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Yes

6 (40%)

Yes, but only as supplemental lighting

2 (13.3%)

No

0 (0%)

I have considered using LED lighting, but haven't yet for whatever reason

7 (46.7%)

I have not considered using LED lighting

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 15

[happyconcacti]

The main point tho, is that if you look at the device it becomes obvious that it uses sunlight that hits a surfsce that equals its surface area at the roof, channels it down where you can expect some losses (more or less for each wavelength see above) and the lower part of the device is designet to give a great angle of irradiation.

Unless you lived in a glass house 

In all seriousness, you're completely correct. The area of the collector would be the maximum area of grow space with "full sun" conditions.

Hcc

2 Likes Chicsa and BubbleCat like this.

[BubbleCat]

The area of the collector would be the maximum area of grow space with "full sun" conditions.

And even smaller if someone tried to exceed outside conditions (wich is what we try I guess since if we wanted outside conditions we could just put the plant outside, a usefull place presupposed.

[TBM]

Thanks for everyone's input and vote! I've opened up viewing the results of the vote to anyone including those who haven't voted yet.

[Skautroll]

I have used setups fitted with 3w leds for three years, its an incredible tool for boosting growth.
Whether you want to stimulate height, stem thickness, branching, salvage cuttings, kick-start seedling growth, grow cacti seedlings faster than vegetables, wake up dormant cacti, stimulate flowering and so on.

I ordered parts from China and put 5 led-lamps together myself last month, its fairly easy once you get used to the soldering.

1 Like Sunshine likes this.

[delta9hippie]

I have used setups fitted with 3w leds for three years, its an incredible tool for boosting growth.
Whether you want to stimulate height, stem thickness, branching, salvage cuttings, kick-start seedling growth, grow cacti seedlings faster than vegetables, wake up dormant cacti, stimulate flowering and so on.

I ordered parts from China and put 5 led-lamps together myself last month, its fairly easy once you get used to the soldering.

Do you use them exclusively, or with other lighting as supplement?

[Skautroll]

I use them as main source with daylight as supplementary, I have used them exclusively before. They work very well alone, you can also fit beam lenses on each diode to tailor the intensity profile

[BubbleCat]

Skautroll, can I ask you to show or explain the way you approach cooling, since I'm concerned what I designed (and am fabricating at the moment) is way overengineered (because I have calculated creepy values for W/m•K in the heatsink compound - because its new to me and I dont trust it).

Also I'd be interested if you employ any means of limiting current, or if you simply let it draw what it draws at operating voltage ?

I should get a thermometer most likely, it will not only benefit my experimentation here but also the plants.

[Skautroll]

I use aluminum pcb, aluminum finned heat sink and cheap thermal paste.

The leds need active cooling, (forced convective cooling) but they dont produce a lot of heat. Its more that they are vulnerable considering they start to decompose from around 70C and upwards depending on brand.

Led power drivers are cheap and they have automatic current outputs, I just order them on aliexpress.

Calculating heat flux for every led is time consuming to get accurate, you'll get better results with a practical approach and rough estimates. I just let them run for a while then run my fingers over the pcb to check that it gets a little warm at most. If I know roughly the amount of heat being generated and temperature readings are fine then I wont bother with calculating heat transfer because I know it takes a lot of measurement cycles to get accurate.

1 Like New Wisdom likes this.

[BubbleCat]

Chinese thermal paste with a yellow label "Heatsink plaster" ? I got a sample for myself and I consider using this.

It appears I must limit the current, mine get freakishly hot even with a tricked out cooling system (that dumps way more wats than they should actually draw alltogether).

I fear I'm not on the right path without a propper limited power supply

[intotheimpossible]

Ive always wanted some sort of fluorescent lighting fixture to keep my globular  and seedling and seed starting going during the winter, I just hav  never kno  what the optimum output of a fixture would be. So in everyone's own opinion what do you think would be a sufficient amount of light in watts for a fluorescent fixture to keep most things goin  in the winter?

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[delta9hippie]

Ive always wanted some sort of fluorescent lighting fixture to keep my globular  and seedling and seed starting going during the winter, I just hav  never kno  what the optimum output of a fixture would be. So in everyone's own opinion what do you think would be a sufficient amount of light in watts for a fluorescent fixture to keep most things goin  in the winter?

Well, if you are talking fluorescent tubes, then just get a couple T5 tubes in a fixture. You can keep them very close to the plants' canopy; in fact, you have to, in order to supply enough light to prevent the plants from stretching. Fluorescent lighting is great for seed/seedling and cloning stages, or for shade-loving plants, but don't expect rapid growth as you over-winter with them.

[New Wisdom]

With flouros and cacti go with 6500k temp bulbs.

[intotheimpossible]

Okay thank you guys I rele want to do this so I can start allot of seeds so I get a bigger range of species going, but how does wattage come into play with this?