Vertical LED Grow Light

[LEDGirl]

I have received several requests for a Vertical LED lighting system over the past 6 months, but before we begin the production of one, we need to find out what kind of a market truly exists for these lights.

The new vertical light we engineered has been approved for manufacturing, but the cost to make the mould for this unit is substantial. This means we would need to sell quite a few of them before we begin making any money on them. The unit would contain between 500-650W of LED's, and retail around $1500 shipped. It would supply enough light to support a 2.5'-3' radius around the bulb, with a width maxing out around 3'. For you vertical guys out there, this should give you a pretty good idea of what our light would be able to do.

Now it's up to all of you to let us know if there is a genuine interest for this product. If the demand is high enough, we will begin production of a seriously awesome looking light.

 

[VerdantGreen]

lol i was just thinking about a vertical led the other day. it would be a good way of increasing the 'footprint' of led's so the grow area would be bigger and more use might be made of the high par wattage. interesting to see if the one i dreamed up in my head will be similar to your design.

 

[Okiedope]

is it going to be tube shaped? what is the height of the units? or what would be the 'height' of the footprint if that makes sense? would love to hear some more details. thanks.

 

[medi-useA]

I'm a bit confused on the configuration you're referring to, LEDGirl...

Are you talking about a flat panel emitting light or a vertical, cylindrical 360* light doodah?

muA

 

[MeanBean]

Slim to none... Wasn't the vertical system created around the bulb? Seems like with led we can come up with something better now that we can evenly spread the light, not build the system around the light.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I've been considering your leds for a vertical set up.

I was going to use 4 180watts, and mount two back to back, and hang them from a light mover.

But I might need 6 to equal a similar yield of a 3k set up.

So, yeah, I would buy one if the yield would be comparable to a 3k hps vertical. I would guess a light coverage area of 6' tall.

Another thing to consider, the ideal cola distance from your leds is (i'm guessing) 6" to 12" compared to 18" to 24" for hps. This results in a much smaller total canopy area, assuming a circle canopy, no light mover. I know your led buds are much denser than hps, but personally, I think it would be a stretch to say the increased density would bridge the gap of such a large loss in canopy area.

I'd recommend you design some brackets for mounting you current panels back to back and sell them with one of those spinning light movers, like this one

The brackets could be a different length for each appropriate light panel, making the canopy area more in line with the comparable wattage hps canopy. A bracket that separates the led panels by 12" would also increase the canopy circle by 12".

I'm just thinking out loud here, hope you don't mind.

 

[turdbird]

I think most people that grow vertical do it to maximize the efficiency of HID lights. Maybe also to maximize floor space. I think vertical growers are a minority. Vertical growers that want to use LEDs are probably an even smaller minority. I don't think that designing an LED fixture for vertical grows would be playing to the strengths of LEDs.

 

[Mr.Meds]

wouldn't you build them and test them before you sell them? Sounds interesting though.

 

[LEDGirl]

is it going to be tube shaped? what is the height of the units? or what would be the 'height' of the footprint if that makes sense? would love to hear some more details. thanks.

I'm a bit confused on the configuration you're referring to, LEDGirl...
Are you talking about a flat panel emitting light or a vertical, cylindrical 360* light doodah?
muA

The unit will emit light for a 3' height, and a 2.5'-3' radius (meaning circle) around the bulb.

It is a custom configuration that we designed, which is cylindrical in shape. It emits light in all directions, just like a HID bulb would. The total casing would probably come out to 8"-10" thick (imagine a cool tube).

wouldn't you build them and test them before you sell them? Sounds interesting though.

We don't grow vertically, we produce LED Grow Lights based on science and customer requests. The vertical light would use our light engine configuration, which we designed specifically so that we could create new lights, and always know what the outcome will be. All of our units share the light engine, the main difference between them is how many engines each unit contains. So the growth potential has already been calculated, but now we need to know the demand for a such a product, as we have had several customer inquiries over the last several months. Smart design allows us quick innovation, but without a sizable market there would be no point

I think most people that grow vertical do it to maximize the efficiency of HID lights. Maybe also to maximize floor space. I think vertical growers are a minority. Vertical growers that want to use LEDs are probably an even smaller minority. I don't think that designing an LED fixture for vertical grows would be playing to the strengths of LEDs.

You could very well be correct. I agree that a circle design doesn't necessarily play to the strength of LED's either, but if it's what enough people want then so be it lol.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Would it not be best to knock up some prototypes, and get them tested by Vert growers, so any possible problems can be identified and modifications made before you pressed GO ! on a large scale production run ?


It would be really interesting to see if the benifits of Vert growing can carry over to LED lights.

 

[medi-useA]

The unit will emit light for a 3' height, and a 2.5'-3' radius (meaning circle) around the bulb.

It is a custom configuration that we designed, which is cylindrical in shape. It emits light in all directions, just like a HID bulb would. The total casing would probably come out to 8"-10" thick (imagine a cool tube).

Thanks LEDGirl...you answered my question ...
Here was lil'ole me picturing a vertical wall mounted modular interlocking panel type arrangement th@ could be daisy chained around corners and could perhaps be turned on incrementally as the plant grows...

