Brief summary : Custom DIY light 3ft x 1ft (90x30cm) capable of starting seedling (low power) to full vegetative growth (high power)
Context : I'm a gardener who grows a lot of vegetables (tomatoes, chili, eggplant...) outdoor every year and I need a light to start seedlings. I'm not growing cannabis (yet). I want my light to be as multi-purpose as possible, so I designed it to be multi-function (low powered for seedlings, mid-powered for vegetative, and high-powered for maximum growth).
I read a lot of guides here and now I need your help to design my light
More detail :
I bought a shelving unit from amazon that has 90x30x180cm dimension (~3ft x 1ft, 5 levels), and I couldn't find any light that is 90cm wide at a reasonable price so I choose to design it.
I want to be able to run the light at a low enough wattage to avoid burning seedlings, and be able to increase the wattage later as the plants are growing.
I chose to use 6 x Bridgeluxe EB series Gen2 280mm strips, to cover my all my shelf.
The total wattage would go from 40W (dimmable) to 80W (max driver wattage), 26.7 W/sft.
I'm forced to power the strips in parallel, because the strips insulation is rated at 60V (running them in series would result in a 120V voltage)
That's why I choose the HLG-80H-20B.
I have a few questions now :
- Is it best to use a 20V driver or a 24V driver ? The LED's are rated at 19.5V at 350mA, and 20.5V at 700mA. If I want to power them at full power, is it a problem if I choose a 20V driver ?
- 4000K or 5000K ? I would go for 4000k, but 5000K are cheaper
- HLG-80H-20B or ELG-100-24B ?
I'm looking forward to read you
Edit : I got confused and calculated all the values as if I needed 9 strips. My mistake, I'm correcting all the values and the driver choice.
