UV Emitting LED's

[mobiledynamics]

For those in the know....

Rigged up the new plant grow lights. It is bright as F...actually if I catch the spillover, it actually makes you dizzy. I now see why I also saw LED Grow Sunglasses as well...

Anyhow, these grow lights, AFAIK, the LEDS also have UV spectrum in it.
Should I be concerned about the UV factor if this is not ~contained~ in a reflective tent.

It's rigged up on metro rack open shelving. It's in my mechanical room....will the uv cause issues to any of the insulation on the pipes, the jacket on the exposed wiring, etc....

I'm actually planning on round 2 with at least some reflective material to box it in. Not for the primary purpose of light efficiency, but the spillover light makes me dizzy, eveytime I walk into the room

I even went and ordered a ~smart wifi plug~ so I can turn it on/off remotely, so I won't even need to be in the vicinity of these bright lights

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

A grow light is designed to duplicate the experience of looking into the sun, you should wear glasses. The stuff growing and traveling in your mechanicals may easily cost you more than repairs from damage the lights do. Turning the light off in the middle of the day is very upsetting for plants, be sure something is on when you hit that button.

 

[Platonic Solid]

You should be concerned about anything that isn't specifically rated for permanent outdoor direct sunlight exposure installation.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Grow lights are "wide spectrum" where as normal florescent and LED are not.

 

[rlitman]

Grow lights are "wide spectrum" where as normal florescent and LED are not.

That is true for fluorescent grow lights, but not for LED.

LED lighting comes in two varieties. White, and not white. What I mean by this is that "white" led, no matter the color temperature, produce white light by sending monochromatic light through a phosphor. This works very much like how fluorescent lighting.

LED grow lights do not use fluorescent phosphors, as this decreases their power efficiency, and doesn't help the plants. Instead, they just use a combination of blue and red monochromatic LEDs (the ratio of red to blue has been shown to have significance, but is not all that important for the purposes of this thread). However, the overall "width" of the spectrum of an LED grow light is no different than from a white LED.

The blue LEDs reach into the near UV-A range. Mercury vapor fluorescent lamps produce light that is in the UV-B and UV-C range. Though the glass tube should block all of the UV-C, a fluorescent grow lamp will release some UV-B, which is absolutely more harmful than UV-A.

However, how bad the UV damage from LED grow lights is, is difficult to answer. My guess is that it would not be nearly as bad as sunlight, but I believe that the potential for damage does exist.

 

[mobiledynamics]

The led lamps I bought tought as having UV. Anyhow, I'm back to my CFL bulbs for not until I either redo the setup, or enclose it in a room/tent like the canabis guys..

 

[rlitman]

Like I said, my guess is that the UV from your CFL, even if the lamps seem much less bright, will be more harmful than the UV from your LED.

However, I suggest you get something reflective to wrap the plants in anyway. Otherwise, you're just wasting much of the light.

 

[mobiledynamics]

Yeah, I know it's more efficient regardless if it's in a reflective enclosure.

I will say this. With the LED at 4 foot high , and literally just entering the mechanical room, the spillover light that I catch, causes dizziness....Either it's the coloration, but I'm not even looking at the lights head on.

 

[rlitman]

Well, light levels are something difficult for the human eye to distinguish.
If you had an illuminance meter, you'd know for sure, but I suspect that as bright as the lights appear, they're probably still not as bright as sunlight on a clear day.

The dazzle comes from a number of factors. From the point nature of the light sources, to the fact that you're entering the room from a shaded space with probably wide open pupils, to the fact that the light source is year eye level, and the foreign colors playing tricks with your brain. It's mostly about unexpected sensory input, and the brain being confused.

 

[mobiledynamics]

I would say these is 1 def. noticable drawback to these led units. Compared to CFL grow lamps, running the LED is noisy as hell. Sofar, I've got two of these running and a third once the vegs. germinates. It's got these 6-7 inch fans on them, exhausting the air from the heatsink on these units and it's somewhat noticable...

RLIT, fwiw, no more nauseous/dizz. shock as well when entering the room. I guess one gets ~allclimated~

 

[6PTsocket]

That is true for fluorescent grow lights, but not for LED.

LED lighting comes in two varieties. White, and not white. What I mean by this is that "white" led, no matter the color temperature, produce white light by sending monochromatic light through a phosphor. This works very much like how fluorescent lighting.

LED grow lights do not use fluorescent phosphors, as this decreases their power efficiency, and doesn't help the plants. Instead, they just use a combination of blue and red monochromatic LEDs (the ratio of red to blue has been shown to have significance, but is not all that important for the purposes of this thread). However, the overall "width" of the spectrum of an LED grow light is no different than from a white LED.