A thought...if ppl are going to be hanging a vertical tubular LED lamp..you might want to look into offering a supplemental LED panel th@ fits to the, presumably, flat bottom of the LED-tube....or the TOP if it comes to th@!

I could see this type of lamp being set up in a grid pattern amongst plants, complementing horizontal LED-lamps...it would take more space but it would, conceivably, produce better buds all over the plant and not just from the top down.
A BUSH of nuggs...not NUGGS on a bush

Have you looked @ the option of being able to turn on the lamp incrementally? Half @a time? Quarterly increments?...most useful if ya just wanna sit them in the corners of a growroom...or have only 1 face towards a plant @the time...

Will there be a tripod or vertical ground stand offered as optional or perhaps, standard?
Make it reversible and it could also be used to HANG the lamp.

I'm not into this type of growing @the moment...when my current grow is done I will be buying 1-2 of your 126W's and playing from there...

I may not change over completely, just use my HPS in winter for the warmth and LED's spring/summer/autumn and in between!


muA

 

[staank]

I would be more interested in an LED side lighting product rather than a big thing to hang in the middle of a forest. Something I can attach the sides of my cab to help the lower parts of my plants.

 

[LEDGirl]

Would it not be best to knock up some prototypes, and get them tested by Vert growers, so any possible problems can be identified and modifications made before you pressed GO ! on a large scale production run ?


It would be really interesting to see if the benifits of Vert growing can carry over to LED lights.

The problem is that you can't just knock out a prototype, you have to pay for the CAD engineering of it and the subsequent mould costs to produce your first model. Normally these costs are around $10,000 per unit from most manufacturers, yet the cost of producing a vertical unit is damn near double. This is due to the fact that more than 1 mould would need to be created. So yeah, I suppose if we wanted to spend $20,000 (which doesn't even include our first light) to punch out a mould for some prototypes, we could, but it would be a big waste if there wasn't already a large market for them... This is why we are doing a "market analysis" if you will, to see what the true demand is for these lights. To put it simply, we would need to sell 50+ of them before we really started making any money... If this design isn't "marketable", then we will invest our money into other models to continue making our entire line proprietary to our company.

 

[MeanBean]

I would be more interested in an LED side lighting product rather than a big thing to hang in the middle of a forest. Something I can attach the sides of my cab to help the lower parts of my plants.

Yea like a light rail to hang on the side like a 4 bulb 2ft cfl size unit, with all the led amming down like 45 degrees or so..

Still Thad be a small market.

I think all in all what your doing is great. I smoked up 3 ideas for ya over the past few months of using your products.

#1. 205 watter based: make a higher wattage for the same panel. Then try to make your light circles tighter, like the olympics thing. sell it for 2 or 3 hundered more, utilize the same new fixture. if possible that is, i know you have a special blend in them fancy circles.

#2. another modification of the 205. I gues I just like it cause theres no case area, all business. Damn I need 2 of those...

OK now just find like a perfect blend of budjet and red LED to help the bloom out. maybe like 50 to 100 extra for this??? Not sure on what leds you need and what they cost, but if the 2nd gen got more red, why not more more red lol!

#3. Still wish I could by like a 4 to 6 pack of little units all with one circle of led on it. Then I could ethier pack all six real close for some dense stuff or strech them apart to make a high yeild of middies ya know??






#2.

 

[LEDGirl]

LoL, the 345W panel (coming out next week) is the answer to your #1. It uses the 19" x 19" panel like the 205W, but pumps out over 50W per square foot. The light engines are much closer together than other models.

As per #3, a supplemental/side lighting, "little unit", is something we have certainly thought about. I think I just figured out a cool design change for our model, to do almost exactly what you would like it to do.

 

[Mr.Meds]

Why do you keep calling it a light engine? Engines run on gas..... Are you referring to the power supplies?

 

[MeanBean]

Yeah for #3 that would be for the top still, just lets me control the density. and coverage area.

Why do you keep calling it a light engine? Engines run on gas..... Are you referring to the power supplies?

Yeah how many MPG's are the engines getting?

 

[Puff Daddy]

Just an idea, but you should consider making them in stackable sections, like perhaps sell 1-2 feet sections for less money, that way people could buy what they need or can afford.

And sell spacers, so people could make a stack with the smaller units and fill in the space. Then when they can afford it, they can add LED units in place of the spacers.

Heh, then they will upgrade when you make brighter sections a year later

Just some random thoughts

 

[LEDGirl]

Why do you keep calling it a light engine? Engines run on gas.....

Nope, they simply "drive" photosynthesis. There's actually quite a few companies on the market that use the term light engine in reference to LED's. Our "light engines" are a series of outputs working together for one common goal. To my knowledge, we are the only company who has designed their product into individual "photosynthesis clusters", so that we have continuity from one product to the next. It also allows us to make new designs very fast, since our spectral design is already locked in.

 

[Mr Celsius]

If you don't mind, what kind of LED are you using? Luxeons?