Is an led and a heater going to save money on electricity

[Skunkymonkey]

I will be starting a new grow at the end of April I will be removing some mylar that I have in there and paint the walls with ultra pure white paint and I'm thinking of mounting the driver at the top of the closet in the summer and then moving it back down to the bottom of the closet in the winter I also have a way to place the driver in my crawlspace in the summer if needed so I can try to regulate the heat
I will keep you posted
I am ready for some LED action!

 

[Skunkymonkey]

I noticed the LED bars on my Migro get quite warm and so does the driver. It does have a nice long cord for positioning.

It took up a little floor space but I set the driver on a brick in the bottom of my tent. I figure it works as a bit of a heat sink and regulator. I don't know how large or hot the driver for the 4-bar might get. I suspect if you mounted it to a wood panel it would be safe. Plus, you may not even need a heater with all that in there.

So do you still use your heatbud in your tent with the Migrow in it?

 

[myotis]

I would think a small heater not needing to run that much and the efficiency of the LEDs would come out less. Plus, the LED will be providing you useable light for your plant instead of wasted energy being turned into heat.

You probably wouldn't need a 600W LED for a 2x4. A small 250W desk heater will do just fine in that space. Put some budget in for a temp control for the heater and you should be good to go.

LED lamps will put out some heat and so do their drivers. I use a Honeywell HeatBud in both my tents, a 2.3x2.3 and a 4x4. It manages to keep both sizes at 75-80F. I use an inkbird controller so it is not on constantly. Just an idea!

Buy it from wherever you like, usually $25-35. There is a mechanical on/off switch so it's easy to use with a timer or controller. It also has a I and a II setting with I being 125W and II is the full 250W. Fire safety switch on the bottom so if it falls over it shuts off.

Honeywell HCE100B Heat Bud Mini Home Heater

Heat Bud Ceramic Heaters feature a 250 watt output that's ideal for heating personal to small sized areas of space. This unit includes two differing heat settings that allow users to shuffle between varying levels of performance.

www.honeywellstore.com

My temps were perfect for the first few weeks then as the light got higher and the fan speed went up to lower rh I was losing loads of heat.
I'm in a 2x4 bunker and the fans now level with the light about 4 inch away from the side of it and its just taking all the heat its generating.
Got a 45w greenhouse heater,
still not good enough cos of the fan being turned up
I've now settled on 2 incandescent light bulbs thats attached to the reflector of the tsw2000.
Ones 200w the others 150w, only needed the 200w one tho and temps and rh are perfect,
Adding more light was the answer in the end.

 

[DCLXVI]

So do you still use your heatbud in your tent with the Migrow in it?

Yes, I did leave it in there as the temp would drop during the lights off period. I only ever needed it on setting 1 which was the low power 125w

With the ink bird controller it maintained a very nice 70-80F consistently

 

[OM2]

Migro Aray runs extremely cool, in my case it only warms up the tent by 3 degrees Celsius, from 25C to 28C. And that's with the exhaust fan on minimal speed, the light on maximum wattage, running for 18 hours. That's a sign of a quality efficient light. The bars and the driver do get warm of course, but not burning hot. In the Migro manual it says the surface temperature of the driver and bars reaches twice the amount of the ambient temperature. So at 25C the surface of the bars and driver is 50C and that's safe.

On the other hand however, previously i had a Mars Hydro TSL2000 which would heat up my tent from 20C to 30C in just 10 minutes, even with the drivers outside and exhaust fan on medium speed. The light fixture was immediately hot like a toaster, i could barely touch it. And it was releasing a burning smell of electronics and plastic. If Migro was 50C, this Mars was surely 70C. I don't know if the light was faulty, but it was brand new.

You did a good choice for choosing the Migro, but you will most likely have to use a heater.

 

[GreenBean]

Glad to see that you got an Array. He seems like a really stand-up guy and also puts out some great information. Happy to see people supporting businesses like that. I did look at Migro when choosing my lights. But decided to support another great small business on my side of the pond. Good luck.

 

[Drownomatic]

Doring the winter here, my temps would drop because wind was blowing cold air in my exhaust vent. I had to add a flapper to the exhaust to solve that.

 

[Skunkymonkey]

Migro Aray runs extremely cool, in my case it only warms up the tent by 3 degrees Celsius, from 25C to 28C. And that's with the exhaust fan on minimal speed, the light on maximum wattage, running for 18 hours. That's a sign of a quality efficient light. The bars and the driver do get warm of course, but not burning hot. In the Migro manual it says the surface temperature of the driver and bars reaches twice the amount of the ambient temperature. So at 25C the surface of the bars and driver is 50C and that's safe.

On the other hand however, previously i had a Mars Hydro TSL2000 which would heat up my tent from 20C to 30C in just 10 minutes, even with the drivers outside and exhaust fan on medium speed. The light fixture was immediately hot like a toaster, i could barely touch it. And it was releasing a burning smell of electronics and plastic. If Migro was 50C, this Mars was surely 70C. I don't know if the light was faulty, but it was brand new.

You did a good choice for choosing the Migro, but you will most likely have to use a heater.

That is one of the things that I chose the light for was the distance that you can get this makes a huge difference in the layout of the closet so that you can actually have a working space below the plants where humidifiers and dehumidifiers can be located along with another fan for circulation plus raising everything up a foot or so makes things easier on the knees and back lol
Do you think that the driver for this array 4 pro would be safe enough to mount on top of painted drywall?

 

[Skunkymonkey]

Glad to see that you got an Array. He seems like a really stand-up guy and also puts out some great information. Happy to see people supporting businesses like that. I did look at Migro when choosing my lights. But decided to support another great small business on my side of the pond. Good luck.

Exactly
Been using HPS for the past 10 years and I've been waiting for the time to jump onto the LED bandwagon When I heard about this guy and his expertise in testing and knowledge of what these plants need, then when he designed and built a light you know that that light is going to be badass and I had to get one!

 

[OM2]

Do you think that the driver for this array 4 pro would be safe enough to mount on top of painted drywall?

I'm not sure, i think it would probably be better if it's not touching the wall. You can hang on a nail few centimeters from the wall, the driver has those little holes, just hang it like a picture

Currently i have the driver sitting on top of an old CPU heatsink, on the floor.