Off the shelf retail store screw-in LED and CFL bulb comparisons

[exploziv]

Not sure I would want to use a light thats 5 usd per 100w, on for hours at a time and left unsupervised. I would also worry about durability and spectrum not being so good, extra to the fire risk.
On second thoughts, that might be a lie and real led power might be real low compared to advertised. Sound a bit too cheap, and knowing the kind of commision amazon takes, plus the shipping from china, that should be really a 2 usd (tops) product cost to start with. So probably imposible to be even close to 200W!

 

[Drop That Sound]

View attachment 18969077
1000w LED tower fixture, for 360 degree vert grows?

 

[Drop That Sound]

Not sure I would want to use a light thats 5 usd per 100w, on for hours at a time and left unsupervised. I would also worry about durability and spectrum not being so good, extra to the fire risk.

Too good to be true, huh!

 

[exploziv]

Check my edit, lol!

 

[Drop That Sound]

They are actual watts though, lol

 

[Drop That Sound]

That's the scary part..

 

[Drop That Sound]

I'm gonna buy a few of them anyway. Just for kicks. There is a bunch of different variations, and online stores selling that style of garage lights now for the last year or so. Haven't seen any bad fire reviews, nothing any worse than regular household SILs as far as holding up.. Maybe I'll get the 100w ones that cost the same amount, but have less LEDs. Maybe they are better quality driver circuits, or even more of a rip off?

 

[exploziv]

Maybe there's a hidden resistor inside? Hard to buy the part in bulk in china for the money, if the leds can take 200w. It's that "cheap"!

 

[H G Griffin]

The new age of cheap SILs is upon us.



View attachment 18969033 View attachment 18969032 View attachment 18969035 View attachment 18969038



Less than $40 for a 4 pack, with 800 actual watts


Who's gonna be the first to make a panel with them?


A long vertical tube tower, with all the bulbs connected in 90 degree mode would be cool!

Guess I'll wait and see if you early adapters end up growing fire or starting fires.

 

[PCBuds]

A long vertical tube tower, with all the bulbs connected in 90 degree mode would be cool!

I like it !!

If it were me, I'd mount the lights on the outside facing in, like in my closet.

 

[PCBuds]

I'm gonna buy a few of them anyway. Just for kicks. There is a bunch of different variations, and online stores selling that style of garage lights now for the last year or so. Haven't seen any bad fire reviews, nothing any worse than regular household SILs as far as holding up.. Maybe I'll get the 100w ones that cost the same amount, but have less LEDs. Maybe they are better quality driver circuits, or even more of a rip off?

I say just buy the 200 Watt version and simply see how it goes, and how hot it gets.

If it's too hot to touch ,then it's too hot.

You may be able to dim the lights as well to reduce the heat?
(some SILs are dimmable)
Leds are more efficient too, when they aren't turned up to maximum.

I was REALLY Paranoid about fire with my LED strips but they didn't get NEARLY as hot as my SILS got.

I can touch the strip and even the individual LEDs (you're not supposed to, but I did) and not get burned.

(Finger prints on the LED segments only matter when the LED is REALLY hot.)

The lights are so cheap that you could double the amount and run them at half power(ish).

That what I did.
The strips will last WAY longer at half power too.

 

[LifeLess]

Check out Harbor Freight. They have a 2ft led full spec grow light. I think it's 20.00 and you can like 8 fixtures together. I'm using 2 fixtures in my grow box.

 

[PCBuds]

Check out Harbor Freight. They have a 2ft led full spec grow light. I think it's 20.00 and you can like 8 fixtures together. I'm using 2 fixtures in my grow box.

Those lights are only 19 Watts.

My LED strips are turned up to ~8 Watts each and I have 48 of them.
I would need 20 Harbour Freight fixtures to approximately equal the light output I have.
That's when it starts getting expensive.

The shop lights are 200 Watts.

Generally speaking, manufacturers lie a lot about the light output of an LED bulb, but not about the actual power draw from the wall.

 

[PCBuds]

Those lights are only 19 Watts.

Usually yielding a gram per Watt is doing pretty good.
I believe that some people are over to 1.5 grams per Watt now?

The Harbour Freight grow light will probably yeild a maximum of ~20-30 grams per fixture.
(Having all the other factors of growing all dialed in perfectly.)

 

[LifeLess]

Usually yielding a gram per Watt is doing pretty good.
I believe that some people are over to 1.5 grams per Watt now?

The Harbour Freight grow light will probably yeild a maximum of ~20-30 grams per fixture.
(Having all the other factors of growing all dialed in perfectly.)

I'm just using them for seedlings. They seem to be liking them.

 

[PCBuds]

The new age of cheap SILs is upon us.



View attachment 18969033 View attachment 18969032 View attachment 18969035 View attachment 18969038



Less than $40 for a 4 pack, with 800 actual watts


Who's gonna be the first to make a panel with them?


A long vertical tube tower, with all the bulbs connected in 90 degree mode would be cool!

I found this similar 200 Watt shop light at the same price, but it has more LED segments,..

200W and 20000 lumens is 100 lumens per watt, and that's reasonable.

200W spread out over 312 LED segments is ~⅔ of a Watt per segment, and that's reasonable too.

They are 6500K though and that really blue.

I personally think that throwing lots of light at a plant is more important than what color the light is.

You are still going to dissipate 200 Watts from each light and that can heat up a small space.


My lights run a total of ~350 Watts spread out over the 48 strips and 2688 individual LED segments, but that's still 350 Watts of heat going into my closet.
I've got no hot spots but my closet does get quite warm without ventilation.

You might have issues if a plant touches the light but I've had a 10 Watt SIL with the dome removed in a coffee can full of dry leaves for 10 hours and there was nothing more than a hay smell.

 

[PCBuds]

I'm just using them for seedlings. They seem to be liking them.

Yeah that's perfect for babies.
Full spectrum too.
My lights make the plant look a different color than they are.

I've had a hard time not broiling my plants, especially when they're seedlings.
I have to use my light meter to not over cook the youngsters.

 

[LifeLess]

Yeah that's perfect for babies.
Full spectrum too.

I've had a hard time no broiling my plants, especially when they're seedlings.
I have to use my light meter to not over cook the youngsters.

I grew with 100 Watt cfls for along time. Kinda miss the challenge. https://www.icmag.com/threads/my-box-set-up.46220/

 

[PCBuds]

I grew with 100 Watt cfls for along time. Kinda miss the challenge.

I started with a 4 foot 4 bulb fluorescent fixture jammed vertically into the back of my closet.
(It's the only way I could fit it in there. That's how I became a vertical grower. It's how I started.)

Then I added cfls, but I think I only went to 20 Watts each?
Then I switched to LED Sils, then to the strips.

Lucky I skipped the HID lights.
I hate those things.

I still use incandescent bulbs to warm up the closet in the winter before I can turn up my strips for heat.

 

[PCBuds]

Your cat looks a lot like mine,..

View attachment 18970381

Mine is still alive though.