IST LED GROW rack lighting systems

[innovation_station]

well im almost finished the first few prototypes

the extrusion arrived but was not wide enough so i went and bought some more plexi glass i do love the look of the plexi

so my first unit i used small leds standard size..   i fit 45 leds on 1 board 3x5 all spaced evenly i will be building a few more like this one to make up a single gro light

the second unit im almost finished is 4x6 board and i used large leds like my flashlight and i fit 54 leds on it  i will build more boards with this unit too to make up 1 gro lite

so ...


i will most likely go with the big leds for my production units and i may use pin spots so as to have the most light intencity in a given area

my finished unit will be pattened!!

as well the rest of my work   

i have so far almost 65 diffrent units designed

and all will give the gift of LOVE

ist

[broli]

Have you also looked at using hydroponics? It's a very efficient way of growing stuff without soil. The big problem for me with it was the fact you needed industrial light (about 600W) if you wanted to grow it inside. This is also a dream of mine to promote it as much as possible if free energy is found.

[Yucca]

Great idea, I've done hydroponics with sunlight and with 400w HPS and as you say HPS gets very hot and so does the ballast, which is good if you live in the arctic but not so good when you're growing in a small indoor space like a closet. Thankfully i now have a little soil outdoors so I now only grow in fertilised soil under the sun.

I remember researching LED growlights and remember reading how it's better to pulse LEDs at a certain rate for the most efficient conversion of electricity to photosynthesis, I was also suprised to see that LED grow lights use a certain ratio combination of red and blue LEDs (i think more red than blue if memory serves), makes sense though when you see that plants just reflect the green.

Keep up the great work and good luck with your product.

[powercat]

Good point Yucca
How is crop yield affected by LED ?


cat

[Yucca]

Good point Yucca
How is crop yield affected by LED ?


cat

Hi cat,

I have no first hand experience with LED growing, but from what I've read the yield (grams of growing mass per kWh of energy used) is several times greater compared to discharge tubes, and that's just using DC driven LEDs, even more yield when you pulse the LEDs and I presume even more so with a driver circuit like InnovationStations.

The only down side with LEDs is that they do not penetrate the foliage canopy as well as sunlight or discharge tubes, but to get around this the plants can be trained using wire screens to grow in a flat plane beneath the LEDs and of course the entire growroom can also be lined with highly reflective mylar to scavenge any stray photons.

Interestingly the yield can also be DRAMATICALLY increased by enriching the growing environment with CO2, it doesn't take much, a sodastream bottle will last for ages, the trouble is that you have to keep the dose within range which requires a fairly expensive control system with a transducer which can sample the CO2 levels. Although I have read of people brewing bear in their grow rooms, they get the balance just right so that the yeast farts just enough CO2 over the plants, a very enjoyable symbiosis.

Yucca.