DIY DIY Convertible Grow Light

[pop22]

DIY Convertible Grow Light

Ok, I fooled you a bit. When you see the pic you'll say Well duh...lol! Anyway
I started this back in Feb. I started buying 15 watt LED spotlights ( Red/Blue 5LEDx3 ).

My goal was to build a 180 watt DIY LED light for less than $65. On the average, I spent less than $5.00 each for them by bidding on multiple auction until I got them for less than $6.00 each.

The rest of the item came from Lowes and KMart. At Lowes, I bought 12 light sockets for $1.47 each, and a bag of wire nuts for $1.79.

I bought 2- 15 foot cheap lead cords for $1.99 each. As the lead wire was 14 gauge it has more than enough Amp capacity. I cut up one to use to wire thew sockets together. they are wired in parallel.
The mounting board is a piece of 1/4" luan that was 24"x24". I had bought it for another project that I canceled so I cut it to make the backer. I have room for 6 more light sockets on this section for a total of 12.

I layed out the sockets on the board and marked there location with a pencil. I then cut a 2" hole with a hole saw, in the middle of each of the socket outlines. This is to feed the wires through to the back of the board. I cut the wires in lengths that gave me just enough room to be able to wire it to the next socket without too much trouble, but not to have too much excess wire. I tied the wires together with the wire nut and wired in the lead with plug, that I cut from the second leadcord.

And its as simple as that! I've put CFLs on it as a test for a few days and to see how the plants liked it. I can swap out or mix and match CFL and LEDS!

I will be incorporating a switch before I build the the cover for the back. Whats nice with this is, noo cooling fans needed on the light!

 

[Dr Fluff]

Nice one pop.

One of the great thing with a set up like this as you say you can tune it to the spectrums you want, just by changing the bulbs , be it cfl or led or a combination of both..

What is really enjoyable with making your own gear is the fact that it can be done cheaply, especially as a lot of people on a tight budget, plus it's fun tinkering around and you get a sense of achievement at the end of it.

Anyone with a drill, should definitely get a hole saw set for it, I wouldn't be with out my hole saw.

Lookingh forward to more installments of DIY with pop

Can't wait to see it in action and get some nice herbs growing.

Keep it coming pop

 

[wwwillie]

Looking good pop!
If your careful you can fit Y adapters and double the capacity. May not be best for LED but for CFL, it rocks!

 

[pop22]

thought about the y-adapters but with 12 sockets when finished, won'y need them! better light dispersal this way too I think. The LED spots I think have a 60 degree pattern so the overlap with this is good. I made it to fit either this cabinet, or my seedling/clone cab. Likely it will end up in the c lone cab as I can regulate the amount of light by adding or subtracting bulbs.

 

[pop22]

I was inspired by Delahaze's Extremely Low Budget Grow 40W post to finish my own light.

https://www.autoflower.org/f44/extremely-low-budget-grow-|-40w-|-delahaze-|-36247-14.html#post715183

Got it working and testing in my seedling/clone cabinet. I used six 15 watt (5x3watt per bulb ) LED grow spotlight bulbs and two 23 watt CFL bulbs. With this desisn, you can mix and match anyway you like. 'll take it down tomorrow and frame the panel and make a rear cover. I've gone from 201 watts of CFL and Fluorescent to 100 watts (actual draw ) of combined LED and CFL. I could even squeeze in a third row of LEDs on the board if wanted/needed. I have a total of
$76 in it including all bulbs.
I think it should be just fine as is. We'll see if my plants like it! So I need to chop another 100 watts somewhere to justify adding another 300-450 watt LED grow light to the growroom.

 

[pop22]

The light worked well for seedlings and clones. Now I'm testing it for flowering small plants. I have a Northern Lights on a 0ne quart pot, and a Cheese x Durrty Dragon that's not autoing. I just started them on 12/12. I'm also testing the use of white LED spotlights. I've got a couple warm white 15 watt led spotlights coming and I have two 15 watt coolwhite ( 6400k ) in use now.

 

[oldster]

Nice setup Pop, well done

 

[Fog]

hey nice idea ive seen a few set ups like this with the led spot lights & how cheap they can be made for , just wondering how affective are the 15w (5x3w) spotlights are ? are the pretty much the same as the 3watt bulbs used in the bigger 300watt?

thanks fog

 

[pop22]

hey nice idea ive seen a few set ups like this with the led spot lights & how cheap they can be made for , just wondering how affective are the 15w (5x3w) spotlights are ? are the pretty much the same as the 3watt bulbs used in the bigger 300watt?

thanks fog

three plants gave me about 50 grams of dry bud. They were grown at the same time under them. Here is even more impressive results: How about a plant going from seedling to an 11" leaf spread in 1o days? !! Yes genetics had much to do with it, but it still takes light to let it accomplish that! Total power draw with just LEDs is 64 watts. with the CFL 78 watts:

This plant was later transplanted into a 10 gallon tote and is now filling 2/3 of a 4'x4' SCROG net! ( Under a Mars Hydro 192x3 LED grow light )

Blue Dragon at 10 days:

Blue Dragon at 2 weeks:

 

[Fog]

thanks for the response pop i think the pictures say it all , im planning a cfl grow but ill defo be adding a few of them leds too

Fog