Off the shelf retail store screw-in LED and CFL bulb comparisons

[Herbal Tea]

WOW...nice job. What are the specs on the bulbs? Do I see solo cups, and what grow medium did you use? Love the fans...I have them everywhere.

My bulbs are 4000k Cool White 1560lm's (JCB S12507) bulbs. The leds are mounted to heatsinks that are outside the enclosure, temps lowered to 1 degree above room temp & yeah, those cups are 16oz but that's 12oz coco in them. I just stack them to raise them closer to the light as necessary.

 

[Killkingkong]

3 weeks into flower of Gelat.OG from Seedsman. 10 9w warm white led bulbs and 8 red/blue 3w led bulbs. SO about 114w in lights, 3 exhaust pc fans (with scrubber on top) and a dwc tote with an airpump on bottom. I lost my watt-o-meter, but I think about 150w total.

 

[man0os]

Love all the different globe-cutoff tech.
��

 

[Stoner Jay]

Those are perfect, at least in paper. Given the low chip count, you'll need to experiment a little with canopy distance, I'd leave 30cm/12" minimum. How much vertical space do you have?

I grow Sativas or Sativa hybrids exclusively.

I've been running this:

Purple 11w Philips 6500K
Blue 15w, German no name 5000K
Red 11w Philips 2700K

View Image

View Image

View Image

with incredible results (1,6gpw) Kalichakra:

View Image

Hey howzit man. Looking great !!!

I am planning on extending my curent lightING system.

Wanting to go pretty much the same example you sent through with the 20 bulbs but I wold like to go for 25 bulbs as I only have 9 watt bulbs and not 11 w like you have.

My question to you is, I see the spacing you have between the bulbs is 16 cms ? Is that right ?

My tent size is 1m x 1m, but would like to go max 90cms for the lights

Thanks or any help or suggestions you may have

 

[slomocean]

Looks great, I have a small 2 sq ft flower box with 8x 10w SILs and I just went to them after 5 years using CFLs. I over lighted my saplings in my veg box when I started learning and so am a bit hesitant to burn the flowering plants. I see alot of the mini boxes have the plant growing right up to the SILs and it seems ok, similar to yours. Do you see any problems from that? If anybody else wants top chime in also that would be great. Thanks guys I have followed this thread for years and enjoyed all the help from everybody.

 

[Herbal Tea]

I don't know what to say when it comes to light distance. I've used from 9w to 17.5w & in all my different micro enclosures i got closer than recommended. For me it's seem to be determined by my nutrient concentration & plant health. When I run 650ppm to 800ppm i can get as close.as 3" running the 15w bulb, higher concentration than that & I start burning at 6". I noticed whenever I started soak flushing for 2 days before my 5 days flush that my light burning wasn't advancing for just the 2 days. My ppm would range between 900ppm down to 550ppm. When I ran dwc, it was the same. My guess is that the plants need more water to handle the intensity & I never run lights less than .75w to 1w per led & I always run 50w per sqft. You're gonna have to experiment & measure. When I ran 10w bulbs in my 15hx6dx9l 30w total watts my plants finished less than an inch away without burning at 650ppm. They do the same in veg at 400ppm under the 10w & only get burnt when they touch the bulb. Light intensity is 1 factor, you gotta balance everything else around that factor of its the only non changing variable... when i think my lights are too bright or intense for a particular strain i would cover some of the leds with sticky paper labels. Nothing too sticky to leave any glue behind.

 

[Herbal Tea]

Another thing now that I checked my data, every time the plants didn't burn my run off on was always above 6.2, all burnt plants had a run off below 6.0. Same when I ran dwc a year ago. When I started using coco i was focused on everything going in, then after 3 cycles i focused on my run offs & it changed. My medium makes the nutrient more acidic, plus the salt build up from not having enough run off, in which with coco is varied by how often you water. You can do amazing things if you keep it saturated.

 

[slomocean]

thanks guys I appreciate the input! I am doing some experimenting with bulbs/ height/ etc. it's just that I don't grow often and really only get a chance for two micro grows a year so if I mess up a grow it's a awhile before I can try again. I am gradually swapping bulbs that still have the domes with ones that have domes removed and doing some checking with a lux meter app to kind of see the differences at the canopy. I know that's not perfect but gives an idea of the increase. thanks again.

 

[Legalcdn]

Over at AFN site..there was a swede doing led testing like the 1st page of this thread..interesting results.. Keep in mind they are slowly trying to nudge u toward their light..

https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guid...ht-test-ppfd-amp-footprint-for-indoor-growing

Not sure if links are allowed here..but they show results at 6 inches..
They test 9.5w with cover..9.5w without cover..14w without cover.. With a ppfd meter..

