Quick question about indoor lighting.

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NaZzAtAzEr
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Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by NaZzAtAzEr »

I just bought some nice led strips that will provide enough light for the plants, however, I managed to buy 4000k and not the 6400k lights.

I have ordered the 6400k but will the 4000k be fine?
edds
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by edds »

I'd get them swapped. The 4K ones will be really quite yellow in comparison and have too little at the cool end of the spectrum.
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Redjimp
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by Redjimp »

Depends on the diodes in the light. If it uses Samsung lm301's or newer then the 4k white spectrum contains more than enough red and blue to grow. I just built a fixture with 40 Samsung strips wired in parallel using a combination of 4k and 3.5k running at about 25 % Max capacity , it puts out about 44000 lm and should be good for our purposes to cover about 1.2m sq and heat the space to around 23 C.
Even some of the older strips are usable if you consider adding a couple of extra diodes to them. Digikey have M strips for sale at the moment for less than 50p each, add an extra far red diode to each and factor in the cost of a driver and for about £50 you would have the equivalent of a £1000 state of the art lighting fixture
NaZzAtAzEr
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by NaZzAtAzEr »

Unfortunately, I can't work out what chip my light uses, but it is samsung. I have these at the moment and they seem pretty bright.

My other lights have been dispatched and will arrive either today or tomorrow, so it doesn't really matter on the outcome.

https://www.v-tac.eu/products-view/offi ... etail.html
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by Rich45s »

I was under impression around 5000k was closest to actual daylight / sunlight. Could be wrong but I’ve been buying cheapo lights with that range.

Edit: I recently bought a SAD lamp to perk myself up through my self imposed lockdown / shielding and when not whacking it on my face, I’m pointing it at certain plants.
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Rich45s
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by Rich45s »

Redjimp wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:40 pm
Even some of the older strips are usable if you consider adding a couple of extra diodes to them. Digikey have M strips for sale at the moment for less than 50p each, add an extra far red diode to each and factor in the cost of a driver and for about £50 you would have the equivalent of a £1000 state of the art lighting fixture
Could you expand on this a little more please. I’m a little lost, but am all for equivalent of £1k worth of kit for £50. Thrifty / tightwad that I am
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MatDz
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by MatDz »

Rich45s wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 8:44 pm I was under impression around 5000k was closest to actual daylight / sunlight. Could be wrong but I’ve been buying cheapo lights with that range. [...]
Wikipedia says 5,000-6,500 K, with 5,000 K being "Horizon daylight", and 6,500 K - "Daylight, overcast" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_tem ... t_lighting).
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edds
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by edds »

When you're talking about spectra in aquarium lights at least, 6,400K is reckoned to be daylight. Anything much higher moves towards marine blue shades (up to very blue 20,000K lights and more). Around 5,000K is cool white and then moving to warm white around 4,000K.

Obviously real daylight varies in temperature with different seasons and times of day.

I have a Sol reef light that uses various colour LEDs to punch very high light levels in a range of colours depending on the mix you select. I don't use it for plants though as I think I'd scorch them - it's designed to punch down through salt water to keep high-light loving corals happy.
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by Redjimp »

Not wanting to hijack a thread but here's some more details. Samsung M strips
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8 ... lectronics $0.80
You would need a suitable driver (power supply) , until monday they had some 185 W on sale for £9 but they are now £35 , the sales happen frequently though .
You would need to build a frame to mount the strips ,the
Cost of that depends what you have available but aluminium angle such as old greenhouse pieces can work. The strips nominal output is 19w at 0.7A and 24V but you would need extra aluminium on the frame to cope with the heat output and this bumps up the potential cost so buy double the strips you need to reach your target wattage and run them at 0.35A ,this also should increase the efficiency of the lights . How you connect it all together depends on the driver you buy or whether you are more confident in a high voltage low current system or a low voltage high current set up, I went for low voltage because I got a good deal on some expensive 320w hlg cc/cv 24V drivers so a parallel circuit was perfect but the wiring loom was quite a job with so many strips , a high voltage set up would of been easier to wire. So around £22 for strips and £18 for drivers with £10 for wire could give a real ~400w fixture equivalent of the very dear lights. The spectrum on these is a little blue but once you've done all that wiring putting some extra red diodes into your circuit is trivial but probably unnecessary https://www.plagron.com/en/grow-topics/light
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Re: Quick question about indoor lighting.

Post by Rich45s »

Redjimp wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:33 pm Not wanting to hijack a thread but here's some more details. Samsung M strips
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8 ... lectronics $0.80
You would need a suitable driver (power supply) , until monday they had some 185 W on sale for £9 but they are now £35 , the sales happen frequently though .
You would need to build a frame to mount the strips ,the
Cost of that depends what you have available but aluminium angle such as old greenhouse pieces can work. The strips nominal output is 19w at 0.7A and 24V but you would need extra aluminium on the frame to cope with the heat output and this bumps up the potential cost so buy double the strips you need to reach your target wattage and run them at 0.35A ,this also should increase the efficiency of the lights . How you connect it all together depends on the driver you buy or whether you are more confident in a high voltage low current system or a low voltage high current set up, I went for low voltage because I got a good deal on some expensive 320w hlg cc/cv 24V drivers so a parallel circuit was perfect but the wiring loom was quite a job with so many strips , a high voltage set up would of been easier to wire. So around £22 for strips and £18 for drivers with £10 for wire could give a real ~400w fixture equivalent of the very dear lights. The spectrum on these is a little blue but once you've done all that wiring putting some extra red diodes into your circuit is trivial but probably unnecessary https://www.plagron.com/en/grow-topics/light
Thanks for this. Very helpful. May need to rope my more technically minded cousin into helping, but will give it a crack in first instance
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