Quantum Boards or COBS?

DesertPlants said:

The efficiency is not great enough to incur the cost of additional lights at the current prices.......

It's negligible, but it is still more cost effective to run them with active cooling at a higher current. Even the cost difference in electricity doesn't work because you are driving more of them in exchange for a lower current.

Like I said, at these prices and the current efficiency, it is more about personal flavor than anything.

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Therein lies the problem - it is subjective. What you consider not great enough for additional cost is more than adequate for others.

If I am to produce light I shall do so with the objective of using the power as efficiently as possible. Possible reasons could be but not limited to:

1. being able to afford the capital cost
2. bragging rights
3. save the planet philosophy and keeping a minimal carbon footprint
4. the minimal extra cost returns itself over multiple times from the first harvest
5. found better use for the heat sinks such as mounting to a TEC to generate power from a wood stove to power the lights

12 Vero 29 C per square meter (10.7 square feet) run at 8-34w each is the proverbial cat's meow in my opinion. I fully expect to bump that up over time as I keep getting different CCTs to compare.

No heat sinks needed just simple aluminum sheet cooled by airflow in each space.

Cost? In Canuck Bucks its 430 for the cobs, 150 for the two HLG 185s, 5 for wagos, (from Future Electronics) and another 2 for a dollar store cookie sheet so about 600 in total. At full power (400w) that's 1248 ppf or 89220 lumens according to Bridgelux specs. On the other end, 96w for 496.8 ppf or 35508 lumens which is better than both of your 2 and 3 cob setups that you posted. So for an extra 400 you start off with better performance and can increase to almost 3 times the intensity of the 2/3 cob setups.

Put another way with all other factors considered equal that extra 400 will return value on first harvest.

DesertPlants said:

Are you talking about at 1050mA? The lowest the run at is 855mA. At 1050mA, you may be able to do with just basic heat transfer to the aluminum frame. I wouldn't recommend it and you will likely shorten the life... I was just using it as an example for numbers comparison.

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You're talking 60 watts in a square inch of area times three. Not gonna happen (fanless) without a significant sized heatsink, and some angle aluminum ain't gonna cut it, I can guarantee you that. So you really need to factor the cost of heatsinks in for it to be a reasonable comparison.

DesertPlants said:

Of course none of this matters if you can't keep the room warm enough like me. <.< I am having to add an oil heater so they don't go purple on me again.

Oh, and I wasn't advocating QBs as better... I was saying most people on here prefer them for the even coverage. I personally only use COBs. I don't need the areas where I don't have a plant getting even coverage just like the areas where I have a plant... I prefer that light be directed where I need it.

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I have the heating issue as well so I have been trying different strains from colder regions of the world with the ambient being 18-24c. Lots of color, plants grow slower and their max DLI in veg is about 1/2 to 2/3 that of warmer region based plants.

Besides, purple is all the rage these days.

Slinging PAR said:

Besides, purple is all the rage these days.

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Word.

Slinging PAR said:

I have the heating issue as well so I have been trying different strains from colder regions of the world with the ambient being 18-24c. Lots of color, plants grow slower and their max DLI in veg is about 1/2 to 2/3 that of warmer region based plants.

Besides, purple is all the rage these days.

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What strains have you had good experience with? I just moved to Colorado after living in 49.4 c weather for a decade. I’m used to having the opposite problem.

DesertPlants said:

What strains have you had good experience with? I just moved to Colorado after living in 49.4 c weather for a decade. I’m used to having the opposite problem.

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Still testing. I am in it for the research, not for selling product, which is far different than most here. While I understand the frustrations of a business operation, I don't appreciate the lack of understanding from parts of the business towards research.

Indicas are traditionally from colder regions, sativas warm. Of course there are many exceptions which explains the diversity and adaptability of this plant. Then you have all the crosses that have been done over the years so lots of time and grow area is going to be needed.

To add another option; Samsung strips from digikey have the same physical diode as QB but more spacing flexibility than QB, well at least in terms of the 2 sizes of strip lengths available, and no of strips per area you want.

HydroLynx said:

To add another option; Samsung strips from digikey have the same physical diode as QB but more spacing flexibility than QB, well at least in terms of the 2 sizes of strip lengths available, and no of strips per area you want.

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I am going to do an F strip build soon to do a side-by-side grow and see how they compare.

Yoda bro settle down and understand that their are soo many different led lights available and alot of them have ir and uv chips. Cmh and hps can now easily be outlit for half the power used.

Chopntrvp said:

Yoda bro settle down and understand that their are soo many different led lights available and alot of them have ir and uv chips. Cmh and hps can now easily be outlit for half the power used.

