I use lollipopping to limit my upper canopy to about 18". That seems to be a good limit for most indoor lights. Even HPS only have a fairly narrow band where they grow the best bud that's about 18-24" deep. That's the curse of indoor lighting. When I figured out how to train the plant wide with many branches and limit canopy thickness with lollipopping it really increased my yield. You can increase the penetration of the qb's by running reflectors in more open areas. They're not hugely necessary though or at all. The qb's are bright grow lights. A qb260 looks brighter then a 400 watt hps by itself. You can't replace a 400 watt hps with a single qb135. You'd need more like two of them. I think they can penetrate as well as a 400 as long as you use about 60% as much wattage. 250 watts of qb's covers about the same area as a 400 hps.
thank you sir.!! you have me convinced, strongly looking at..... one HLG 135w 4,000k on the veg side 25" x 32" x 33" tall (5.5 sf) = 24.5 wpsf two 135's on the bloom room , one 4,000k and one 3,000k (same 5.5 sf) = 49 wpsf small plants (clones) go in the back under the 4,000k then migrate every 2 weeks towards the front with the 3,000k! ? Do you think its worth the extra $60 to get the V2's or would the V1 be just as good? i see the V2 is a little more efficient, but it is not a concern of mine, my elec. bill gets paid and A/C unit works great.!
I don't own any v2's but like I've mentioned earlier you use these fixtures for years. The sting of paying slightly more wears off really quickly after they produce a few nice crops for you. I would say go for the v2's. They also run cooler. That's pretty large for those hot days when you can be struggling with temps. That said if you want to save money the qb288v1's have been growing well for people for near 2 years now. They are proven to work. It's your choice. It's hard I like those DIY qb132 board fixtures because of how wide the distribution is compared to building with qb288's. They take more work building your own frames and wiring them. You can potentially save lots of money with a 300 watt fixture potentially costing under $200 finished. I'd be willing to bet that in two 3x3 areas side by side if you put a qb260 in one with two qb288v2's and you put a 4 board qb132 fixture in the other with good training you might get more yield from the 4 board qb132 setup because it's going to have such an even coverage it's practically almost the same ppfd wall to wall. The 288 fixture would have more of a hot spot in the center because it's just way smaller and similar power range. Just brainstorming. Not trying to confuse you though I'm sure I am.. hehe
I was able to reset my a/c from 78 which was freezing my ass running all the time and making so much noise, to 80 when I switched to v2. That alone will pay for the lights in 2 years. I heard that! (I can hear everything now.)
I've noticed that my plants like a slightly higher temp growing under the qb's. About 80-82 is my target temp now.
Ah, see I'm between 78-82 and I was kind of wondering if going slightly over 80 was a big deal. Literally just got a 6 inch 240 CFM inline fan that I'm going to run some ducting for tonight when the lights come on. Pretty stoked to see what it does about my temps.
My plants noticeably slow down in growth and feed rate whenever we get a cooler day and the temps drop.
No kidding, qb's may be efficient, but adding more would be a very inefficient way to heat a grow room. You got me, I admit, hid beats qb when it comes to heating.
i think i am gonna pull the trigger on this, i can only find positives, winter temps 'might' be the only negative... gonna go with 2 blues and one red 135w QB's. where is the best place to get em? thanks for all your responses, i've learned a lot!!!
Free shipping for me to Alaska. Horticulture Lighting Group If you want to get just boards then you have to go to HLG directly. Check out this deal? QB288 V2 & Slate 2 Single Combo All you need to add to it is 2 of these drivers. Super easy to wire the single board single driver fixtures. https://onlinemeanwell.com/en/hlg150h54a-1224.html
that is where i was mainly looking at, awesome site, lots of info! $175 for the V1, $187 for the V2, $36 more for the 3 V2's money and heat are issues, but it sounds like the heat will be above my glass chamber tops, unlike the HPS that throws heat down like July sunshine! thank you Tbone! many many thanks!!
Tbone, Thank you very much for all the info, especially your personal experiences.!! You have me really leaning towards QB's! hopefully this turns out to be the best thing I've done for this box. if the room temp can get closer to 75 instead of 65 and if I can get one gram per watt the QB's will be enough.!
From the probably couple of hundred of builds I've assisted in 1 gram per watt is easy mode with the qb's they are capable of way more then that. Almost double if you're super skilled. Growmau5 got 1.68g/watt in his first trial with qb's. Admittedly he had a bad grow as well because he attempted to add UV light bars to the fixtures which stressed the plants and limited the yield. He probably would have been closer to his 1.9g/watt totals with cobs if he had a more optimal grow with them. He went on to design his own QB/samsung led based round cob replacement fixture in a partnership with chilled led. He must have liked those samsung leds. My personal best with them is 1.5g/watt but my average is more like 1.2. I have yet to not make 1g/watt with the qb's.
Im sold just gotta save the cheddar lol gonna go wit them 288 slate i think probably grab 2...u think that'll do the 3x3 tbone ? Sent from my SM-J727P using Tapatalk
Thanks again Tbone, you converted another one.... I ordered the three 135's yesterday!! Tbone, you should try adding another 260 to the 4x4 grow, that would be 780 watts about 48 wpsf, you will still get 1.2 gpw, for quality try a perpetual harvest and 3 different QB's, a 4k, 3k, and 2.7k, move plants into flower under the 4,000k, in 2-4 weeks move them over to the middle under the 3,000k for 2-4 wks, then move em to the other side under the 2,700k for their final 2-3 wks, this method produced the sweetest, best looking, and most potent smoke for me!