I messed up, in a good way. I was originally going to have my grow area in the unfinished portion of my basement. Plans changed when we decided to build out that area into a kitchen for my mother-in-law for when she moves in. My area is now an unused closet downstairs. The closet is 5’x5’ but because of the door opens in, I’ve got 5’x3’. I had purchased 2-300W Viparspectra LED’s previously and knew I was going to need another light. I went to order a Mars Hydro reflector 192 and had already put a 144 in my shopping cart when I was looking at them before, and ended up ordering them both. I’m thinking about keeping the 2-300W fixtures and using them as supplemental side lighting as the 731W true watts will be perfect for the 15 SF grow area. Thoughts?
with LEDs too much light can be a bad thing… these really aint my thing but have heard enough to know you want around 35-45 true watts of power some say up to 50… that taken into account with your 731 true wattage over 15square feet that means 48.7w per square foot so sounds fine to me @latewood or @MAXHeadRoom will be better suited to guide you here 
I am learning that these cheap lights from China are pretty much all the same. They all run Epistar LEDS from china. These chips are manufactured from technology that is 3 years old and they are very inefficient. These lights will work for seedlings and veg stages but you might need more power for bloom. I am still learning and I am not an expert. For expert advise watch mau5 videos on youtube. He is a grower and a LED guru. But from personal experience I am currently running a 1200 watt no name cheap ebay light on my 1 week old seedlings at 18" away with no burn. They love the light and are doing very well but that should tell you how weak these light are. 1200w should turn seedlings into crisy cridders, but these dont. Be prepared to add more lights at bloom stage. you will know if they start to stretch.
Thank you @MAXheadroom. I bought the 300W fixtures before I knew to look at actual wattage. The Mars Hydros are true watts at 731 so I should be good up until bloom from what I’ve read so far. The 300W fixtures are 137W each so just needs to make sure they are the right kind of light during bloom. They say full spectrum so again, I think I’ll be ok if I add roughly 275W at that time.
Wattage really has no bearing on how good a LED light is. If I knew the volts of each chip and the spec on the driver then I could tell you if it was a good light. I know epistar LEDs are junk. Cree and Bridgelux chips are good so if you can find a light with those LEDs you probably will do well. Most growers are from the HPS and HID light world and thats how you rate those lights but LED is a whole different ball game and you really can’t compare using wattage ratings. There are to many variables. So for now buy them use them let everyone know how they work. Its an experiment but I will be using LED for my grow so I will update everyone on there performance. I will be using 2-1200w 1-1000w and 1-600w. These are all the cheap ebay lights. Happy growing everyone
First of all, you have to differentiate between electrical quantities. There are mainly three:
- Voltage
- Current
- Power
Now, each quantity has its units which are:
Volt (V) for Voltage
Ampere (A) for Current and
Watt (W) for Power
Now, you can’t relate between the units of two different quantities by using just numerical (i.e. how many watt) because that is not a valid relation.
Also, even if you want to relate them somehow, the dimensions of MLTA (Mass,Length,Time, Current) must be same for both sides of equation.
If we relate Ampere=Watt then it does not prove this condition. Hence, to make equation valid, you have to add another quantity (i.e. Voltage) on left side.
Thus, equation becomes
Volt* Ampere = Watt.
Now, if we select current equal to 1 A then we need magnitude of Voltage to find the power in watts.
Hope, you can easily understand this.
I did not write this.
I’m not really that smart but I thought this was interesting to read. So you need to know the volts and amps to compare lights not just watts. The volts and amps for a LED should be printed on the driver or listed in the spec sheet.
The Viparspectras are 60 piece 5W LED’s. Unable to say the manufacturer . The Mars brand says “chip brand” as Epistar. No other info.
I’m definitely going to be posting a journal once I get started. Am thinking about trying an outdoor grow at the same time.
For what it’s worth, between my tent and others I’ve set up, I’ve used 6 Viparspecta’s. Not one issue yet, albeit only 6 months in. Not putting down any brand, just sharing my experience with Viparspecra.
The Viparspectra lights also don’t use the Epistar LEDs … I’m brand new to this and this is my first grow but the 900 watt unit I have seems to be fine for the 2 plants I’m growing… I looked at other manufacturers, advanced platinum, black dog, apache and those lights are def real deal but they are very expensive… Gonna see how my Viparspectra does… Great thread for me reading all the info posted!
I saw mention of too much light above. You cannot really fit too much light into a grow space. You can have lamps too close, lamps too far away.
Dumme and I are building our own Cob light systems with custom frames. If anyone is interested, I We can build a custom Cob LED system for you. 
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Nice info shared above. @Aquaponic_Dumme for onsite LED advice. I would also advise you to look into Spectrum King. Priced in between cheapies, and super expensive LED system. They use Cree Cob lights.
@latewoodAre your COBs like the Cutter kit shown on youtube by mau5
told you @MAXHeadRoom & @latewood would be better able to help
and sorry @latewood my too much light was poorly explained but you cleared it up 
I do not know. I have not seen this video.
Started getting my area ready. Used some 6x8 tarps for the walls. My Mars Hydros came in. Going to hang them tonight. Picking up a couple of fans tomorrow.
Sure wish my beans would get here. Got the package of nutrients last week. They shipped 5/5 so I guess any day now.