It’s gonna be either 4 of them or 4 decent 650w from either mars, hlg, or 4 roi720s but I’m looking at that alibaba price like $650 is a fucking steal I just don’t know if they’re legit. But on the other hand back in my bodybuilding days I trusted raw hormone powders for homebrewing steroids from them without a second thought and that turned out working.(I was gonna say it turned out OK, but they did turn me into a giant asshole )
I’m currently running a Meijiu 1000w LED bar light that I got from Alibaba. I recently ordered 2 more, plus a 300w quantum board. I really like mine. Enough that I’m getting 2 more.
The main thing to look for when shopping for lights on Alibaba, is the diodes and the driver. You want to get Lm301b or Lm301h diodes and a Meanwell driver. Those are the same components use by HLG. Another good thing to look for is UV & IR.
And as already mentioned, the shipping and duties costs are something you want to factor in. Overall, I think you can get a high quality grow light, comparable to HLG, for a lower cost. There are cheaper options that will get the job done, but if you’re looking for higher quality & efficiency, I think Alibaba lights are a good option.
Meiju is the brand. If you don’t mind a little DIY, their FOTOP 3ft boards are amazing for the money, but then you have to buy a driver (locally in your home country for warranty purposes).
Meiju also has the lm301b (don’t waste money on lm301h, they’re the same as the b but more expensive) light bars that Berserker7205 noted. You don’t want super high wattage bars; the 650w ones will do more than you need for a 4x4. And you don’t need the UV, but the FAR RED supplement is nice. Make sure they have dimming.
Don’t go with any other Alibaba brand right now because most of them are scams. Meiju is one of the only good ones that are reputable. And definitely negotiate with them - they can change the duty declaration and price quite a bit so your total out of pocket expense is lower.
If you have further questions, I suggest going over to the LED section at Rollitup.org and asking there - dozens of people are buying and testing Meiju light bars over there.
Regardless of area, you still need to think of the effective footprint for each light. You’re always better off with even light across an entire canopy rather than a few super bright point sources. Gotta keep it real and be honest about what’s best.
My advice is don’t go cheap. Don’t try to lowball your lights. This is the part where you want to buy the absolute best quality you can afford because you want them to last for 5+ years. Don’t make the mistake of buying the cheap brand and then have to replace them 2 years down the road because they sucked. But no matter what, anything you buy off Alibaba is going to be a gamble in that regard, so you better do your cost/benefit analysis from all angles. Does an extra $2000 in lights now if you buy from a US manufacturer such as Fluence or Timber save you $3000 later? It might very well. Since your op sounds like it’s going to be cash cropping, cutting corners doesn’t make sense.
And keep in mind that you basically have to light 4x4 quadrants. From that perspective, you have 9 of them in your space. If you haggle with Miejiu or whatever their name is, you might be able to get the price of their 650w light bar fixtures down to your $3500 budget all in, delivered, duties and taxes paid. I can’t imagine there’s any possible way you can buy 9 lights of any decent quality for under that, and more reasonable is probably $5000 unless you DIY build them yourself.
The 1000w LED bar lights are good enough to flower a 5x5 area. You could go with four 1000w lights, and give yourself some space to get through the middle or around the sides. The normal price I see on Alibaba for good lights is $1/watt. You may be able to negotiate that down though.
The rule of thumb is to have around 40w/sq ft for flowering. Anything above that and you won’t see better results unless you start using extra CO2.
I’m half thinking it might make more sense to just get 1 more ballast and reflector and rearrange my coverage to about 10×10 I’ve got enough ac to support it. And I could put those funds to better use optimizing my hydro setup.
@Eagles009 i got the one you suggested still incrhe box. Shipping back to US location for refund. Ended up getting way bigger light. Everything smooth so far.
Thats what I’m thinking, now the question is do I add 1 more light or 3. I can fit up to a 24k btu in there my controller is run off a 50amp outlet and I keep my ballasts outside of the room. That will still leave me with enough to upgrade my hydro and cover electric through my next run.
just throwing in another good word for meiju. good folks and quality gear over there. i swapped out the lighting for my entire personal grow with bars and boards from these guys, and i am very pleased with the results. so much so that i ordered 24 more of their 650w bar fixtures for a new build. 301b/h with added reds is the way to go
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