10 4 ft strips.
Even a cheaper option of bridgelux strips will do best if many are run soft rather than 4 run hard.
Strips are the easiest most effective builds to cover a 4X4.

Personally, I would not be able to take advantage of the ppfd produced by (10) 4 foot strips of f-series, unless I started running CO2. And I drive mine gently. Well of course my yield would slightly increase, even without CO2, but the efficiency would start to decline more than I find acceptable.

[randorson]

Depending on the end system 480W can be plenty for a 4X4. A 1000W HPS is often too much in a 4X4 unless you have a really high hang height it can have a negative effect

Ok, I agree with you there.

But just looking at it from a technical point of view: To replace a 1000w HPS, how much Watt led would one need?

It really depends on how the build is and how the grower decides to hang the lights, in general 600-700W can replace a HPS, HPS does have a few advantages in the spectrum that the plants seem to like such as 700-800nm also a fair bit below 400nm. One of the reasons led manufacturers pushed so hard about having PPFD so hard for the ranges between 400nm to 700nm is so they could make HPS and CMH look bad. There is alot of photosynthetic active radiation outside of the 400-700nm range. HPS has been used for a long time and often genetic selection under what grows best under HPS for the past 30 years plays a role, that will start to change though.

Most growers don't know how to properly use their HID lights, kinda complicates the question, as you point out. Your posts are gold! I use HID's according to technical documents from Gavita and that includes how you design the entire room, (I now fine tune using my light meter as well). For me this has meant that it takes about 504 watts of f-series to replace a 1000 watt duel-end lamp, but I have 630 and yield more than the Gavitas in the same canopy space. It is further complicated by the fact that HID's count on overlapping light footprints to really work well. So comparing a bank of HID's to a bank of LED's is not the same as comparing them 1 for 1.

[randorson]

Nearing week 3

[YYCannabis]

It maybe worth asking cutter if they can do a 5K optisolis/3K Cri80 nichia mix on the board, this should give the best of both worlds even if they charge a little extra to do it.

How many of these would be needed for a 4x4? I’m very intrigued by them, but not sure how much money I need from the “Bank of Wife” to release to me

[TEKNIK]

22 of the 560mm strips running on a 480W driver would cover it. That's to keep the efficiency highest.
You would probably be better off running 10 strips of optisolis 5k for veg and then running 10 strips of cree 3000k Cri90 for flower. Run the optisolis on a 240w driver and the crees on another 240W driver. Maybe ask cutter if they can show you the blend of these spectrums

[NLDhunt]

Hello Randorson,

Can i ask the wattage per strip in your last pic? 80w a strip?
Are those 3000k?

[Partisan]

Nearing week 3

Curious about the weeks after this...

[randorson]

Hello Randorson,

Can i ask the wattage per strip in your last pic? 80w a strip?
Are those 3000k?

I have one light consisting of (8) strips, wired in parallel. That light is powered by a HLG-600H-48B. So all strips is running at 46v and 10.8 amps. 62.1 watts.

All other lights are wired in series and powered by one HLG-320H-C1400B for every 4 strips.
They run at 184v and 1.4 amps. 64.4 watts per strip.

You can run them a bit hotter than I am, even with passive heat sinks.

I have a light of 3500k strips, and the others are 3000k. They have the same PAR reading on my Apogee MQ-500, when run at the same amperage.

[randorson]

Nearing week 3

Curious about the weeks after this...

I'll post a pic soon. Looking very good. I've done a head-to-head test of Gavita 1000W DE Pro and these Samsung F-series DIY LED's. The LED's smashed the HPS in both total yield and grams/kilowatt hr. Since that head-to-head I've built 7 more LED's and used them for a run. They clearly do better than HPS.

My light meter shows that my LED's produce more PAR light, much more evenly spread over the canopy. And the results says the same thing.