Hacks for the Homesteader Group
Questions, discustions, and possibly answers to the mechanically curious or challenged😊
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Homemade LED grow light
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Homemade LED grow light
I made this light with recycled materials except for the LED diodes. Probably around 10 years ago.
The LED diodes are 1W (630nm red and 460nm blue) and are attacked to what they call a “star mount”.
460nm and 660nm are the optimum color wave lengths of light you want for growing plants, at the time 660nm was much more expensive so i had to compromise price with efficiency.
I bought these LED’s on ebay for around 50 cents a piece.
The way this works is that you use the internal controls inside an AC adapter to match the LED grid you build. Its rad. I choose 12V AC adapters because i can cut the wire and stick it directly to a car battery to power it. So it becomes a versatile grid down tool as well.
I made a 110W panel on the back of a No Trespassing sign and used a 50A car battery charger to power it. It worked but i dont recommend making large 100w arrays.
The recycled parts are such as follow;
Heat Sync from an old projection screen TV
Hot glue to stick the stars to the heat sync,
An AC adapter from a 2nd hand store that matches the grid layout of the LEDs
Speaker wire to wire the LEDs together
This thing over the course of the past decade has probably ran for 3-4 years straight and not 1 bulb has gone bad. Costs maybe 25$ to build and works epic for plant starters or a kitchen herb garden. It is also an indestructable brick, I could probably chuck the array across the room and it would still work.
I will make a more detailed You tube video and send the link here.
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2 Replies
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Dude, this is awesome, a man after my own heart. I love using old stuff to make useful things You have a great idea here. This is perfect for grid down ore even a solar powered greenhouse. Love it, thanks for sharing.
Darren.
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Thank you for the compliment, I MacGruber stuff all the time.
The reason there are rows of 6 red but only rows of 4 blue is because blue requires more voltage to run for some reason.
The red parameters ran on 1.8V-2.1V, While the blue ran roughly 2.8V-3.2V.
They are wired in series to get to the 12V rating needed to run each rail.
The array is built on a 12V grid so it will pull the necessary juice to run and run off a battery system. My main issue with running directly off a 12V battery is the LEDs will run at 100% all the time, I prefer to wire mine running at 65-70% of their maximum wattage capabilities. It improves energy transfer efficiency and reduces heat run off, increasing the longevity of the LED as well.
I think the hot glue can only transfer so much heat to the heat sync before it melts again and the LEDs would get loose. Once again I had no problems with this potential issue but its there. In hot climates, the weather plus the LED heat build up might partially melt the glue. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Running them at 100% can kill them within a few years time I’m told.
My 110W array never lost a bulb either and it ran at 100% but only for around 6-12 months straight id say.
LED’s put out heat, so if you decide to ever make one yourself, make sure the heat sync is big enough to remove the heat. add recycled computer fans, i dunno.
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