Total Newbie Strip Light build
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:17 pm
Hi
New to this forum, so please take it easy on me if I start asking dumb stuff.
I very very new to indoor growing, but have some experience with garden (vegetables) and one balcony experiment with growing bag seeds. I have some experience with electronics, can solder quite well, handy with tools, etc.
I would like to grow my own stuff for smoking and the balcony option will not work due to nosy neighbors, so here's my plan:
- I will grow in 60x60cm (2x2ft) tent, probably gorilla tent classic line (space is very limited and this is more of a hobby grow). I plan on having one plant in there, possibly SCROGed if I ever get that far with growing knowledge and experience
- I will use DIY strips for lighting (one light for both veg and flower)
- I don't live in US so HeatsinksUS is out of question, I haven't found any EU based heatsink supplier. The goal is to drive strips soft enough so that excess heat can be managed by aluminum U profile
- tent will be placed in a building, where indoor temperature never climbs above 25°C (winter indoor around 20°C, summer indoor around 23°C)
So here's a list of questions:
1. According to internets I will have to drive my strips at about 50% of their max (700mA) to make sure I don't get too much heat (please comment if this is correct). How many strips (I'm leaning towards Bridgelux BXEB-L0560Z 2ft strips) would I need to get at least 30w/sqft?
My best guess (based on this article): it says strips in these builds are driven at around 75% of their max; for 2x2 it lists 6 strips and for 2x4 it lists 12 strips (driven at 75%). If I drive them at 50% (and assume linear wattage relationship) this should amount to 9 strips? Lets round it up to 10 for redundancy sake.
2. I understand driver should be constant voltage driver at around 20V (strip has 19.5V forward voltage) and must be able to put out at least 7A. HLG-240H-20B ticks all the boxes so it should be OK? I plan to have it dimmed for veg and then bring it up to 50% for flower (140W in total if my calculation are correct)
[a side question on "driving at 50%": how/where do I decide/select at what current the lights will operate? Is this achieved with potentiometer/dimmer, or is there a setting on driver/strips to select the current? Will driver work at 100% (of max rated current of the strips) if dimmer is not connected?]
3. Total watts or watts/sqft: If my (very rusty and dusty) knowledge of electricity still serves, total power for the above mentioned setup (7A @ 20V) should be around 140W, or 35W/sqft. Internets say this is a very good number of watts for strip lighting. Is this correct?
4. If at a point in future I decide to get a bigger tent (2x4ft), I understand the same hardware can be expanded up to 12A (max output of the driver) if strips remain the same (20V ones)?
5. Is driver usually placed in the tent close to the lights? Is it placed in the tent but away from lights (heat source)? Is it placed outside of the tent?
6. On ventilation/odor control: I understand I will need a fan in the tent just to stir the air and move the plant a bit, to help with healthier grow... but for odor control I was just planing on finding a couple of "grow room kits", see what type of fan/filter/ducts/etc. the include and go with that.
Alternatively, I would very much appreciate the most quiet odor control solution. Is there such an option? Like very quiet intake/outake fan that will still move enough air through the same diameter duct and good odor filter?
7. on odor specifically: are all carbon filter created equal? Or is there something I should look out for?
Is there any other major hardware point I missed?
New to this forum, so please take it easy on me if I start asking dumb stuff.
I very very new to indoor growing, but have some experience with garden (vegetables) and one balcony experiment with growing bag seeds. I have some experience with electronics, can solder quite well, handy with tools, etc.
I would like to grow my own stuff for smoking and the balcony option will not work due to nosy neighbors, so here's my plan:
- I will grow in 60x60cm (2x2ft) tent, probably gorilla tent classic line (space is very limited and this is more of a hobby grow). I plan on having one plant in there, possibly SCROGed if I ever get that far with growing knowledge and experience
- I will use DIY strips for lighting (one light for both veg and flower)
- I don't live in US so HeatsinksUS is out of question, I haven't found any EU based heatsink supplier. The goal is to drive strips soft enough so that excess heat can be managed by aluminum U profile
- tent will be placed in a building, where indoor temperature never climbs above 25°C (winter indoor around 20°C, summer indoor around 23°C)
So here's a list of questions:
1. According to internets I will have to drive my strips at about 50% of their max (700mA) to make sure I don't get too much heat (please comment if this is correct). How many strips (I'm leaning towards Bridgelux BXEB-L0560Z 2ft strips) would I need to get at least 30w/sqft?
My best guess (based on this article): it says strips in these builds are driven at around 75% of their max; for 2x2 it lists 6 strips and for 2x4 it lists 12 strips (driven at 75%). If I drive them at 50% (and assume linear wattage relationship) this should amount to 9 strips? Lets round it up to 10 for redundancy sake.
2. I understand driver should be constant voltage driver at around 20V (strip has 19.5V forward voltage) and must be able to put out at least 7A. HLG-240H-20B ticks all the boxes so it should be OK? I plan to have it dimmed for veg and then bring it up to 50% for flower (140W in total if my calculation are correct)
[a side question on "driving at 50%": how/where do I decide/select at what current the lights will operate? Is this achieved with potentiometer/dimmer, or is there a setting on driver/strips to select the current? Will driver work at 100% (of max rated current of the strips) if dimmer is not connected?]
3. Total watts or watts/sqft: If my (very rusty and dusty) knowledge of electricity still serves, total power for the above mentioned setup (7A @ 20V) should be around 140W, or 35W/sqft. Internets say this is a very good number of watts for strip lighting. Is this correct?
4. If at a point in future I decide to get a bigger tent (2x4ft), I understand the same hardware can be expanded up to 12A (max output of the driver) if strips remain the same (20V ones)?
5. Is driver usually placed in the tent close to the lights? Is it placed in the tent but away from lights (heat source)? Is it placed outside of the tent?
6. On ventilation/odor control: I understand I will need a fan in the tent just to stir the air and move the plant a bit, to help with healthier grow... but for odor control I was just planing on finding a couple of "grow room kits", see what type of fan/filter/ducts/etc. the include and go with that.
Alternatively, I would very much appreciate the most quiet odor control solution. Is there such an option? Like very quiet intake/outake fan that will still move enough air through the same diameter duct and good odor filter?
7. on odor specifically: are all carbon filter created equal? Or is there something I should look out for?
Is there any other major hardware point I missed?