What's new
GrowWeedEasy.com
You're browsing as a guest. Sign up to join the conversation, share your grows, and get help from thousands of fellow growers — it's free and takes less than a minute.

What is the best LED for a 4x4 scrog set up?

Hey craftygirl stick with the Viparspectra. Order on Amazon.ca, which is the Canadian version. I would get two Viparspectra 450 - they say they cover 2.5 x 2.5. $186 each - Canadian. Or the 600 - $269.
 
Morning Crafty, plenty of good cheap leds to choose from, but in a tent your size, I'd much rather have 3-4 small leds like the old 300watt lights than 1 large one ,some of them only cost 79bucks, 4 of them only 300bucks or so, plus you already got 1, I think, but you would sure have plenty of coverage ,that way in your size tent. Good Luck with whatever you choose.

I should mention that my set up is NOT in a tent. I'm currently using the spare bedroom (it's 12x10) and T5 lights, and a metal shelving unit so they are 2 high when growing. with all the lights running the temp got up to 80F every day, and trying to cool it off at night wasn't easy. I'm not looking to use hot lights since it's already hard to keep it the right temp.
 
Hey craftygirl stick with the Viparspectra. Order on Amazon.ca, which is the Canadian version. I would get two Viparspectra 450 - they say they cover 2.5 x 2.5. $186 each - Canadian. Or the 600 - $269.

Can you post links for me to those, I can't find them for anywhere near that price on amazon.ca, which is why I was looking at amazon.com
 
To clarify, I was a consultant for a large grow room and did due diligence before recommending the Viparspectra 1200w PAR-, which had just been released.
I don't own a Viparspectra because the company will not tell you the btu's, which is an important factor for small tents, but a non issue in larger grows.
 
I have a viparspectra Par700, but I can't recommend it because I haven't done a complete grow with it yet, plus it is my first LED, so I don't have experience.
 
I just ordered a par meter im actually going to test the output and footprint. But as of now with the one light at 28-30 inches from what i noticed my furthest plant away from the center of the light the one nearest the edge of my tent is still growing vertical. Theres maybe a foot between my plant and the tent wall. There is no lean towards the light as of yet. I was thinking about ordering a second and daisy chaining them but this is only my veg tent and 3600 watts in a 4x4 seems like over kill to me. Plus with only the one light im having some significant bleaching of the chlorophyll already. The other thing I was thinking was getting 2 smaller leds and hanging them on each side of the 1800.
 
Spectrum king and Nextlight are about the best performing and efficient grow lights on the market at the moment. The reason for their high cost, is because unlike other cheap LED manufacturers (looking at you china). They actually design lights that can compete with traditional gas discharge technology. Its a sad fact that most LED light fixtures on the market, are infact inferrior to gas discharge lights.

When designing and manufacturing LED light fixtures, the efficiency of the light is mostly dictated by the toplogy, not the model or type of LED chips used. Typically to build a fixture with higher efficiency, requires more diodes and circuit complexity to acheive this. This adds more cost and makes it harder to convince consumers to invest. This is why there are many cheap fixtures on the market. But yet underperform in comparison.

When looking at the long term investment, i must point out to people that choosing the higher quality but yet more expensive product is going to be more economical over the years. The savings from efficiency and higher performance ends up paying itself back much more than the cheaper fixtures. You typically also get longer life and better warranty as well.

Just some further information on competing light technologies.

With LED's like i have explained, the topology and design has a much more significant impact on fixture efficiency than the choice of the diode chips themselves. Saying that, there is a misconception that COB is more efficient than typical SMD chips. This is not the case however. Although efficiency is improved from its substrate dicharge of heat. It is heavily counteracted by the concentration of heat created from the higher proximity between the diodes. This effects the total efficiency as temperature is directly related to a diodes radiant efficiency.

As has always been the case, manufacturers are always trying to find ways to sell more products. Just recently there has been a surge in popularity of Ceramic Metal Halide. But again more misconceptions cloud the technology.
CMH is not a new technology, its been around for oh, nearly 30 years. Philips introduced a new design back in 2011 called CDM Elite Agro for the growing industry after seing more interest from indoor horticulture (same bulb used today). This new product was an improved design from previous ceramic metal halides. Attributed with higher efficiency and better spectrum uniformity (I would recommended current CMH users stick with the philips bulbs only).
However, there is no current evidence that shows CMH as being superior in efficiency or efficacy (read up the differences because its most important). Current papers that have looked at technologies and put them through rigorous testing systems such as integrating spheres. Have come to all but similar conclusions. Showing that the efficiency lags just behind traditional single ended HPS but is left behind by double ended HPS.
Although one can argue about the spectrum quality, as far as plant biology science is concerned. Light quality is far less important than light qauntity. Saying that, if we were to go by the old aged mccree curve. CMH would loose that arguement based on the principle that quantum yield (photosynthetic efficiency) is higher in the red part of the spectrum, where HPS has more affinity with.

If i had a chance to redo my light system, i would stick with gas discharge lights or invest in the expensive but long term economical LED fixtures such as spectrum king or nextlight.
 
Last edited:
Spectrum King what you lay out in initial expense you will save on electric costs and Bulb Longevity, 3 year warranty on Bulb luminescence and parts. Real Quality Not Affiliated FYI ONLY https://www.spectrumkingled.com/buy-led-grow-lights/

Is this a good one? https://www.spectrumkingled.com/product/closet-case-140w-led-grow-light/ Will it work well for a 4x4 scrog?

While I have a decent amount of floor space, I don't have a ton of height since we have them 2 high currently. I was looking at this one https://www.spectrumkingled.com/product/spectrum-king-402-led-grow-light/ but it says it needs 30+ inches above the plant, and I'll be hard pressed to give it 24.
 
At 24 you would be getting a reduced footprint to I've seen them at 18 in pictures with cooling
I'd love to try one I think you need to consider the space, strain and the medium besides
light hight that will tell you haw many watts you need . I like the DIY LED kits from Rapid LED too .
Different COB type for different size footprints , this is the deluxe
I'd love any of the spectrum king lights and then I'd Taylor the grow to the most efficent set up for the light I had
https://www.rapidled.com/mass-medical-strains-cxb3590-4-x-4-grow-kit/
 
Last edited:
https://growerslights.com/products/horticulture-lighting-group-600h-quantum-board-led-kit

This is a true 1000 watt hps replacement, putting out slightly more light with around 600 watts. It's pretty much just parts put together but it's backed by hlg and it's ridiculously cheap for what it is. Only thing that comes close to getting this good price per amount of light output is the plc 6, except you can keep the hlg 20-26 inches from your plants instead of 40-48. you can even get it cheaper and put it together yourself if you want, but even preassembled it's still cheaper than the plc 6 at 750.
 
Back
Top