Single pot LEDs - is this worth it?

[porpt]

Hi, I have a single small pot (cephalotus) in a south facing room but only in direct sunlight briefly each day (1 hour, in summer!) I'd rather keep it there if i can so i'm wondering about low profile lighting solutions and whether they will make a worthwhile difference. I had some g4 LED bulbs so mocked up and 3d printed a holder of the kind of scale i'd ideally like. 

This bulb is 4w, 3200k, claimed 310 lumens, ra80 - it's dual sided and my low quality tin foil reflector and proximity probably wastes a lot of light from that side. could be mounted 10-15cm from the plant i imagine. heat seems negligable from my few hours test.

I know nothing about lighting for plants - would one, two, three of these be of any benefit at all? if not, any changes i could make without going up in size? thanks!

[porpt]

so i went ahead anyway, here's version 1 (not totally convinced by my design but hey):

i'm happy just running an experiment but still looking for real world advice as to whether this would have any benefits whatsoever - my gut says "no".

to reiterate, in a south facing room but on that wall so gets basically no direct sun. 2 "4w, 3200k, claimed 310 lumens, ra80" led bulbs

Edited June 14, 2018 by porpt

[Dunc]

Nice use of AM to make your holders and a nice setup.  However, I'd agree that I'd be surprised too if these gave anything like the light level you'd need to keep the plants healthy (and there's the light frequency too).

[porpt]

I don't suppose you know what _would_ be acceptable do you? a minimum-recommended sort of thing.. i've found it hard as an amateur to find information on anything relevant to small setups, it all tends to be for large terrariums and lighting much bigger than my whole pot. 

Basically i'm looking for something that works and i can also make reasonably aesthetically pleasing but if that's never going to be an option i'll move it and put something else on this tiny shelf.. (for that reason i'd prefer white light too but again i know that's never going to be as effective either)

[Yunzi]

It looks like a great setup.... however from my limited knowledge, 6500k leds would be better.  I'd be interested to see how it goes to be honest, I'd think if the LEDs are really 4w (true 4w) then the ceph might be ok, but the sundews would be too shaded.  I've used 3w cree 6500k leds (futureeden seller on ebay) and 5 of those worked well in a very small tank over some sundews.

For my 'big' highland (orchids and a couple neps) tank I went back to using t5 bulbs as it was easier to get the setup I wanted.

[Dunc]

A cloudy mid day is around a k.lx, (1000 lux), a bright sunny one around 100x this (approx.)  A lux is a lumen per square metre.  So if you take the area of your plant, let's guess at 100 sq.cm,  for a cloudy equivalent you need 10 lumen min, for sunshine 1000 lumen - at the plant, full spectrum. Watts don't tell you much about the light level, normally just the max power input (Not always achieved).  Obtaining full spectrum or pseudo full spectrum is one issue - hence why 'grow light's are often mixed colour leds. Getting the light to the plant the other - from the light source the light drops off with distance to the power of 3 (reflecting etc can improve this). Hence why grow lights are close to the plants.

Hope this helps?  My guess would be you'd need a few thousand lumen with you lights for long term growth.  This would seem very (VERY) bright in your set up (and they'd get hot). I have similar COB leds in my outside lights and whilst good for illumination they're no where near bright enough for grow lights.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Dunc

[SoLongFairWell]

I have no idea but I like your mounded display for the Ceph with the wood.  

[porpt]

On 6/18/2018 at 1:28 AM, Dunc said:

A cloudy mid day is around a k.lx, (1000 lux), a bright sunny one around 100x this (approx.)  A lux is a lumen per square metre.  So if you take the area of your plant, let's guess at 100 sq.cm,  for a cloudy equivalent you need 10 lumen min, for sunshine 1000 lumen - at the plant, full spectrum. Watts don't tell you much about the light level, normally just the max power input (Not always achieved).  Obtaining full spectrum or pseudo full spectrum is one issue - hence why 'grow light's are often mixed colour leds. Getting the light to the plant the other - from the light source the light drops off with distance to the power of 3 (reflecting etc can improve this). Hence why grow lights are close to the plants.

Hope this helps?  My guess would be you'd need a few thousand lumen with you lights for long term growth.  This would seem very (VERY) bright in your set up (and they'd get hot). I have similar COB leds in my outside lights and whilst good for illumination they're no where near bright enough for grow lights.

Thanks - that does help and sounds right to me.

I wonder whether there would be scope to use something like this LED tape https://www.ultraleds.co.uk/premium-optiprofile-24v-16-5w-neutral-white-4000k-240-leds-per-metre-no-spotting-tape-ip65-splashproof-5-metre-reel.html

it's claiming 1400 lumens per metre, >90 cri.

I'm imagining my setup as above but with a full ring over the top which probably adds to about 40-50cm of tape that could shine on the plants. technically could double up the width too if necessary.

No idea how bright that would be to the eye (other than "very"!)

any thoughts on that? thanks!

[Dunc]

13 hours ago, porpt said:

Thanks - that does help and sounds right to me.

I wonder whether there would be scope to use something like this LED tape https://www.ultraleds.co.uk/premium-optiprofile-24v-16-5w-neutral-white-4000k-240-leds-per-metre-no-spotting-tape-ip65-splashproof-5-metre-reel.html

it's claiming 1400 lumens per metre, >90 cri.

I'm imagining my setup as above but with a full ring over the top which probably adds to about 40-50cm of tape that could shine on the plants. technically could double up the width too if necessary.

No idea how bright that would be to the eye (other than "very"!)

any thoughts on that? thanks!

Sounds like it should be in the right ballpark. Bet it'll look stunning - you'll have to post a picture! Guess if you can AM a suitable ring holder that shields the leds so most of the light goes down to the plant you'll not need shades...