Im a newbie so please bear with me. What is best LED voltage for indoor? What is optimum grow room temperature? Floor space required for 10 plants. Thank you kindly
The COB LED has a much higher photon density and uniformity comparing to ordinary SMD, and since the substrate is directly attached to the heat sink, heat dissipation is more efficient, therefore able to endure a longer lifetime. Effective flowering footprint is up to 3.5ft x 3.5ft (1.07m x 1.07m) at the hanging height of 24 inches(60.96cm), with an average PPFD up to about 550-600 μmol/m2/s. Optimized wide-angle light distribution design is ideal for commercial cannabis growing at large-scale. Max’s actual wattage is 585W, equal to the HPS 600W-1000W. An additional 27pcs high power LEDs including UV-380nm, IR-730nm, Blue-460nm are dedicated to optimizing the plant’s reproductive state and improving THC content at the flowering stage. Active cooling with 1 fan per COB LED, fan’s lifetime up to 50,000 hours. All key parts come from well-known international brands, including LED chips from BridgeLux and Epileds, Meanwell drivers, etc. Light’s lifetime is up to 50,000 hours.
For lighting I would recommend going with LED quantum boards. There are different brands and which one to choose is a bit matter of opinion and personal preference. I would argue the best ones would be from a US/Euro manufacturer but you can also get cheaper china offerings which will still be decent but I personally believe you get what you pay for. Again maybe this is just my personal opinion... As for power i think there is at least an agreement here with most growers that you will want ABOUT 20 watts/squarefoot for veg and between 30 and 40watt/sf for bloom when using quantum boards. You should also swing by the first time growers section where you can find all the info you need to plan and get started First Time Marijuana Growers
For a 6x6-7x7 space(not a tent) I think height is 9-10 feet, should I go with 2 480s or 4-5 240s? Assuming growdocotrs thread with that nice write up got deleted for self promoting, I was inquiring same question originally in that thread. Thanks in advance for any response!
COBs don't have better uniformity, and they run hotter which reduces their lifespan over mid power SMD. They are less efficient per watt. Their thermal transfer is not superior to that of a flip chip even though the thermal transfer is needed more so with COBs.
Damm, im looking at my old Illumitex lights, back in the day they were considered pretty advanced, I think I got those around 2015-16. Efficiency almost doubled since from 1.6 to 3 μmol/Joule
I've not heard of anything over 2.7μmol/J (Fluence) you'll have to link those lights for me to peek at. That's really good!
Not sure what you're saying here. LM301B/H have been touted as 3.03μmol/J but only when they are pulse driven at only 65mA per chip, and that statement was actually made based on a 6500k LM301B (see attached). HLG runs LM301B and with the added benefit of 660nm monos and they are only achieving 2.6μmol/J under normal operating conditions. What wattage is the Illumitex light you're referring to, and how many chips does it have?
Looks like Illumitex is about right there with the other top efficiency guys on there flagship Neopar 7 XO (2.6μmol/J). Neopar 7... They've a veg light, Neopar 3, that gets 2.72μmol/J but it's really lacking in a few WV's. Neopar 3... Seems like they make a well performing product. Ill have to keep my eye out for them.
From HLG site. Yeah Illumitex make some quality lights thats for sure. I had my Neosol for almost 5 years and they were still working well when I made the switch to Qboards.
Nice I've not seen that graphic before! You can extrapolate an efficiency curve with those numbers. The QB288 is 16P18S (edited). So 500mA split 16 (edited) ways is 31.25mA/chip (edited) and less than half of what they use when Samsung pulse drives at 65mA/chip. The LM301B has a max current rating of 200mA. Using the graphic posted, at 50% power or 100mA, the chip looks to be... 2.1A - 1.4A = 0.7A 2.77μmol/J - 2.63μmol/J = 0.14μmol/J 18P × 100mA = 1.8A 1.8A - 1.4A = 0.4A 0.4A ÷ 0.7A = 0.5714 0.1574 × 0.14μmol/J = 0.08μmol/J 2.63μmol/J + 0.08μmol/J = 2.71 μmol/J at 50% power, or 1.8A, curious how they got the 500mA board to operate at 55C, I'm guessing it was at a much lower temp than ~130°F, and assuming that 55C was the max temperature observed rather than the exact temp of every test? Maybe they got it hot and then backed off the current? Hmmm... curious for sure! At least we can say that 2.53μmol/J is about the lowest you'll see out of an LM301B, that's encouraging, well at least at 175mA/chip (edited).
