Looking for the best LED grow light for the money. Needing enough PPF’s for an 8’x8’ room! Thanks in advance.
What have you looked at and are considering?
Do you have a $$ amount in mid?
Will the whole 8x8 be a flowering space?
4 Likes
8x8 is going to cost you. Let’s just say a minimum of 30 true watts per square foot. That’s 1920 watts. An hlg scorpion is 715 watts, so you would need of 3 of those. They’re $1,300 a piece without using a code, so you’re looking at $3,900. You could get a discount, but you get the idea.
3 Likes
The best current diode on the market is the Samsung LM301h diode. Look for it in whatever product you are considering.
Let’s get @dbrn32 to comment.
2 Likes
This guy is right on HLG. I bought 2 E-Fun from the Rain forest folks for a 4 x 4. The light Doctor on here recommended HLG. I bought one 260 R spec in conjunction with the E Fun’s till I picked up another HLG 260 use a PAR meter to dial in and run at 50% power. Picked up a HLG 65 for seedlings and it is light years ahead of the E-Fun.
Ran the lights at full power 24 hours a day on first grow electric bill was doubled. Dialed the lights in with par meter went to 18/6 light schedule electric bill where it always been.
HLG is running a New Year sale right now and if you buy the kits save a lot and they are easy to assembly. I am a novice, a year in and have to say HLG quality is outstanding and the fastest internet shipping.
2 Likes
I hear people that know what they’re talking about recommend green beams lights. Good price and good lights. Idk if they make anything big enough for your application.
I’m on team HLG. If you’re not in a rush wait for one of their 25% off sales and buy refurbished Scorpions or something similarly powerful. If you get a refurb on sale it’ll be half the regular price. For the price nobody can beat a half price HLG light, period. Seems like they have one of their sales every few months now.
4 Likes
I’ll mainly do autos so lights would basically be on 24/7 and would need to cover most of the area besides narrow walk area between my two racks. And budget friendly. Trying to work my way up to the top of the line stuff as I go.
You need 4 lights with enough output for 4x4. I would advise against doing 2 or 3 lights that cover more space. If you get to running just a portion of your grow you can always unplug a light or two.
1 Like
Just bought the scorpion rspec with far red. $1099. Brand new. Top of the line. 700 watts. You can also look into the scorpion Diablo. That like 750watts.$1200. But you can get both refurbished from HLG or new it’s up to you. But refurbished is way cheaper in cost not product.
2 Likes
2 Likes
If he needs 4 of them at 275 each. You’re just better off buying one that would cover your grow area. A good 700 w light will grow a 4 by 4. No problem.
1 Like
Like posted above, I’d rather have four, than just the one for the top. That way you can shut some down if you reduce the grow in size and save money on power. One would be overkill in that situation.
Also… if you grow only a couple plants, you could put a couple on the sides and a couple on top to get more of the plant lit up.
2 Likes
I understand what you r saying but that why it comes with a button that allowed you to lower your light strength. Right now I’m only running mine on 10% and I’m 38 inches from the canopy of my seedlings. 10 %. I can lower or just crank it up. So if your only doing a small grow just lower the percentage your running it on. At least like that you don’t have to worry about dark spots in your tent. Even at ten percent it covers my whole tent and I have a 5by5 by 80
2 Likes
Yours also look like more of the white spectrum, while mine are full spectrum.
1 Like
Go read the specks on my light. you say yours is full spectrum. Mine also. With far red with uv full spectrum.
1 Like
Great. My statement still stands that I’d rather have four smaller ones than one larger one.
1 Like
To each his own. Happy growing.
1 Like
Back in the 80s I would get about a pound out of a 8x8 using a 1,000 watt hid, and it was fluffy buds, but very good. If you will be using high quality LEDs at 40 watts per square foot,(four 600 watt lights), in a 8x8 you should be able to pull in 4-5 pounds or more.
Are you sure you need or want that much? I would consider reducing the size of the space.
1 Like
I would be concerned with the reduction of PPF (Photosynthetic Photon Flux). Dimming can be useful based on the plants growth stage. A young small plant needs fewer photons (lower light intensity) than one that is flowering.
Likewise PPF and in turn PPFD (PPF over a specified area usually a square meter) is increased or decreased based on the light’s distance from an object. We all see these PPFD maps
At 12" the center reading is 972. However when the light is raised 6" to 18" the center PPFD has dropped to 549. It is like dimming the light to 60%. The difference is more severe at the outside borders.
Also, spectrum is a consideration. I do not believe dimming a quality LED grow light significantly changes the lights spectrum. This is what HLG said.
Submitted for FWIW
Personally I would rather have two 320 watt lights than one large 640w light.
1 Like
