Depending on your location, it is important to start seeds early indoors for your garden. You can gain a few months advantage in harvesting, especially for late season varieties.
I had always used my MH electronic lights for my seed start setup. They work, but they are not ideal. They use a lot of electricity (400 watts x 3), take a lot of room and expensive bulbs need to be replaced.
There have been great advances in LED light technologies recently. They are cheap and powerful. I decided to build a few myself for my seed starting setup.
LED lights do need to be properly designed. They are current and temperature sensitive or they can be fried in a fraction of a second.
The most difficult issue is heat dissipation. They need very good heatsinks. Heatsinks are expensive.
I found that it is cheaper to get an aluminum griddle ($16), cut it in half and make two heatsinks.
I use two 150 watt COB LED chips ($8 each) for one light and a couple of brushless computer fans I have from my old computers to cool the heatsink.
WOW! It’s bright!! I will not need to replace bulbs for many years.
I am pleased with the end result. I will have 4 lights for my seedling setup.
dcarch
side-by-side MH vs. LED
s. LED
