Need help choosing growlight

[Rootsruler]

I have to honestly disagree. IMO 20-30w is plenty without co2.

The difference is COB leds are hardly used anymore and they need a further distance because of hot spots leading to wasted wattage. Also the efficiency has improved drastically over the last 20years when that calculation was used. Its an outdated parameter. Places like Spiderfarmer, mars still say this but they just want you to spend more money and often just regurgitate whatever sells more for them.

Unless you are using co2 there really is no need for more than 30w/sqft. With the new LED’s on the market.

I have used 480w to 720w for a 4x4 all with co2 the only one i could max is the 480w with a dialed in grow with a higher hanging height

I agree with this site.

Grow Light Coverage Calculator - How Many Lights Do I Need? - Hydrobuilder Learning Center

Calculating your grow lighting requirements and figuring out how many lights you need can be confusing. Let's help with our grow light coverage calculator!

hydrobuilder.com

Thanks for the update! I'll use that figure to calculate from now on!

 

[MiGrampa]

I have to honestly disagree. IMO 20-30w is plenty without co2.

The difference is COB leds are hardly used anymore and they need a further distance because of hot spots leading to wasted wattage. Also the efficiency has improved drastically over the last 20years when that calculation was used. Its an outdated parameter. Places like Spiderfarmer, mars still say this but they just want you to spend more money and often just regurgitate whatever sells more for them.

Unless you are using co2 there really is no need for more than 30w/sqft. With the new LED’s on the market.

I have used 480w to 720w for a 4x4 all with co2 the only one i could max is the 480w with a dialed in grow with a higher hanging height

I agree with this site.

Grow Light Coverage Calculator - How Many Lights Do I Need? - Hydrobuilder Learning Center

Calculating your grow lighting requirements and figuring out how many lights you need can be confusing. Let's help with our grow light coverage calculator!

hydrobuilder.com

The way I see quantum board designs is not much difference than COB LED lighting. Those quantum boards also have hot spots due to the high concentration of LEDs in a square or rectangular pattern.

I agree with your "rule of thumb" regarding watts per square foot ... 20 watts might be the low end, but 30 watts is more than ample in most cases.

 

[Pipecarver]

The way I see quantum board designs is not much difference than COB LED lighting. Those quantum boards also have hot spots due to the high concentration of LEDs in a square or rectangular pattern.

I agree with your "rule of thumb" regarding watts per square foot ... 20 watts might be the low end, but 30 watts is more than ample in most cases.

With my 3 spiderfarmer SE3000 I have 900 watts in a 5x5 = 25sq/ft = 36w/sq/ft . My plants can take them at full power in flower without problems. They even grow up into the lights without burning, as long as they don't touch they seem fine. They are only 2 ft long 75w bars and I have 12 of them for full coverage

 

[Aqua Man]

The way I see quantum board designs is not much difference than COB LED lighting. Those quantum boards also have hot spots due to the high concentration of LEDs in a square or rectangular pattern.

I agree with your "rule of thumb" regarding watts per square foot ... 20 watts might be the low end, but 30 watts is more than ample in most cases.

Yeah much better than cobs but not as good as bars for distribution. The bar lights can be run very close and use a very wide lens.

The board style also use a wide lens same leds.

Cobs are a complete different beast but yes you are right in that aspect.

 

[Aqua Man]

With my 3 spiderfarmer SE3000 I have 900 watts in a 5x5 = 25sq/ft = 36w/sq/ft . My plants can take them at full power in flower without problems. They even grow up into the lights without burning, as long as they don't touch they seem fine. They are only 2 ft long 75w bars and I have 12 of them for full coverage

Just curious what the driver says on it. 300w?

 

[Aqua Man]

Just curious what the driver says on it. 300w?

Found it and it’s actually 320 but they limited it to 300. Which is a good thing. Nice to see them do that because there was issues before with them running drivers to hard.

 

[MiGrampa]

Yeah much better than cobs but not as good as bars for distribution. The bar lights can be run very close and use a very wide lens.

The board style also use a wide lens same leds.

Cobs are a complete different beast but yes you are right in that aspect.

I still have a stack of driverless cobs in various color temperatures including blurple ... I built a few lights with them. They were very good at frying plants that were directly under them. From there, I switched to quantum boards before finally settling on bar lights.

@Mars_Barz

Lets just say when it comes to lighting I think I made every mistake I possibly could. Then about 5 yrs ago I met this guy called @Aqua Man and finally I began to have success as a grower.

 

[4Plants]

I have to honestly disagree. IMO 20-30w is plenty without co2.

I am running 27.2w at peak without CO2 and I feel my flowers are quite nice.

 

[Mars_Barz]

I realize you're pretty set on the Diablo X ... If I could persuade you to at least look into some of the higher end bar lights, I think you'll find "Photontek" makes a few bar lights that would better serve you if you're also set on using a tent.

Here's my opinion on this ... the Quantum Board design of the Scorpion Diablo X is best suited for growing in an open room with higher ceilings ... like 8' of more. The bar lights are better suited for tent applications where the light is evenly distributed by the bar spacing. The spacing also allows the heat from the light to rise up where your carbon filter system can then exhaust the heat. A large quantum board design (even with those cut-outs) trap a lot of the heat between the plants and the big chunk of aluminum that your LEDs are installed on.

