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Anyone using LED shop lights?

I have a few of these LED shop lights and use them over my Poison Dart Frog Terrariums. The leafy plants grow just fine.
Feit Electric LED Utility Shop Light - - Amazon.com
You can get these at Costco. The light output 3700 lumens, life approximately 50,000 hours, color temperature 4100 degrees K cool white.

Is anyone using them indoors over Sundews, VFT or Pinguicula?

OR should I replace with something more like this T-5 set up?
Amazon.com : EnviroGro FLT24 2-Ft, 4-Tube Fixture, T5 Bulbs Included : Plant Growing Light Fixtures : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Thank you
Steve
 
Your T5 option would put out more light, but I think the LED shop lights are possible. I am going to try them out and mix them with T5.
 
Your T5 option would put out more light, but I think the LED shop lights are possible. I am going to try them out and mix them with T5.

Dave, I forgot to ask you at the show if you had seen this thread and what your thoughts were about those lights. I'd be curious to try those lights out, but I'd rather do a group-thing if people were interested. (And it kinda makes more sense to do a group thing within driving distance).

Steve, sorry to steal your thread. Personally, I use 4 unit T5s. Based upon electric costs here, they cost about $10 per month per 4 foot units (i.e. 16 feet of T5s). LEDs are generally cheaper to run, but I've only tried a couple (cheap) units so far. Depending on the technology, LEDs can be hotter or cooler than T5s, so you'll want to factor that in as well. (You don't want to burn your plants with too hot temperatures).
 
Steve, if you want to save money in a long run, Philips InstantFit T8-LED has much better efficacy than the Feit. Here is the product info from Philips' site:
LED T8 InstantFit Lamp LED Tubes LED Lamps and Systems | Philips

With InstantFit, you don't need any modification to T8 shoplight. It isn't as good as Sunritek, but it is a bit easier.

I haven't measured the temperature, but from my experience, if you go up to 50-100W class Chip-on-board (COB) type LEDs, you can't place plants too close as Natch said. But I have lowered the overall temperature of grow tents significantly by going from T5HO to LEDs. In 4x2x5' grow tent, 4 bulb 54W T5HO fixture was close to the upper limit, and raising the temp to ambient +15-25F. But with LEDs (most of them are relatively high efficiency at current standard), I can stuff more light without the thermally controlled exhaust fan kicking in. I think this was one of the initial motivation early on.
 
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Steve, if you want to save money in a long run, Philips InstantFit T8-LED has much better efficacy than the Feit. Here is the product info from Philips' site:
LED T8 InstantFit Lamp LED Tubes LED Lamps and Systems | Philips

With InstantFit, you don't need any modification to T8 shoplight. It isn't as good as Sunritek, but it is a bit easier.

I haven't measured the temperature, but from my experience, if you go up to 50-100W class Chip-on-board (COB) type LEDs, you can't place plants too close as Natch said. But I have lowered the overall temperature of grow tents significantly by going from T5HO to LEDs. In 4x2x5' grow tent, 4 bulb 54W T5HO fixture was close to the upper limit, and raising the temp to ambient +15-25F. But with LEDs (most of them are relatively high efficiency at current standard), I can stuff more light without the thermally controlled exhaust fan kicking in. I think this was one of the initial motivation early on.

Do you know of any that fit T5 units? I'd rather not have to buy new fixtures, if I don't have to.
 
Do you know of any that fit T5 units? I'd rather not have to buy new fixtures, if I don't have to.

There are retrofit units designed for reef tank usage, where T5HO is by far the most popular fluorescent format. Sorry, but I'm on my phone and don't know how to post a link, but SunPark and Phillips are two manufacturers I know of. I have no experience with them personally.
 
Dave, I forgot to ask you at the show if you had seen this thread and what your thoughts were about those lights. I'd be curious to try those lights out, but I'd rather do a group-thing if people were interested. (And it kinda makes more sense to do a group thing within driving distance).

Yes, I am interested in group buy for LED shop lights. I work for a company that sells manufacturing equipment to LED makers like Phillips, Cree, etc. so I have been familiar with LED for a long time and I have grown plants with LED for just about ten years now. I still use some of my LED lights from back then. I like T5s, but the heat can be too much for highland plants, and the cost over time is a better deal for me with LED.
 
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Yes, I am interested in group buy for LED shop lights. I work for a company that sells manufacturing equipment to LED makers like Phillips, Cree, etc. so I have been familiar with LED for a long time and I have grown plants with LED for just about ten years now. I still use some of my LED lights from back then. I like T5s, but the heat can be too much for highland plants, and the cost over time is a better deal for me with LED.

Awesome! Alright, I'm gonna move this conversation over to the NECPS forum, since I think it probably makes more sense to do a local buy.

Naoki, thanks for the links! I wasn't aware of those before. I'll have to look into them. As mentioned, the heat for highlanders is really the issue.
 
  • #10
Shipping 4' tubes could be tedious, so local group buy makes sense. I sent you an email about the contact person I had a good luck with.

With Sunritek, 14W version may be worth for CP. I went to 12W version to maximize the efficiency (and most of my orchids have lower light requirement than most CP). With 14W (the price is same as 12W version), you get more total output, but slightly lower efficiency (but you can get about 140lm/W).

I briefly looked into Luxul T5HO LED; I couldn't find the exact price, but it seems to be still fairly pricey. In the future, I'm sure there will be more options for T5HO replacement. Also with Luxul, 2' version is not worth getting (efficacy isn't so high). 4' version has 130 lumen/W for 5000K to 118 lumen/W for 3000K, which seems to be pretty good for the direct replacement (plug&play type).
 
  • #11
I did find 4FT SunPark LED replacements for T5HOs for about $25 a piece here. It's this item.

I tried looking it up on lightingfacts, but couldn't find it listed. Can't seem to find any reviews either.

I didn't see anything from Philips.
 
  • #12
That light has potential.

I made a call to a local lighting distributor on Friday and I know they at least carry the Luxul brand. I will let you know what I find out for LED options.
 
  • #14
To update I just checked the lux and for the Feit Electric LED Utility Shop Light I get 4400 lux at 12 inches
and 8000 lux at 6 inches below the center. That seems a little low???
 
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