First timer, please help me choose some LEDs...

15 years ago

I have a table in my room, 30x30 inches, in a corner between two windows that don't get a lot of light. I plan to keep some of my houseplants on this table over winter and I want to give them some supplemental light.

I'm making an order from this site:

http://www.niktronixonline.com/Leds_Lighting_s/2.htm

for a different project, so I thought I might be able to order some LEDs from there. Are any of them suitable? What size would you recommend? And how many? Rough estimates are welcome. Also, what color? I'd prefer warm white, would that be fine for the plants? Normal/cool white is fine too. I'd like to not have to get blue or red, I spend all my home-time in this room and I want to keep a comfortable humanlike environment.

Some of the plants I have are hoya carnosa, Christmas cactus, string of pearls and wandering Jew. I just want to keep their health up during the dark months.

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Comments (7)

danielw88
15 years ago
I may not be very much help, but I started a project with a red/blue led ufo from ebay. I have used various HIDs before...

I know that most properly manufactured leds have very little variance/deviance from the intended spectral wavelength measured in nanometers(nm). Look up a graph of which wavelengths of light are used most by both chlorophyll a & b (PAR or photosynthetically active radiation) and you will see why white is not preferred. Reds in the 630nm and 660nm range seem to do best (but more tests should be done.)

I think the weird pink glow from my led looks amazing! I often spend time hanging out in there because of the cool look... Are you going to wire your own led unit? The site you posted was for chips, not units...
squidy
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes, I was going to put together my own unit, I work in a shop so I think I can handle it and I thought it would be cheaper that way.

Why is white light not ideal? Sunlight is white. (OR IS IT?)

Thanks for the precise nanometer info. I guess I could deal with pink. But isn't blue better for vegetation? That's what I've seen a few places. And red is for flowering, right? All I really want is to keep the veg healthy and possibly growing, I don't need flowers or anything.

How bright of lights do I need? Like, what are the min and max and what do you find ideal, in regards to brightness? In, er.. lumens? Candelas?
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brian1314
15 years ago
If you give some pictures about your product,i think i can do some favor for you.
khyberkitsune
15 years ago
White light is not ideal because it is a blending of every visible wavelength. Much of that light is not utilized by plants.
danielw88
15 years ago
In my own personal experience, red seems to be more important overall. I have used metal halide lights to vegetate plants for a long time based every piece of info, but HPS did better for me for veg-ing for some reason. Some blues are present in hps, but only like >5% of the total output... My advice is more red than blue by more than double.

Also, if I could even begin to have the know-how to build my own unit, I would look into epistar chips. They offer so many different nm reds (and blues) that are in the best range for photosynthesis. I wish I could have a unit of each of these reds to test from them: 624nm, 631nm, 639nm, and 660nm.. So far, it is argued by many sources that 630nm and 660nm reds get the best results, but I think more testing on the reds should be done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Epistar LED chips
brian1314
15 years ago
Reds and Blues are good for plants growing,and different ratio plays different role in different stage.

From seed to grown ,every stage need regular light wavelength.
danielw88
15 years ago
Have you put one together yet?