Pre made LED panel worth trying???

[Judon]

I found these panels on line. Anyone have thoughts on them???

50 Watt Advance Spectrum Dual Band LED Grow Light Panel

http://growace.com/product_info.php?cPath=76&products_id=6545#chapter4

It has both:
Red LED wavelength: 660nm
Blue LED wavelength: 465nm
I think I've read that these are the right ranges, correct? I know some have used 630nM also, but I'm not sure if there's much difference in the performance. I know I've read something about people adding a touch of blue and for terrestrial plants it's important for the various phases of growth. Algae doesn't follow the rules of Terra, but I recall seeing some discussion about using the blue as well. Any thoughts?

It looks like it has 112 LED's at 0.5 watts per LED. Do you think that would be enough power?

At $115 per side, it's roughly equivalent to what you'd pay for a T5 light (don't know about coverage area though). Could be a viable "quick and dirty" option for those who don't want to go through the process of figuring out the electronic side of assembling your own LED/ driver combination set up.

I've emailed the company to ask about what the physical dimensions are so I can tell if it's close to what is usable for a ATS. Also asked them to confirm the LED choice as being 0.5 watt at 112 of them (asked for the spec sheets last week but they ignored that totally). I just emailed them again for this summarized information, so hopefully they respond this time. If it is about the right size, it might be a nice option for home made ATS.

[kerry]

Someone over seas posted about using these and I do not think they had very good luck but, I could not find the post to re-read it.

[andthe_brain]

I think the problem with these pre fab'd units is the fact there not designed with water in mind and unfortunately go pop when you have them near it...

[Judon]

Yea, as far as not being made for wet areas, I figured that could be built into the design... idk... somehow of keeping at least splashing water away from it. I know some have talked about just the high humidity and salt creep for SW can cause problems. I guess I'm just hoping that it'd be that easy, plug and play. :) The fact that it's dual band and only $115 were pretty exciting as far as implementing quick and easy like.

[Judon]

**Thank you for contacting us at GrowAce.com. The size of the 50w LED panels are 12"x12"x12"x12", with each diode having about .5 watt's in them.** received email a few minutes ago.


So, that's a pretty good size for an ATS, maybe not custom, but pretty good. Still wonder if the 0.5watt LED's are strong enough. I know about the moisture hazard....just thinking "out loud".

[Gigaahxl]

A couple problems with that panel I see. By default even if things were equal from star mounted LED to the 1/2 watt round you would probably run into an intensity distance problem. I feel for it to have any chance to work well it would have to be like 1 inch from a 12"x12" screen. While this is speculation 2" is probably too far if it would work well at all. The other problem is that those 1/2 watt LED are no where near as efficient as 1 or 3 watt star mounted LED(even the cheap ones). two 1/2 watt round LED like that probably wont hold a candle to the lumens of one 1w LED. While the debate about if/how useful blue is hasn't ended. For me that would be the 3rd and final strike. I would prefer to see all red.

Its not a risk I would take without someone proving it out first.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Those panels do not work for algae scrubbers.