At the end of the day, you CAN successfully use a Scorpion Diablo in a tent but you'll want to think through how you're going to get rid of the heat ... especially what is trapped at the plant's level. Your plants happy temperature for an indoor grow under LEDs without CO2 is about 82F +/- 2F ... (80-84F).

Edit: Links to a couple of lights by Photontek

X 600W PRO LED | Photontek Led Products | Led Lights | Led Lighting

X 600W Pro LED is a perfect solution for home-grow, grow tents, grow rooms and all kinds of indoor greenhouses | Hypodronics | 600w led grow lights

photontek-lighting.com

XT 1000W CO2 LED | 1000 watt led grow light | 1000w led | Hydroponics

XT 1000W CO2 LED is a perfect solution for home-grow, grow tents, grow rooms and all kinds of indoor greenhouses | 1000w led grow light

photontek-lighting.com

I appreciate the advice, but as Pipecarver mentioned -

Too much heat???? up north here??? I need all the heat I can get except for our 2 months of summer. I'm already using my heater to get to 78-80f lights on. I'm border line wanting my hps back through winter months. I think I'd be ahead on electrical costs with a 1000w hps. rather than 900 w led's and a 1200w heater

I'm in the most northern major city in Canada. It's not uncommon for us to have snow by mid October that lasts through until April lol.

But I will heed your advice. Dialing in my VPD is something that I mean to begin practising, and temps are currently causing me issues in my current setup. But the tent is currently being operated in the warmest room. There is one other adjacent room that becomes UNBEARABLY cold in the winter months due to poor insulation and inadequate HVAC ducting. I also have a basement. But to be honest I probably won't set anything up at this place, I probably won't even get the 4x4 tent. I'll most likely go with the 5x5 7'0 Gorilla tent, as I would like to grow some sativa plants eventually. That light is better

I just looked at the Scorpion Diablo X on HLG's website, and they've re-branded it. At one point in time not too long ago it was marketed for 'advanced growers looking to push the limits of their grow' or something to that effect. Now it's just marketed for growers 'looking to push crop yields.' It's also listed as FULL SPECTRUM, which it wasn't before. I'm going to presume their old marketing did poorly for sales or some?

 

[Pipecarver]

I appreciate the advice, but as Pipecarver mentioned -

I'm in the most northern major city in Canada. It's not uncommon for us to have snow by mid October that lasts through until April lol.

But I will heed your advice. Dialing in my VPD is something that I mean to begin practising, and temps are currently causing me issues in my current setup. But the tent is currently being operated in the warmest room. There is one other adjacent room that becomes UNBEARABLY cold in the winter months due to poor insulation and inadequate HVAC ducting. I also have a basement. But to be honest I probably won't set anything up at this place, I probably won't even get the 4x4 tent. I'll most likely go with the 5x5 7'0 Gorilla tent, as I would like to grow some sativa plants eventually. That light is better

I just looked at the Scorpion Diablo X on HLG's website, and they've re-branded it. At one point in time not too long ago it was marketed for 'advanced growers looking to push the limits of their grow' or something to that effect. Now it's just marketed for growers 'looking to push crop yields.' It's also listed as FULL SPECTRUM, which it wasn't before. I'm going to presume their old marketing did poorly for sales or some?

I have some insulation on top of my tent and I intend on getting more for this winter, whatever heat I generate I want kept in the tent so my exhaust goes on low as does my intake. I'm good overnight so my heaters go off and they drop to around 65-66f at the coldest times of the year but warm up quickly as the lights and heat come on. I get the best colors out of my plants in the winter.

 

[Mars_Barz]

I have some insulation on top of my tent and I intend on getting more for this winter, whatever heat I generate I want kept in the tent so my exhaust goes on low as does my intake. I'm good overnight so my heaters go off and they drop to around 65-66f at the coldest times of the year but warm up quickly as the lights and heat come on. I get the best colors out of my plants in the winter.

What room do you grow in, if u don't mind me asking? And have you ever tried to grow sativa's in your space during the winter?

 

[Pipecarver]

What room do you grow in, if u don't mind me asking? And have you ever tried to grow sativa's in your space during the winter?

I'm in the basement & yes I've grown sativas through out the years & I'm not big on growing them indoors. Too tall & too long to finish flowering.. I prefer smoking Indica's anyways and I seem to grow them better, fkin Sativa's get some nice big buds but they dry wispy and lose density.

 

[MiGrampa]

What room do you grow in, if u don't mind me asking? And have you ever tried to grow sativa's in your space during the winter?

I grow in my basement. I have right at 80" vertical space ... just enough to get a 6'8" tent in there. I've grown some sativa leaning hybrids ... Cinderella 99 and Irie Genetic's Lemon Sunrise. Both these plants would be considered "medium tall" plants. (The lemon sunrise only comes in regular seeds.) Both these strains are easy to grow and will produce some fairly dense high potency flowers. I used scrog nets and managed the plants just fine in my space.