The blue LEDs reach into the near UV-A range. Mercury vapor fluorescent lamps produce light that is in the UV-B and UV-C range. Though the glass tube should block all of the UV-C, a fluorescent grow lamp will release some UV-B, which is absolutely more harmful than UV-A.

However, how bad the UV damage from LED grow lights is, is difficult to answer. My guess is that it would not be nearly as bad as sunlight, but I believe that the potential for damage does exist.

Basically all flourescents produce uv. If there is no phosphor coating on the inside of the glass, that is all they produce. Popular for black light hippie posters, gem stones and AC leak detection. Phosphor coatings are activated by the uv and glow in whatever color their chemistry produces. It is common to have multiple phosphors to produce a spectrum of colors. The color requiremrnts of plants vary with stage of development so all the colors are not always needed at all times. Efficiency can be improved commercially by using the energy to just make the color needed at that point. (Seedling, foliage, fruiting, etc.)
A lot of uv gets past the phosphors. I had a 13 Watt flourescent work light and I had done some repairs on it with non uv resistant Goop. The clear Goop quickly turned dark brown from the heavy UV. LED color is controlled by the chemistry of the diode or it is done like a flourescent.( the LED produced UV and bombards phosphors. The white LEDs use the latter, with a couple of different phosphor colors. LED TVs use clusters of red blue and green LEDs that vary the intensity of each of the 3 colors to produce the whole color spectrum, as well as white.

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[rlitman]

...RLIT, fwiw, no more nauseous/dizz. shock as well when entering the room. I guess one gets ~allclimated~

Glad to hear it. Sometimes the brain can just get used to the change in lighting.

Basically all flourescents produce uv. If there is no phosphor coating on the inside of the glass, that is all they produce. ...
A lot of uv gets past the phosphors. I had a 13 Watt flourescent work light and I had done some repairs on it with non uv resistant Goop. The clear Goop quickly turned dark brown from the heavy UV. LED color is controlled by the chemistry of the diode or it is done like a flourescent.( the LED produced UV and bombards phosphors. The white LEDs use the latter, with a couple of different phosphor colors...

A few comments on this:

Yes, all fluorescent lights produce UV. They use mercury vapor emissions as the light source. However, the glass itself blocks a lot of UV. Particularly the UV-B. UV lamps used for sterilization use quartz tubes to allow more UV to pass.

While white LED lamps use phosphors in much the same way as fluorescent lamps, they differ in that they start out using blue light, so they use different phosphors, and produce a different spectrum that bypasses the phosphors.

Additionally, they use plastic lenses that are even better at blocking UV than the glass on ordinary fluorescent bulbs. And perhaps that's all we need to know. Because if it doesn't damage the plastic envelope, it probably won't damage any other plastics except for seriously sensitive and unstable stuff.

 

[6PTsocket]

Glad to hear it. Sometimes the brain can just get used to the change in lighting.



A few comments on this:

Yes, all fluorescent lights produce UV. They use mercury vapor emissions as the light source. However, the glass itself blocks a lot of UV. Particularly the UV-B. UV lamps used for sterilization use quartz tubes to allow more UV to pass.

While white LED lamps use phosphors in much the same way as fluorescent lamps, they differ in that they start out using blue light, so they use different phosphors, and produce a different spectrum that bypasses the phosphors.

Additionally, they use plastic lenses that are even better at blocking UV than the glass on ordinary fluorescent bulbs. And perhaps that's all we need to know. Because if it doesn't damage the plastic envelope, it probably won't damage any other plastics except for seriously sensitive and unstable stuff.

I worked for years with equipment that used UV emitters and recievers to monitor passing objects breaking the beam. The emitters were uv leds in a normal looking led package, with a lens in front of it. Whatever plastic the leds were housed in was not a problem. They also sell UV led flashlights to spot the glowing dye injected into AC systems to find leaks. Remote controls use UV leds that are in plastic that seems to pass UV without a problem. I know that plastic sun glasses are supposed to block UV. Different plastic? Different UV frequency?

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[rlitman]

I worked for years with equipment that used UV emitters and recievers to monitor passing objects breaking the beam. The emitters were uv leds in a normal looking led package, with a lens in front of it. Whatever plastic the leds were housed in was not a problem. They also sell UV led flashlights to spot the glowing dye injected into AC systems to find leaks. Remote controls use UV leds that are in plastic that seems to pass UV without a problem. I know that plastic sun glasses are supposed to block UV. Different plastic? Different UV frequency?

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You're confusing UV with IR.

Remote controls and beams that monitor passing objects (like on an elevator door) use IR.

Yes, they sell UV LED flashlights to look for leaks with fluorescent dyes. I've got a few. Quite handy.