Efficiency has gone up a lot lately. Samsung rates it at 65ma, solid DC not pulsed. It degrades as you go up in current. That 500ma you're showing has multiple strings in parallel so it is 500ma/#strings. No one wants to buy an expensive light and drive it at super wimpy levels to get high efficiency. You'd rather drive it at full to get the added light. All of this rating is you're looking here is at chip board level. System level is different. You have voltage drops in the pcb and wires. Then you have driver losses typically 10%. If you have a meanwell tuned abosultely perfect with voltage and load you might pick up a percent or two (up to 92% efficient) but then again wire/board losses. So 10% loss is a good measure. 120V depending on the driver is sometimes less efficient. So the 2.53 is really 2.53*.9= 2.28 umol/J. Other manufacturers use optics/lenses. Those are typically another 10% loss step so their board levels so keep that in mind when comparing. Hopefully though those companies use focusing optics because you can pick up more PAR PPFD with a less efficient light if that light avoids bouncing off of surfaces such as walls because that bounce is super inefficient even with these "high tech" paints and tent materials. So yeah optic losses can be worth it. As for the COB chart someone posted what isn't captured is the middle image of the SMD LEDs is that within each one of those LEDs there are often multiple LEDs just like in the COB. They are like mini COBs. What the COB does better is it has an easier thermal path for the LED so you can have more energy density. Then what isn't shown is heat is an LEDs enemy so with heat efficiency goes down and COBs usually have a lot of heat density. The SMD chips like you see on a QB force you to space out the heat. I'd always give a COB a tier B rating because they can't reach those super high efficiencies, have a lot of heat density which can have deteriorating output, and make hot spots.... but can get good results at reasonable prices. Have their niche for sure.
I don't think these are system figures. The LM79 they have on their site matches up with these figures. Copper trace resistance is a non issue imo. At 2.8A you'd need a decent voltage drop to realistically effect μmol/J. If you had 10W burned across Cu, at 480W you're looking like 0.05μmol/J loss, and that's assuming a huuuge 10W loss across Cu. I'd estimate max trace resistance closer to 170mΩ per board, but that's just a quick calc off the top of my head, and I'm assuming it'll be under that by some margin, 170mΩ is ~1W of waste power per 120W QB288, or the difference between 2.6μmol/J and 2.58μmol/J. I'm not sure Samsung is not pulse tested either. I know that most manufacturers use pulsed current at 65mA to test. I'd almost garuntee Samsung does too as straight DC is outdated and isn't accurate anymore. Is Your Light Measurement Method Undervaluing Your LEDs? - Vektrex Here's just a few quick examples of manufacturers stating they pulse drive during testing... Luxeon... Bridgelux...
When I said 18P16S, that was wrong. It looked like they were 16 stacks of 18 parallel chips, but I guess the lines connecting aren't traces. According to this, they use 2oz Cu but a topology of 16P18S. The lines above and below the LM301B rows looked like traces which would put the chips in the rows as parallel but stacked in series. This is not correct though, its actually 16P18S, so the lines above and below the rows are not traces. Oops!
Maybe not as a priority. I run eight qb288 boards in a 3x4 because I want very even spread of light across my space since I grow SOG style with many smaller plants. It's actually doubly beneficial because the boards cover the space almost edge to edge, I can lower the lights to almost touching the plants and still get all my plants exposed evenly. Of course, lowering the lights means I can dimm them some more since they are closer. So, even though I didnt plan this specifically for that reason (ultra savings) it's a byproduct of the way I have my lights set up.