Lighting Need help picking lights!!

[Notaclue]

I'm not making anything myself, especially as it will be my first try and I don't want to burn the house down. I'm only good with bricks, when it comes to DIY.

Is anyone out there (on here) using any LED cobs with good results?

I've seen people selling home made ones online...

Could anyone give me definitive suggestion on what power light I will need inside a 80x80x160cm tent. I plan to grow one plant, (DP - AUTO ULTIMATE) and when it begins to flower, start a new baby plant in the tent at that time... With the aim of trying to harvest one plant once a month... What would more experienced growers suggest regarding the lights.

Doesn't nessasarily need to be cobs, I just need a top notch LED that's going to give me good results and last me a few years!

 

[cornell584]

Probably need at least 600w so you can give 300 to each plant, maybe getting 2x 300w would be better for you as your growing 2 plants at different heights so if you had 2 lights you could adjust the height for better coverage just an idea lol I currently only run 1 300w on my DP auto ultimate.
Not sure you will get years of use out of them tho, maybe 2-3 grows if your lucky lol

Boo'sBuds[emoji271] https://www.autoflower.org/index.php?threads/60630/

 

[MedGrower]

I have done a test grow with my DIY COB's here: https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...th-200w-meanwell-driver-dp-autoeuforia.57287/

Good COB's are so efficient you won't need nearly as much power as suggested. For example 600w would be absolute overkill for space you are having. I had 200w to 60cm x 100cm x 200cm (0,60m2) space and I ended up dimming my lights because of light burn issues to the leaf material and ended up in a conclusion that it may be a bit overkill already to use 200w in that amount of space. Your space was 80cm x 80xm x 160cm (0,64m2) and 40cm less headroom so you really need to keep in mind you need some distance to these babies to avoid burns because they really are intense.

If you are not wanting to make your own DIY COBs and you are in North America, I would recommend getting four of these and use between 2 to 4 of them in the space depending on the need:
https://www.autoflower.net/index.php/product/afn-55-watt-cob-light/ or https://www.cobshop.net/shop?olsPage=products/autocob-55&olsFocus=false

If you are located in EU, I would advice checking out GN's Telos 6 for you space: https://www.gn.uk/systems/gn-telos-6

AU in it's maturity will be hogging all the space when it reaches its maturity that you need to seriously think about how and where to place your young seedling in order for it to get enough light so it won't strech unreasonably. I would advice against this in such confined space.

 

[cornell584]

Probably need at least 600w so you can give 300 to each plant, maybe getting 2x 300w would be better for you as your growing 2 plants at different heights so if you had 2 lights you could adjust the height for better coverage just an idea lol I currently only run 1 300w on my DP auto ultimate.
Not sure you will get years of use out of them tho, maybe 2-3 grows if your lucky lol

Boo'sBuds[emoji271] https://www.autoflower.org/index.php?threads/60630/

Yeah that's for a standard LED lights not COB LEDs

Boo'sBuds[emoji271] https://www.autoflower.org/index.php?threads/60630/

 

[wwwillie]

Hey!
Lots of good advice. I saw that you said you wanted to buy from a trusted vendor. I can tell you that here @BigSm0 is a trusted vendor. His autocobs are brilliant and priced right. I would at least hit him up and find out what it costs to get some lights to you.
GN is a U.K. vendor that is trusted here as well so you can check them out too. Being from the US I don't have experience with them. I do however have 8 of BidSm0's!

 

[Notaclue]

I have looked at Big Smo's lights and people who've used them and the results I've seen is the reason I want auto cobs in my tent now. They look the bollocks. Cant blow the best part of a grand though, my missus clearly wants me to ask her to get married so if I spend loads on grow lights I can see it all going down like a lead balloon haha...although I've got 250 boys tucked up for an investment.

I'm still a bit of a novice to the grow game... Only done 5 plants now but they've all done well!

Ive decided to keep one viparspectra 225w ufo led light I have, and create a little grow box for vegging in as the light was actually really good during veg - just terrible during flower. And I mean terrible.

Although; the viparspectra (x2) were used in the said grow space to grow 3 plants. It's done a job but taken much longer than I thought. Maybe just 2 lights under 1 plant would perform better? I don't know..

If I did go with COB though 200w would probably be good enough for one plant?

 

[Notaclue]

Right I've had a good think, cobs are unrealistic for me right now.

So it's either a good LED

...or....

Would a 150 or 250w hps be better for one plant in my tent size?

I'm thinking a 250w hps with a Kenley extraction kit to deal with the heat... What do people think? Even playing with idea of vegging under current LED and then putting the HPS in for flower...

What do we think?

Thanks!!!

 

[L0wbob2017]

Right I've had a good think, cobs are unrealistic for me right now.

So it's either a good LED

...or....

Would a 150 or 250w hps be better for one plant in my tent size?

I'm thinking a 250w hps with a Kenley extraction kit to deal with the heat... What do people think? Even playing with idea of vegging under current LED and then putting the HPS in for flower...

What do we think?

Thanks!!!

Just thinking about this:

I got myself a tent with the same size like yours (80x80x160cm | LxWxH) and since i didnt had much budget to spend on but also wanted to have the ability of extending the system, i first got only one dimmable COB.
This COB "can" be driven with up to ~ 215W but then with "low" effeciency. So this is a single light source and if i hang it high enough it would cover everything needed but then again with low PPFD.

At the moment i am running it at 75W and with about 40cm distance to the plants and it works like a charm. ( Even it is not for cannabis. Also i dont have the money for a nice PPFD meter so i took LUX values and calculated the PPFD approx. | got about 13000 LUX at distance of 40cm at 75W powerinput.)

For a tent this sice i would recommend to get at least 2 COB's (each at about 60W ) or even better 4 COB's ( each at 40 - 50W ). 2 COB's would just be fine, because even with only one COB i got pretty good results.

 

[blue]

A spectrum king mothers lil helper would fit nicely in that area.

Check out Duggys Journal here: https://www.autoflower.org/threads/spectrum-king-mothers-lil-helper-test.54332/
A friend of mine bought one on the basis of that thread and is very happy.

 

[F.N.]

I have had great success with this it has 600ma driver I have had one since 2014 a cheap COB that works. They have a cree imitation one out now I have it it grows great weed great sprawl I would go with 2 400 watt ones 200 watt draw and cheap as chips to buy. The are epi-led but they work and work proper. They run a little hotter then a diy cob but they can grow huge asre plants. The cree imitation is a 66X3 watt COB the purple one is 64X3 and a 1200 watt COB I have had that one running 24 hours a day since september 2014 with maybe three months off in total. Oh yea and you see the cheapest led 300 watt epi-led in the back they produce big plants to I have four of them they are frost inducing great for bud growth. All this is good but not great they have come along way with using power to create brighter COBS using cree and meanwell that is the way to go but still expensive if you have a house car kids a dog a pet pig. Please do not bash me I have sensitive feelings LMAO. Do not for get TASTY he is a vendor on here he has a 450 watt COB for 475.00 all meanwelled out vero chips built ready to go you can buy the same kit for four hundred and build it yourself. I have a tasty what a powerhouse 335 watts and meanwell 2100 ma driver so I do have state of the art it works amazing