Lighting best quality "cheap" led units?

[ontop]

Hi all! So im looking to move into the world of led's and im wondering which way to go. I dont have a massive budget so im looking for lights with a decent spectrum and penetration but not a massive price tag.

I have seen vipar units on ebay and there is a deal for 4 of the 300w units for under £500. Are they any good??

I want Grow northern lights but the price is out of reach for what I need.

Im using a 2m x 2m x 2m tent and need lights to cover my area accordingly without spending £1000 please help me

 

[Hansbricks]

Hey man, I'll try and help you out. Like yourself when I first started growing I wanted to use LED's but was on a budget. There is a lot of negativity towards the "cheap" LED's and most of it is warranted because there are a lot of shitty ones out there but if you do your research you can definitely get a good performing LED for a reasonable price.

The first LED I bought was one of the 300w Vipar units you mention, I'm on my third grow with it now and I'm quite happy with it. Here's a link to some pics of my first grow with it which yielded 87g from 1 plant.
https://www.autoflower.org/f10/delicious-seeds-northern-light-blue-pics-28027.html

After my first grow I purchased a second LED which is a Cidly Apollo, Cidly is the manufacture of the current Grow Northern LED's so you can get it customized to be the same spectrum as GN and get it direct from the manufacture for like half the price. Here's a link to the details of my custom Apollo.
https://www.autoflower.org/f138/new-cidly-apollo-4-led-custom-28452.html

Let me know if you have any more questions.
:Sharing One:

 

[az2000]

Im using a 2m x 2m x 2m tent and need lights to cover my area accordingly without spending £1000 please help me

In another post you said you use two HPS lights. Assuming the height of your LED and HPS are similar enough that they wouldn't block each other, you could buy 1-2 LEDs to cover half your tent, and continue to use 1 HPS for the other half.

LEDs pose some challenges like making it difficult to see changes in the health of the plant due to light color. Also possibly severe calmag deficiency in flower. Going into it slowly could be easier. If you didn't want to keep plants entirely LED, you could rotate them so they everyone gets a few days under each light.

Also, doing it incrementally lets you get a taste without a huge investment. If you like what you see, your next 1-2 lights could be more expensive. For example, you could start with 1 Cidly and 1 TopLED (covering 2x2' each). Your next two could be GN Rebel and Area-51 (for example, or a Blackstar). You'd get exposure to different lights.

It's more expensive buying 4 lights to cover a 4x4 tent. But, it gives you some flexibility for height. And, if one unit fails you're not totally down. A spare UFO could fill in. (If you had a larger single unit to cover the entire tent and it failed, you could revert back to your two HPS units.).

 

[ontop]

Yes I got 2 HID lights at the moment but did want to do a full switch over as heat and leccy prices are an issue. Making the change gradually does make sense though so I get dialled in gradually

 

[az2000]

If you didn't want to keep plants entirely LED, you could rotate them so they everyone gets a few days under each light.

I was thinking about this more. You might want to ask more knowledgable LED people about the wisdom of changing light sources (say, red/blue LED to full spectrum white, then back to red/blue). I don't know if that would stress the plant. I've been reading a very long and nearly indigestible thread about LED spectrum and it sounds like spectrum change could cause changes/stress to a plant.

I've put a plant (suffering from ph lockout deficiencies) outside for 4-5 hours, then under the purple'ish LED lights. Did that for a week or 2. It seemed to like it. But, a lot of things were going on then. (It could have liked the foliar feeding I was doing, and I just assumed the light change helped.).

Anyway, I just wanted to make clear that I'm not too experienced and the quoted suggestion might stand some scrutiny by those more experienced. I'd feel bad if I caused you to do something stressful to your plants.

I doubt switching between red/blue LED and red'ish HPS would be a big problem. Not as drastic as switching say between red/blue and the new white LEDs. But, you know... ask others before trying it.

 

[ontop]

Not thought about that before. I change from mh to hps and never thought it may stress the plant

 

[az2000]

Not thought about that before. I change from mh to hps and never thought it may stress the plant

That's probably just once, when going to flower (and the warmer white is beneficial to the new stage of life). I don't know if it would be good to switch back and forth over the life of the plant.

I think you could have HPS and LED in the tent together. The benefit of easy buy-in is still valid. Some plants would get more HPS, others more LED.

But, I don't think I'd shuffle the plants so they get equal time under both lights. That changing spectrum might be stressful. Not sure the benefit would outweigh the stress. I may ask on another forum.

 

[pop22]

I paid $260 ( U.S. ) for a pair of generic Chinese, 300 watt, LED grow lights I got off ebay. They've been running 18/6 for a couple weeks now without any problems. I seen signs that the plants like them, can't ask for much more! If your on a budget, these work well, shop around there are dozens of sellers now. You can probably find one that ships from within your country. I've no complaints with mine.

 

[dazedandconfuzed]

I paid $260 ( U.S. ) for a pair of generic Chinese, 300 watt, LED grow lights I got off ebay. They've been running 18/6 for a couple weeks now without any problems. I seen signs that the plants like them, can't ask for much more! If your on a budget, these work well, shop around there are dozens of sellers now. You can probably find one that ships from within your country. I've no complaints with mine.

+1. Why go CFL right,

 

[Torched]

I've had a lot of luck with my TopLED light good price point.