LEDS vs Incandescent or Sodium etc.. bulbs

[WilliamAshley]

Hi,

I'm looking into grow lights for an indoor and/or underground grow op (legal plants of course) I figure underground will be best if below the frost line as it will lower heating costs, I'm consdering making some grow tunnels with sandbags that are lined on the inside with aluminum foil or something similar. I have determined each LED bulb which can be something between 60 and 90 watts covers a 1 x 2 ft area more or less meaning. A 20 sq foot area thus would take 20x 10 or 200 of these bulbs to totally be encapsulated, still need to reseach this more.

Now individual red and blue bulbs can be bought for much less than the price of these grow lights... I can pick up much more powerful old style grow lights... but also the old style lights put out heat, which may also mean I can heat with the bulbs during the winter as opposed to the LEDS which I don't think put out light...

Does anyone with underground to indoor hydroponics growing have any suggestions on how to maximize ex. a mix of blue and red bulbs and a UV.blacklight tube plus some LEDS? What exactly is the best and most cost economic option for growing? Note I need to light with solar power and/or wind power, so I need to keep my power consumption down as much as possible.

Any suggestions very welcome.. I'm in the north around 50 degrees so lots of daylight, just not lots of heat.. I'm making a grow house... basically converting an old house into a hydroponics facility. (to grow food plants and experiement, this is not for a pot grow op)

 

[Wiredog8]

Hi,

I'm looking into grow lights for an indoor and/or underground grow op (legal plants of course) I figure underground will be best if below the frost line as it will lower heating costs, I'm consdering making some grow tunnels with sandbags that are lined on the inside with aluminum foil or something similar. I have determined each LED bulb which can be something between 60 and 90 watts covers a 1 x 2 ft area more or less meaning. A 20 sq foot area thus would take 20x 10 or 200 of these bulbs to totally be encapsulated, still need to reseach this more.

Now individual red and blue bulbs can be bought for much less than the price of these grow lights... I can pick up much more powerful old style grow lights... but also the old style lights put out heat, which may also mean I can heat with the bulbs during the winter as opposed to the LEDS which I don't think put out light...

Does anyone with underground to indoor hydroponics growing have any suggestions on how to maximize ex. a mix of blue and red bulbs and a UV.blacklight tube plus some LEDS? What exactly is the best and most cost economic option for growing? Note I need to light with solar power and/or wind power, so I need to keep my power consumption down as much as possible.

Any suggestions very welcome.. I'm in the north around 50 degrees so lots of daylight, just not lots of heat.. I'm making a grow house... basically converting an old house into a hydroponics facility. (to grow food plants and experiement, this is not for a pot grow op)

But the weed would WAY pay for the set up! LOL

 

[WilliamAshley]

But the weed would WAY pay for the set up! LOL

whats this crime doesn't pay but drugs do?

Yeah I'm too known to police to even attempt to do something illegal. I'm undergoing two, atleast, security background checks ATM.

If you've seen the prices of some fruits and veggies up here you might think that growing southern veggies would pay more

I think I'll get one grow station with each new panel...

I live between two reserves up here, apparently drug use is a major social issue atm, the money is in chemistry not shrubs...

a light will pay for iteslf but with only about 2 years of continuous growing you need to ask yourself am I going to get $70 of groceries or $35 of groceries per year out of this 90 watt bulb? I may get more than 2 years with 50,000 hours but that is the warranty... I just know so little about growing hydro... ponically to know what the needs are in terms of heat .. weed apparently is a very easy crop though...

I still need to figure out the specifics,

no doubt though I could easily pay for my lights if I were to grow pot aside from the seizure of my equipment and plants by the police...

uh but yeah still considering this, will do more research but anyone in the know please do post.

 

[Todd@T2_Tactical]

William,

Unless you want the police kicking in your door I'd use a greenhouse as opposed to an indoor grow. These are not cost effective at all, the reason indoor grows even exist is to conceal them from other people. You could build a green house for what you'd pay in energy costs in a year. This is how illegal grows are usually found, when the power company reports a single family residence using as much energy as a walmart. If you live in an area with a long or extremely cold winter, you can use the greenhouse. Or freeze your veggies from the spring and summer. The cost of powering an extra freezer would be much less then bulbs and water in your home. If you are dead set on bulbs LED vs Halogen isn't the issue, as long as they are UV bulbs, LED's are more expensive but tend to last longer, however they are not designed to be on for long periods of time, as the liquid gets too hot the will burn out.

 

[WilliamAshley]

You don't understand there is a less than 90 day frost free grow period up here. If I'm not growing indoors I'm not growing. I'd like to get prepared for more than growing between ? Mid June and ? Late August..? Of course I can stretch this with greenhouses but only so much unless they are heated I'm still hovering around 0 with a frost warning tonight, speaking of which need to cover the plants. I'd need to heat the green houses so it seems to make more sense just to heat the plants with a heat lamp/grow light if I can sort it out. Rather than heating the entire building or an entire greenhouse.


Also the house with snow covering it is fairly well insulated, I could also insulate a grow room or area specifically, light outside during the winter is also not that great, long summer daylight but little winter daylight..

On winter solstice: ~ 8 hours
On summer solstice: ~ 16 hours Also I'm seriously thinking about growing under the frost line... as an experiment... this actually growing underground but I need to sort heating in an underground tunnel vs. heating in a building above ground... imo it seems to make way more sense if I can dig to the water line... that way I could grow on the water table using a floating hydroponic station and get geothermal, meanwhile lighting with LEDs if the geothermal was enough ... I need to figure out exactly what temperature range works but I think this is an ideal growing mechanism for efficiency. Aside from the nutrients, need to figure this out more... but I still need to figure out the heat outputs of different bulb in contrast to ambient air temperature and the area of heat output at specific temperatures.