 

[Hookahhead]

Found 14w Osram daylight bulbs packaged as a 2 pack for around $6.75. I have a new veg spot to light up, so I picked up 5 packs (10 bulbs = 140w). These are advertised at 1500lm or 107 lm/w. I couldn’t find any of the 9.5 bulbs I usually use, and it doesn’t seem like they plan to restock them. I noticed all of their Osram LED packages changed from saying “LED Superstar Classic A” to “LED Value A100”.

I figured I’d take the opportunity to photo my globe removal technique. From here I wiggle, twist, pull, or bop the globe from the base.

14w, 36 chips @ 6500k. I really like the layout of this board because there are no diodes in the center.

 

[Max - LEDTonic]

Over at AFN site..there was a swede doing led testing
..interesting results..
Not sure if links are allowed here..

It's nice to see the results being appreciated =)
Yes, our company sells grow lights but we very much do recommend small household bulbs instead when only a small area or plant needs to be illuminated. These tests were mostly made for people growing less light requiring plants such as kitchen herbs but also with early-stage cannabis cultivation in mind. Why not save some electricity in the first couple of weeks, as well as a couple of hours on our expensive and bigger lamps, right?

I just read the forum rules and it says no website-URL posting.
Although, the videos on our youtube channel are very informative and with no nudging towards our products, just raw testing of different bulbs. The first video is about CFL vs LED and the second video is more about how light intensity is affected by distance while testing three LED bulbs with focusing lenses and a 2' T5 fixture.

Someone here might find this useful:
Vid 1: https://youtu.be/X4QxEu__k2I
Vid 2: https://youtu.be/QTD1qr7-S-4

I've thought about doing more thorough mapping of the 9w/800lm and 14w/1500-1600lm regular bulbs since these seem to be the most popular ones and also most available worldwide. They are also incredibly cheap. I haven't scanned all pages in this thread yet, so it might already have been done? 320 pages...

Light and love!

 

[ScrogMonster]

Thanks Blynx

Thanks Blynx

Thanks Blynx,

I started playing with these bulbs after seeing this thread and I don't think I'll use any other type of light to grow indoors again. I'd choose these over HID's any day. Here's my latest batch, Guerilla glue, full 2' by 4' canopy in a grow tent with 18 - 17w bulbs spaced 8" apart from bulb center to bulb center some 5k some 3k. I put two teirs in each tent as well. Each 2' x 4' fixture totals 306w so it's not really saving much energy but it's a way better footprint then an HID and the quality and density of the buds are great and the yield is definatly there too. I got these Fiet Electric 100w equiv bulbs at costco for $1 each instant rebate. There's better ones I'm sure but they work great and the price makes them an amazing value. I find the 5k ones seem to work much better imo. I see fatter flowers under them vs the 3k warm white even, which I didn't expect and I'll probably switch to all 5k over time. Thank you Blynx!!

 

[ScrogMonster]

The other plant on the top teir is Sour Dog supposedly. It didnt finish In 8wks so I wont run ot again. The plants are in 18gal totes in an organic soiless mix with added worm castings/perlite/ bio live/fish bone meal/leongbonite(sp?)/azamite and I handwater with GO bloom.

 

[Stoner Jay]

Thanks Blynx,

I started playing with these bulbs after seeing this thread and I don't think I'll use any other type of light to grow indoors again. I'd choose these over HID's any day. Here's my latest batch, Guerilla glue, full 2' by 4' canopy in a grow tent with 18 - 17w bulbs spaced 6" apart from bulb center to bulb center some 5k some 3k. I put two teirs in each tent as well. Each 2' x 4' fixture totals 306w so it's not really saving much energy but it's a way better footprint then an HID and the quality and density of the buds are great and the yield is definatly there too. I got these Fiet Electric 100w equiv bulbs at costco for $1 each instant rebate. There's better ones I'm sure but they work great and the price makes them an amazing value. I find the 5k ones seem to work much better imo. I see fatter flowers under them vs the 3k warm white even, which I didn't expect and I'll probably switch to all 5k over time. Thank you Blynx!!

View Image

View Image

View Image

Wow, now that's how scrogs are supposed to be ! Well done bud, looking killer !!!!

May I ask how long you vegged for ? What's your average yield you getting off your setup ?

Looks really good man.

