Looking for information on LED grow room lights

I have recently retired and given that I have more free time Ive decided to have a shot at growing again. I grew many years ago under sodium lamps but it seems the industry has grown quite some! There would appear to be so many manufacturers all claiming they have the best, what do you look for when purchasing lights?

I'll be growing one plant in a 4' by 4' tent, its just going to be for personal use. Too old to be going out to buy the stuff now.

Many thanks

It all depends on your budget.
Plenty of choice.
For example, Marshydro, Spiderfarmer are the cheaper ones.
HLG, Grow lights Australia being better quality with great customer service, more efficient diodes, good warranty.

Have a look at this video. It'll give you some ideas for a 4ft x 4ft area.

Here's more info

Good luck.

After many many years of not running my indoor room, I retrofitted. I did a lot of searching and reading and made my decision.
On my Veg side I'm running a Chilled X3, and on my Flower side, I'm running an Illuminar Ilogic8. Both have killed it for my setup compared to the MH and HPS I was running. Quite pleased with the performance, customer service, and quality of the lights. My biggest problem was relearning everything because LED's are quite a different animal than HID's in my basement space.

Depending on how much I'm spending, warranty conditions and customer support become more important. Random China stuff and Amazon products I treat as a perishable because oftentimes getting faulty products replaced or serviced is not worth the time or effort, nevermind the inconvenience when part way through a grow.

As for light fixture qualities, output and coverage are my top two. I want enough grunt to get the job done but I don't want it all focused in the middle of the tent. For a 4x4 tent, I would look for independent video reviews which include real-time PAR mapping. I find bar-style lights do the best job at providing even coverage.

A lot of people find efficiency important (running costs), but depending on how important that is to you, it may not be worth paying top dollar up front for high-efficiency fixtures if its going to take 5 years to recoup that cost in electricity savings. It's a big selling point, and therefore more costly, so it may be worth quantifying how much more expensive high-efficiency fixtures will actually benefit you.

Considerations might include spectrum and tunability, controller compatibility, build and durability etc...

IME you will for the most part get what you pay for if you stick to established well-reputed brands.

There is so much on the market, some though are well over priced with fancy marketing.

I look for umols/j and reputation of the company.

For example you might buy over priced Black dog lights vases on the sales pitch, very expensive but you won't find many using them because other companies sell lights with less BS but more efficiency at a lot less money.

thanks for the replies. the video was very helpful. I dont really have a budget in mind, rather buy a quality product once. customer service would be helpful too as I feel there will be many questions ahead!

thanks for your replies, ive narrowed it down to HLG and Grow Lights Australia. Does anyone have any experience dealing with these conpanies?

tired_druid said:

thanks for your replies, ive narrowed it down to HLG and Grow Lights Australia. Does anyone have any experience dealing with these conpanies?

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My experience with HLG is they have a great customer service.
I had a QB288 board a few years ago and a string of diodes stopped working.
I contacted them about the problem and they promptly sent me a replacement board.
I still use the old board too.

Although I've not had any dealings with GLA I'd imagine they'd be very helpful too.

You're going to hear everyone's favorite to Migro/Shane's best for your budget. The sad reality is, the only difference between these options is , Bars or Boards. Unless you look for the sbs' labs, testing, yeilds & if you have to some of the scientific evidence they're beginning to gather a mear decade late. As long as your not Completely brainwashed regarding umol/j then their is a chance you could still be one of those growers getting the 30% gains over the most electrically efficient, white+red lights.
Seriously, do you really think any offer spd's any different from the next? When a bit different has proven to go a real long way. Mass Misunderstood Mimicked has slowed mainstream Innovation right down the toilet!

tired_druid said:

I have recently retired and given that I have more free time Ive decided to have a shot at growing again. I grew many years ago under sodium lamps but it seems the industry has grown quite some! There would appear to be so many manufacturers all claiming they have the best, what do you look for when purchasing lights?

I'll be growing one plant in a 4' by 4' tent, its just going to be for personal use. Too old to be going out to buy the stuff now.

Many thanks

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If your on a real Budget but you want something ahead of its time w/ the owner understanding spectrum allot better then these big names. I highly recommend UpDayDay on Amazon.

tired_druid said:

thanks for your replies, ive narrowed it down to HLG and Grow Lights Australia. Does anyone have any experience dealing with these conpanies?

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Thats cool but Neither of those are budget lights. On the contrary, they are some of the most expensive for what you get in materials. GLA being the one I'd choose out of the two by a long shot. GLA has The spectrum, pitch between diodes, go as far as to implement speacialty diodes, make efforts to learn more about the facts rather then the sewage spilled out there in regards to led Horticultural lighting science. Oh, plus I'd feel much better under their warranty.
GLA will outperform HLG in every department by approximately 30% I'd venture to guess based on similar comparitive results. Very expensive lights though, GoodLuck!

@Prawn Connery can help you with info on GLA.

tired_druid said:

thanks for your replies, ive narrowed it down to HLG and Grow Lights Australia. Does anyone have any experience dealing with these conpanies?

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My first experience with diy led was with the original highlight boards from @Grow Lights Australia They literally walked me through driver selection and what was ideal for my space. Couldn't have been happier with my purchase to be honest. Plants seem to enjoy the lights just as much.

tired_druid said:

thanks for your replies, ive narrowed it down to HLG and Grow Lights Australia. Does anyone have any experience dealing with these conpanies?

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Hi mate, I can ask @Grow Lights Australia in here to chat, as he's a sponsor, or I can answer most of your questions regarding the lights, as I helped design and test them. We did a lot of spectrum and diode testing with LED Teknik, another Australian company. If you're in Australia, our lights will be very competetive with anything else on the market in terms of price and what you actually get for your money. You can take any white + 660nm red light on the market and then do the maths once you've added in the UV, Far Red and top-line Mean Well drivers (HLG series vs XLG) to see how much a "true" full spectrum light costs. When you put it all together, GLA are not that expensive.

thank you, I would be grateful

tired_druid said:

thank you, I would be grateful

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Hey sorry for the delay. I just saw my name mentioned! Can I help with anything?

im just in the market for a light or two, just trying to navigate the new technology. so different to the old hps days

tired_druid said:

im just in the market for a light or two, just trying to navigate the new technology. so different to the old hps days

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I see you are after something for a 4x4. There are a couple of options:

A 500W Quad here: https://growlightsaustralia.com/product/high-light-420-gen2-470w/

Or 2x 370W Longboards here: https://growlightsaustralia.com/product/high-light-420-longboard/

If you live outside Australia, then the prices displayed will be less 10% sales tax. Plus we offer another 10% off to RIU members with the code in my signature. Shipping will add to the cost, but there are other options, such as a driverless kit which is cheaper to ship and then you can buy your own driver and assemble yourself. Assembly is easy and no wiring is required, as all our kits are plug and play:

Driverless kit: https://growlightsaustralia.com/product/470w-driverless-kit/

Assembly instructions: https://growlightsaustralia.com/square-board-assembly/

If I can help with anything else, please let me know.