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LED meeting at one of the clubs?

captmicha

Members
I can't remember if it was PVAS or GWAPA, and when it was/is going to be, but someone was doing a presentation on LED lighting.

Does this ring a bell with anyone?
 

mchambers

Former CCA member
Wish I had gone. I have a lot of reading to do.

I want to convert all my lights to LEDs.
Depending on how you want to convert, that meeting may not have taught all you need to know. It was just a presentation/workshop on building an inexpensive LED light. It really didn't get into the finer points of LED lighting.

Also, LED lighting is still changing fairly rapidly, and prices for fixtures have dropped significantly, so anything you read that is more than two years old is probably outdated.

What do you want to know?
 

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
Prices on new lights have dropped so much that it's hard to do a conversion that is any cheaper than buying new and the new one will look a lot nicer. Especially if you are trying to do a light for growing plants.
 

captmicha

Members
Depending on how you want to convert, that meeting may not have taught all you need to know. It was just a presentation/workshop on building an inexpensive LED light. It really didn't get into the finer points of LED lighting.

Also, LED lighting is still changing fairly rapidly, and prices for fixtures have dropped significantly, so anything you read that is more than two years old is probably outdated.

What do you want to know?
Pretty much anything. Bc I know nothing. Lol.
 

zendog

Active Member
Be aware that the spectrum of various LEDs varies wildly. It may even vary for a given brand, since they may source the actual LED emitters from different suppliers over time.

This may not be a huge issue if you aren't growing plants, but you may find that some lower cost LEDs don't grow plants as well as you'd expect given their lumens and overall color temperature. There has been some discussion about certain spectrum spikes making algae worse as well.

Few companies will actually list the CRI (Color Rendering Index), but if you can find LEDs with a higher index (ideally 90+) they will be more accurate. This is a measurement of how accurately different colors are rendered by a given light source and is a quantitative measure of how accurately the spectrum reflects sunlight. If the LED is giving off an average of 6500K as the average color, but a low CRI, various colors may look a bit "off". While CRI doesn't directly correlate to plant growth, if the light has a high CRI, good output and is the correct color temp (I like 6500Kish), the chances are plants will grow well.
 
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