 

[Legalcdn]

Thanks Blynx,

I started playing with these bulbs after seeing this thread and I don't think I'll use any other type of light to grow indoors again. I'd choose these over HID's any day. Here's my latest batch, Guerilla glue, full 2' by 4' canopy in a grow tent with 18 - 17w bulbs spaced 6" apart from bulb center to bulb center some 5k some 3k. I put two teirs in each tent as well. Each 2' x 4' fixture totals 306w so it's not really saving much energy but it's a way better footprint then an HID and the quality and density of the buds are great and the yield is definatly there too. I got these Fiet Electric 100w equiv bulbs at costco for $1 each instant rebate. There's better ones I'm sure but they work great and the price makes them an amazing value. I find the 5k ones seem to work much better imo. I see fatter flowers under them vs the 3k warm white even, which I didn't expect and I'll probably switch to all 5k over time. Thank you Blynx!!

View Image

View Image

View Image

Scrogmonster.. Nice work. What are the temps in the 2x4? How are you dealing with that?

 

[ScrogMonster]

Wow, now that's how scrogs are supposed to be ! Well done bud, looking killer !!!!

May I ask how long you vegged for ? What's your average yield you getting off your setup ?

Looks really good man.

Stoner Jay - Tooooo long lol! I had to tie them back down to the screen at least 3 times and had to pull a bunch of fan leaves and blades so ensure enough light to all the tops. I was veging the plants as I was building the set up still which took me longer then I wanted. Id say they vegged for at least 2 months, maybe another week or two not sure but id think 4-6 weeks would have probably been more ideal.

P.s. thanks I've been scroggin for some time lol

 

[ScrogMonster]

Scrogmonster.. Nice work. What are the temps in the 2x4? How are you dealing with that?

Legalcdn - Thanks bud. Funny you should ask, I have a creative way of venting these two flowering tents im running that are 2' x 4' x 6' each running 606w of Led's which btw I edited my original post because the bulbs are actually spaced 8" apart, not 6" like i wrote originally. Edit - with the following set up the temps run about 10-12 degrees above the room's temp at the top teirs canopy. Depending on if all the lights are on in all the tents.

I crafted a fan/filter holder which is a box that holds the 18-24" carbon filters. Built with 1x3's. The filter portion is enclosed with foam insulation board so that the filters draw from the 6" hole that is in the bottom just at the right place to line up with the duct hole at the top of the tent. That box sits on a pair of "skies" that are more 1x3's that run slightly longer then the frame of the tent (48" is actually just slightly longer) so it sits nicely on top. The tents are against a wall ofcoarse and the hole in the top of the tent is near the back of the tent so there is no worry about the weight of the fan/filter box making the tents lean forward. Then a frame holds a 6" 400 or so cfm inline fan in place connected to the filter with flexible ducting being aimed out the door of the room. Here are a few pictures. Each tent had it's own filtered 6" inline fan on top and i have solo cups jammes around the edges of those tables I made of coarse out of 1x3's and plywood, to allow the air to flow from the bottom where vents are to the top teir then out. Where there's a will there's a way right? This is why the set up took so long and the plants were "overgrown" - shout out to the pioneering forum so much of us got inspired by and started from.

Ofcoarse I did this in response to needing as much head space in the tents as possible so that I could run two teirs per tent for a nice lil productive perpetual harvest. I'll probably make a lil Journal for it me thinks. I wish I could pull more pictures directly off of my Google Drive from the forum album detailing the build of these fan filter boxes. Any one know if that is possible?

 

[ScrogMonster]

Am I hijacking if post too much in this thread? Do I need to make a Journal? Here is a nug of the almost ready to cure Guerilla Glue from the previous photo's. It's not to best picture, the bud is super frosty but ended up kind of spacey/airy. I'm guessing because of the canopy being a bit overcrowded. I'm hoping for at least 8oz, I got 9 off a previous Lemon Mirange, same set up.

Here is a shot of my drying chamber with all the buds sitting in it, I meant to have these frames built out of 1x3's so the colas would be hanging in there but haven't got to building them yet so they are just lying on some paper towel sitting on the lid of an 18gal tote, and a cookie sheet.

And the canopy from which they were cut

 

[Legalcdn]

Scrogmonter..
That is a lot of colas. I am just building a 21 light setup from 4 x 4 light bathroom vanity and a 5 light vanity. They are cheap at lowes. Total will be 315w covering about 3ft x 4ft. I have an inkbird 308 to kick heat on when too cold and exhaust when heat is too hot.

Nice nugs u harvested. What's the distance from lights to canopy top? I been using the manifold method for training..

 

[Hookahhead]

They were still on sale when I went back today. I couldn’t help myself, 20x14w bulbs. I think I’m pretty well stocked up now, unfortunately these will be spread across a couple of builds so I don’t think I’ll get a photo of them all lit up together.