My indoor all LED ligh chamber.

[The body snatcher pod]

Hi there!

As I promised in several topics, I´m showing some pics of my terrarium. I grow some Helis, Neps, Cepha and Drosera in there. All plants are growin nicely, and showing a very deep red colouration. I also hace some S purpurea ssp purpurea heterophylla x courtii seedlings in there, but they are barely visible yet.

I planning to add some CREE and Luxeon Rebel LEDs (the most efficient in the market) to improve more the ligting while I save electricity, couse I intend to become this terrario in a planted terrario. So plants will be in a slightly lower level.

(The big purp partially shown in some pics is only spending the winter there. It was given to me a few weeks ago, actively growing (its a plant from a nursery). So I will link its growing with next spring and do the proper wintering next winter.)

Edited December 10, 2012 by The body snatcher pod

[Zlatokrt]

Impressive plants! An expectable question - whad leds do you use? I think i see some cool white and some red there.

Adam

[Daniel G]

Nice plants!

How many Watts do your lights take up?

[FredG]

We need to know what wattage over what area.

[Khelljuhg]

Beautiful!

[The body snatcher pod]

Sorry guys for my slow answer!

First of all, thanks for your nice comments!

I am using some Chip on Board LEDs (COB-LED, is a 5 watts LED distributed in five 1watt chip LED, but packed all together in the same phosphorus packaging. Is more efficient than a one 5watts chip LED). They are the ones you can see at the sides of the terrarium.

They are 6500k, and each one put out about 470 lumen each. I don´t know the brand, ´couse I bougt them already mounted in the lamp in a physic shop, no online. (In Bilbao)

The other ones, are 3watts LEDs, blue, white and red. (Red and blue, to targeting the best photosynthesis wavelenght.) They are attached to some CPU heatsink to pump out the heat the make. Otherwise, the LED will fry.

They are "generic" 3 watts LED, I bought those loose LED in a shop in Bilbao. But they didn´t specify the brand. May be Silan or Epiled. But I don´t know. They are not bad, but not in the top quality of the market.

Those are the ones I am replacing for CREEs and Luxeon Rebel LEDs. Much more powerfull with less power consumption. So, more efficient. I am buying them online.

The total power consumption of the lights is grossly about 85 watts! And plants are growing very happy!

Edited December 12, 2012 by The body snatcher pod

[FredG]

Thanks for the answer on the power consumption but what area are the lights covering?

[The body snatcher pod]

Of course, 40 x 60 cm.

Thanks for the answer on the power consumption but what area are the lights covering?

[FredG]

No wonder the plants are colouring up, that does appear to be a lot of light for a small area.

I'm experimenting with LED for winter use at a lot less power consumption than that. LED lighting in the cellar is cheaper than greenhouse heating. At present I'm using less than 20% of yours at 11C (52F) for 10 hours a day which will increase after the solstice as the season progresses. LEDs are red / blue, as I said it's in the cellar so it doesn't matter what the plants looks like and the biggest gain in power saving is to be had with specifically targeting the wavelengths the plants utilise. I intend to expand the number of fittings on my current design of light array so that I can play with light mixes, adding a little white or single red or blue. Total wattage so far is 58W for 4 trays each 54.5 x 54.5 (21.5" X 21.5").

[The body snatcher pod]

No wonder the plants are colouring up, that does appear to be a lot of light for a small area.

I'm experimenting with LED for winter use at a lot less power consumption than that. LED lighting in the cellar is cheaper than greenhouse heating. At present I'm using less than 20% of yours at 11C (52F) for 10 hours a day which will increase after the solstice as the season progresses. LEDs are red / blue, as I said it's in the cellar so it doesn't matter what the plants looks like and the biggest gain in power saving is to be had with specifically targeting the wavelengths the plants utilise. I intend to expand the number of fittings on my current design of light array so that I can play with light mixes, adding a little white or single red or blue. Total wattage so far is 58W for 4 trays each 54.5 x 54.5 (21.5" X 21.5").

Yeah, targeting the light more than I do allows to use less power. But my plants are in a terrarium in a room, and I want to display them for a nice viewing. Also a purple tinted room would be quite odd... Anyway, I´m ugrading some of my lamps. adding more blue and red, and taking out some whites, but not to much. I´m also using more efficient LEDs in my new lamps. (It´s a DIY projet)