$100 will be hard but doable (depending on the area you're lighting). You definitely can DIY for SPS, if you want, but it's all about are you doing cheap/barebones DIY or because customizable, or what. For example, I hate noise and I like white-heavy/daylight that is rare in commercial so I build mine (fanless, aesthetic blend, and powerful enough that my baby maxima clam has been showing good growth)
Things you'd need to think about - do you care about running effiency vs up front cost? Like, OK with ~100 lumen/watt vs 180 lumen/watt?
Because here's a rough mental math budget I'm thinking:
Heat sink(s) - 25-50 US$ (if you buy $25 wimpy heat sinks you'll need ~$15 fans, or buy beefier heat sinks etc)
meanwell lrs ~75w or 100w ps - ~15
3 10-packs of cheap 3w LEDs - 18 (this is for colors)
add a couple "nice" LEDs for PAR power - 15
and you're basically at $100 right there (plus wire, solder, wire nuts, etc). That'll get you pretty bright lights, but requires "janky" wiring (led strings straight to the LRS, not off of actual drivers, no dimming, etc)
you could also go with driver-on-board options like this: that i've heard of people using, seems less electrically efficient to my sophomoric brain but very cheap and can get a lot of no-frills light cheap
Edit: so forgot to say - reason for this budgeting out is that you can DIY cheaper than buying, but it's not THAT much cheaper than black-box options unless you're consciously making decisions to go really no-frills
Things you'd need to think about - do you care about running effiency vs up front cost? Like, OK with ~100 lumen/watt vs 180 lumen/watt?
Because here's a rough mental math budget I'm thinking:
Heat sink(s) - 25-50 US$ (if you buy $25 wimpy heat sinks you'll need ~$15 fans, or buy beefier heat sinks etc)
meanwell lrs ~75w or 100w ps - ~15
3 10-packs of cheap 3w LEDs - 18 (this is for colors)
add a couple "nice" LEDs for PAR power - 15
and you're basically at $100 right there (plus wire, solder, wire nuts, etc). That'll get you pretty bright lights, but requires "janky" wiring (led strings straight to the LRS, not off of actual drivers, no dimming, etc)
you could also go with driver-on-board options like this: that i've heard of people using, seems less electrically efficient to my sophomoric brain but very cheap and can get a lot of no-frills light cheap
Edit: so forgot to say - reason for this budgeting out is that you can DIY cheaper than buying, but it's not THAT much cheaper than black-box options unless you're consciously making decisions to go really no-frills
Last edited: