Title pretty much says it all. About to drop the bomb on 16 of them total, but running 8 per 4x8 tent. I plan to put my order in later when I’ve sobered up. Also if you can think of anything that I may need to go with the lights and drivers please let me know. I was think 18 awg wire... wagos. Tape. Uh, that’s all I can think of, oh and hanging rope of course. Also, to anyone running them now, think I’ll be good with a dedicated window a/c pulling from outside the tent passively through the exhaust? TIA
What drivers are you using? I would plan on making a bank of drivers outside of the grow space so you can easily manage the dimmers. I would also plan on a dedicated 240v line for a setup that large. The drivers run more efficient on 2 phase power if you can do it. I'm sure you're not running 16 qb96's on one 15 amp circuit. IMO the inventronics 600 watt 2800mA CC dimmable driver is the best deal. Could run up to 5 boards but better running 4 each. They are as low as $130. HLG is now using inventronics drivers on most of their larger fixtures because of the price difference and they are as good as meanwell. The best way to cool the qb96's is to put a dedicated 120mm computer fan on top of each heatsink. They will run super cool if you do that.
I use a 440 cfm 6" exhaust fan for my 4x8 but half of it is veg. With a full bloom 4x8 I would run an 8" exhaust fan on each one with two 6" passive intakes on each. That should be enough to maintain temps if you have intake air from a climate controlled house. You want to hit 82-84 for the most rapid growth with led lights. Optimal grow room temp is higher then with HPS.
Thanks for the info on the temps for begging under led. Now the scary part is, I don’t what you’re saying when as far as the 15 amp circuit. I mean, I get that you’re asking me if I’m plugging all of them into the same wall. Yes, we’ll splitting it between two outlets.
Is adding a dedicated 240 as easy as adding a fuse to my box and safely running the 240v to my “new” outlets?
Basically you need to add a new 240v breaker that takes up two spaces in the electric panel then run a wire from that to a plug. I would recommend you buy a good 240v rated power strip with surge protection and a built in overload reset then plug the drivers into that. Get plugs that go with the power strip. They sell ones built for european style plugs on amazon for cheap.
Thanks Tbone. Btw I was looking at running them on 600h’s but haven’t worked out how many or if I’ll need to pick up a few 600’s and a smaller driver to pick up the slack. I’m going to work out how many drivers I need to be able to have the driver maxed but lights between 150 and 200w each. But even that’s undecided as this is new territory. I’m definitely going with a power bank outside the tents. Also may run the 240 to the bank area.
Also, for running two phases or dual phase, am I looking for specific products. Basically like dual phase wiring or something like that, or individually run two separate runs of wire?
Hey man, another thing. When I’m buying wire it says it’s rated for 12v which is way shy of the 54v drivers. But in searching for 54v wire turned up nothing. So I’ll try to make this the last question of the night I swear. What type of wiring do I need?
I’m sorry man... I’m looking at the plugs and surge protectors and voltage ratings and seeing the 240v are all European styled plugs. I’m in the US. I’m sorry, I should have mentioned that.
Hey Scoob, care to help me figure some more of this stuff out? More specifically what size circuit breaker to add to handle the power being pulled safely. I don’t know how many amps it should be rated for. As of now I’m at 20amps on the breakers in that room, but I don’t know or think that’s enough so I’m definitely running a new line and outlets. Just not sure what ratings I need. Any help may result in me asking a thousand more questions, but please believe is greatly appreciated!
They don't and that's the other thing is inventronics has a 1200 watt driver that can run 8 qb96v2's each. I'll dig it up for you.
You want wire with some quality insulation on the outside of the wire. That's the voltage rating you're seeing with wire. Any good quality wire will have at least a 300v rating on it stamped somewhere. The other standard you find common on household type wire is 600v. That's what you're looking for. I got a roll of red 18awg 300v rated all purpose wire in the hardware section at walmart for about $5.95. 50 feet. If the insulation value is lower then the voltage you're running through it you can short it out right through the insulation. I've never seen 12v rated wire because 24v would be probably the lowest you'd find. 12v wire would only be good for automotive.
Man I’ve asked a thousand questions but slowly and surely learning the answer are ALL here. Now that I’m better understanding the technical terms and ratings etc. Thanks man, I don’t think I have another question! You’re the man! I can’t say that enough. Couldn’t get the site to cooperate to order the inventronics drivers. Going to see if I can get it to go through again. Only issue I had was being unable to select my state so I’ll try it again to compare total price after shipping and go from there. So far I need drivers, stuff to run the 240v outlet, other odds that don’t pertain to lighting and I’m good to go. Only question I have right now is am I able to convert a US PLUG accepting style strip to European plug to prevent converting my other lights?
Go with a double 30 amp breaker and a 10awg supply wire. You can use standard 3 wire romex. It's sold in 10awg for water heaters. The typical thing to do is to use the white wire and the black wire for the breaker output's but just mark the white wire with red tape so you know it's not a neutral wire. Then you just hook up a ground. 99% of 240v appliances only need a ground and the two power wired, not a neutral. Neutral and ground are hooked to each other in the panel eventually anyway on most installations. You can wire both drivers to the same 240v male plug on the input and plug them directly to a female plug you mount to a box from the breakers. I like to have my drivers on a surge protector/reset power strip even though they have multiple built in safeties. If you get a power strip make sure it's rated for the same amp draw. They sell them with european style plugs on amazon for cheap. You can get the male version of that plug for your driver inputs. I would mount the power strip and drivers to a piece of sheetrock on the wall next to the grow space. This is the driver. EFD-1K2S560DT in Box by Inventronics | LED Driver Modules | Future Electronics Two can run all 16 of your qb96's but you have to wire them a specific way. That is a 5600mA constant current driver which is double 2800mA which is a good amount to run for a qb96 in series. If you wire two parallel strings of 4 qb96's in series to each driver it will feed all 8 2800mA. They only make the big 1200 watt driver in constant current and that's the best fit they sell in the current ranges. Basically the driver output is split to two positive and two negative wires. Each set is wired to 4 qb96's in series.
You pretty much have to convert all the lights you want to run on 240v unless you want to use 120v plugs for 240v. That can be done but it's a little dangerous. Easy to plug the wrong thing into the 240v plugs and burn it up. You can always run smaller lights on the 120v still and just use the 240v for the large 1200watt main drivers.