Living Room Grow Light Bar for Houseplants (1st build)
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:57 am
For my first LED build, I’m trying to figure out how to make an aesthetically acceptable 4-foot LED bar to hang over a shelf of houseplants in my living room. I’m thinking I will shoot for around 80W but probably run it dimmed to about half that and hanging 18-24” over the top of my plants. So far, the plan is to use 2 EB Gen 2 3500k 4-foot strips in series with a Mean Well HLG-120H-C1050B (40V each x 2 at 1050mA = 84W).
I could really use some help/suggestions for how to deal with 2 aesthetic issues. (1) How to enclose the fixture and hide the driver? (2) What kind of diffuser or louver would work best? I’m trying to keep this build affordable and relatively easy.
(1) I can’t go into the ceiling or wall, so I need to mount the driver on the bar. To make it look decent, I was thinking about putting it all in a led profile/extrusion like this: www.wired4signsusa.com/collections/hang ... 8425527245. It looks like the upper channel would be large enough to hold the driver, which is 68mm wide x 39mm tall. But it comes in 8-foot lengths. Is something like this reasonably easy to cut (I do have access to a table saw, radial arm saw, and circular saw but I've only used them for wood)? Would this profile provide adequate heat dissipation? Is there anywhere I might be able to buy something like this locally without a commercial account to avoid the shipping cost (I live in a large city). If so, how would I find such a place?
Alternatively I'm also considering attaching the strips to a heatsink with the driver on top and building a wood frame around it (so it would look something like this, but with the wood frame all the way around instead of just on the long sides: www.allmodern.com/lighting/pdp/modern-f ... d=29994083). But that would require some woodwork and finishing that I couldn’t do on my own.
Any other ideas for an inexpensive, easy, and decent looking way to enclose or frame this type of bar would be GREATLY appreciated.
(2) I need some type of diffuser or louver to hide the harsh glare of the diodes from direct view, but I don’t want to spread the light over a wide angle. All the plants are on a 1-foot wide shelf and I’d prefer to minimize the light spillover to the rest of the room as much as reasonably possible. What’s the best option for this?
Thank you so much in advance for any and all help, and thanks for the ENORMOUS wealth of information already shared on this website and forums!!!
I could really use some help/suggestions for how to deal with 2 aesthetic issues. (1) How to enclose the fixture and hide the driver? (2) What kind of diffuser or louver would work best? I’m trying to keep this build affordable and relatively easy.
(1) I can’t go into the ceiling or wall, so I need to mount the driver on the bar. To make it look decent, I was thinking about putting it all in a led profile/extrusion like this: www.wired4signsusa.com/collections/hang ... 8425527245. It looks like the upper channel would be large enough to hold the driver, which is 68mm wide x 39mm tall. But it comes in 8-foot lengths. Is something like this reasonably easy to cut (I do have access to a table saw, radial arm saw, and circular saw but I've only used them for wood)? Would this profile provide adequate heat dissipation? Is there anywhere I might be able to buy something like this locally without a commercial account to avoid the shipping cost (I live in a large city). If so, how would I find such a place?
Alternatively I'm also considering attaching the strips to a heatsink with the driver on top and building a wood frame around it (so it would look something like this, but with the wood frame all the way around instead of just on the long sides: www.allmodern.com/lighting/pdp/modern-f ... d=29994083). But that would require some woodwork and finishing that I couldn’t do on my own.
Any other ideas for an inexpensive, easy, and decent looking way to enclose or frame this type of bar would be GREATLY appreciated.
(2) I need some type of diffuser or louver to hide the harsh glare of the diodes from direct view, but I don’t want to spread the light over a wide angle. All the plants are on a 1-foot wide shelf and I’d prefer to minimize the light spillover to the rest of the room as much as reasonably possible. What’s the best option for this?
Thank you so much in advance for any and all help, and thanks for the ENORMOUS wealth of information already shared on this website and forums!!!