I can't believe it's really happening!

[Lanmark]

How many lights did you install? I think I am seeing 8. Are they all cool white?

Also, the nice thing about these is that not only do the LEDs themselves use far less electricity than other lamp types, they also don't have wattage-sucking ballasts like HID lamps do. People often forget to take into account the energy consumption of said ballasts when calculating their costs of running HID lamps.

 

[SlipperFan]

Congrats! We need a night/light photo.

When it gets dark enough to have them on, I'll do that. Right now, days are still long and the lights are not needed.

How many lights did you install? I think I am seeing 8. Are they all cool white?

Also, the nice thing about these is that not only do the LEDs themselves use far less electricity than other lamp types, they also don't have wattage-sucking ballasts like HID lamps do. People often forget to take into account the energy consumption of said ballasts when calculating their costs of running HID lamps.

Yes, eight: four on each side. The greenhouse is 26 feet long.

That's one of the things that sold me on these lights -- they are daylight white and very energy-efficient. And not as expensive as I expected.

Again, thanks, Rob!

 

[SlipperFan]

At dusk:

 

[Ozpaph]

looks great!

 

[Migrant13]

Sweet. Really highlights your beautiful greenhouse.

 

[Rick]

That does look great.

AGHH just another improvement to add to mine:sob:

 

[Stone]

Very nice.You very own Tardis!

 

[troy]

Very impressive!!! I'm jealous

 

[abax]

Your greenhouse looks wonderful. Thanks to Rob's excellent information, I now have a row of LEDS over
my Phrags. One of the nice things I've noticed so far is
that there's no big heat projected down onto the plants
and colors look as they actually are.

 

[JeanLux]

The light seems to get evenly on all plants!!!? Jean

 

[Justin]

what a gorgeous greenhouse!!! so jealous!

 

[mormodes]

Back in the day I think it was Herb Hager wrote an article - might have been for the 3rd or4th WOC - about getting Cattleyas from flask to bloom in 2 1/2 yrs. He augmented light in his GH, too, as part of that plan. (I think I'm citing the correct source). I'm pretty sure the article is reproduced or heavily quoted from in Rebecca Northen's 'Home Orchid Growing'. I can't remember if he was shooting for 14 hr days or 16 hr days. There was also an article on installing a photovoltaic cell to turn on or off your lights once sufficient ambient light levels are achieved. But that's probably easier to do with timers.

Apropos of nothing, I was thinking about your aisle placement yesterday, as it got over 100F for the third or fourth time this year. I thought about placing my aisles against the windows - like I believe yours are - so any heat from fans doesn't mass there and overheat plants against the windows. But that would require me to actually do some work, so I forgot about it, LOL!

 

[NYEric]

Looking good. Those lights will help my team find the place one night! :evil:

 

[SlipperFan]

Mormodes -- yes, the aisles are against the windows and the benches are all in the interior. I've been in too many greenhouses where one didn't have access to open and close the windows without a great deal of difficulty. That was behind my thinking here, and it has worked very well for me.

Eric -- you don't have a key. oke:

Jean -- yes, the light is very even on all the plants. That even surprised me!

 

[Bjorn]

Dot, I envy your house, and how you are able to keep it tidy and clean:clap:
I am growing in a house with loads of lamps both HPS/MH and LED as Power is cheap here and I actually use the lights as the main heat source during winter. The house is well insulated (which means that much light is lost as well so lights are important). Ok to the point; my experience has told me that it is absolutely necessary to combine the lighting with a thermostat so that it cuts power when the temperature exceeds a certain limit. This circuit has failed a couple of times at my place and yes, the plants get fried at some point. Only one time severe, I still have scorched leaves from that incidence But my point is that you need a thermostaticly controlled circuit to control the lights additional to a timer. This is of course if you intend to use the added light as grow light and not just to be able to see what your'e doing during winter evenings

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks for your advice, Bjorn.

My lights are all LEDs, so very minimal heat will be produced. They are on timers that will extend daylight in the morning and early evening. They won't be on during the day. My heaters are controlled by a photo cell. When there is a certain amount of light, the main heater turns on. If it gets too warm in the greenhouse, thermostatic controls automatically turn on a vent fan and open the ridge vents. That rarely happens in cold weather, but almost every day when we are in the summer months.

 

[Bjorn]

That is a common misconception Dot; that LED give less heat than HPS. They are approximately just as effective in lumen per watt, but the heat is dissipated on the back of the chip and not given off in the direction of the light. When that is said, since LED's are much more directional than eg HPS, the installed wattage normally is lower because more of the emitted light actually reach the plants and consequently the heating is lower. In my house, I have blinded all the vents in order to save on heating (remember we are north of you at 59degrees north and summers are never hot) And have cooling by fans drwaing in fresh air from outside combined with an A/C.
I have played around with the automation incl. using light to steer, but came to the conclusion that a thermostat controlling the light was the best solution.
Nevertheless, good luck with your setup I am certain it will work nicely for you.

 

[littlefrog]

The estimate you always see is that you get 10x more light per watt using LED vs incandescent. I don't think that is actually true, but I'd say those 50W LEDs are about as bright as the 400W MH I used to have.

So even if we assume that every watt of electricity is wasted in the form of heat, she has 8x50W = 400W of heat, and with HID lights that would be at least 8x400 = 2400W of heat. So yes, they put out as much light, but not as much heat. Still put out heat though!


Mine (of Dot's type) are usually comfortably warm to the touch. I wouldn't try touching the MH bulbs I used to have! I don't suggest anybody do that.



Looks great, Dot!

 

[eOrchids]

Absolute stunning greenhouse, Dot!

 

[Bjorn]

So what about this: A HPS lamp of 400W is frequently rated higher than 50000 lumens. that is 125 lumens per W. Indeed a very good number for a LED as well. The radiation may be more useful from LED but the amount of light is not very different. I build my own LED panels based on Cree chips, and cooling gets very important. Due to cooling difficulties I have had to restrict to 200-300W, even with fan. But I like the LED for certain purposes, one is that they are so directional and does not necessarily need a reflector. The other thing is that it is possible to have a natural ligth color, which of course is not available with HPS. MH yes bot then the efficiency and life span gets reduced.