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You show us the led that uses half the power of a 1000W HPS and has IR and UV output that will yield equal to the HPS and I'll by 2

Well im exaggerating the half amount of power but it's still alot less and your actually able to yield more because the led can be put much closer to the canopy. Hlg 550 quantum board with one or two full spectrum leds...

Chopntrvp said:

Well im exaggerating the half amount of power but it's still alot less and your actually able to yield more because the led can be put much closer to the canopy. Hlg 550 quantum board with one or two full spectrum leds...

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You are dreaming

How am I dreaming lol? Iv used many DE fixtures and found led to be far superior in the long run.. definitely more capital to begin with, but alot less running and maintenance costs...

6 x 100w full spectrum cob setup with a 550 hlg quantum board far out performs in the long run as far as $ used.. I don't wanna argue, I just find it hard to believe you still think DE bulbs are more efficient..

Yodaweed said:

You are dreaming

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I use half the power, easily... I start my LED PCB builds at around 120 watts and slowly raise them over 2 months, ending around 280 or so watts and it out grows my nanolux. That is my experience, that does not make it fact and I realize that. To me, HPS is garbage and anyone growing with them only does so because they don't know any better IMO.

It's simple, there is no question of "do led grow as good as HPS" it's a simple answer of "LED can grow almost 2x as good as HPS because if I used the same watts as HPS I'd literally be able to grow 2x as much as HPS." I can build a LED that is vert tight, uses lenses and really old tech to where the foot print is piss poor and the efficiency of the light is well under what a HPS can do... That being said I can also build a 200lm/w LED with an amazing footprint and use an actual HALF power consumption that of what we see the best HPS use.

Imagine 2 race cars, one uses 10 gallons of gas to finish a lap around a track at top speeds all the way, finishing in 5 min lets say... Then the second race car also runs the same course at the same top speeds and finishes at the same time... but uses 5 gallons of gas. What race car is better?

With growing we can't double our grow in the same space when it's already maximized, 4 pounds in a 4x8 with 2x 1000watt DE's... But if I could grow with half the watts, and do a whole other grow right next to my LED setup with lights being very close to the plants VS very far away like with HPS then that means I can stack grows. Once you stack a grow we see that in the same footprint LED can literally grow 2 times as much as HPS with the same watts, in the same area.

LED are imo 2x as good as HPS, if you have good LED... Oddly I can build the best LED in the world (or in that range) for almost nothing compared to buying crap led's... I can also build my LED's for right around HPS DE's costs but I lose heat issues, AC costs, bulb costs and half my energy costs.

A real side by side would be 2k of led VS 2k of HPS, and see what one grows more... LEDs win by almost 2x the volume of bud. Or we can use 1k LED watts vs 500 HPS watts and lolz at HPS for doing piss poor. The problem is we accept that LED is so much better than HPS that we allow LED to run a 50% disadvantage when comparing the 2 lights. Basically, if we raced the 2 cars but limited the gas allowed to just 5... one car would finish and the other would be sitting half way through the course, and that's where HPS is, sitting half way to the finish line.

Budies 101 said:

I use half the power, easily... I start my LED PCB builds at around 120 watts and slowly raise them over 2 months, ending around 280 or so watts and it out grows my nanolux. That is my experience, that does not make it fact and I realize that. To me, HPS is garbage and anyone growing with them only does so because they don't know any better IMO.

It's simple, there is no question of "do led grow as good as HPS" it's a simple answer of "LED can grow almost 2x as good as HPS because if I used the same watts as HPS I'd literally be able to grow 2x as much as HPS." I can build a LED that is vert tight, uses lenses and really old tech to where the foot print is piss poor and the efficiency of the light is well under what a HPS can do... That being said I can also build a 200lm/w LED with an amazing footprint and use an actual HALF power consumption that of what we see the best HPS use.

Imagine 2 race cars, one uses 10 gallons of gas to finish a lap around a track at top speeds all the way, finishing in 5 min lets say... Then the second race car also runs the same course at the same top speeds and finishes at the same time... but uses 5 gallons of gas. What race car is better?

With growing we can't double our grow in the same space when it's already maximized, 4 pounds in a 4x8 with 2x 1000watt DE's... But if I could grow with half the watts, and do a whole other grow right next to my LED setup with lights being very close to the plants VS very far away like with HPS then that means I can stack grows. Once you stack a grow we see that in the same footprint LED can literally grow 2 times as much as HPS with the same watts, in the same area.

LED are imo 2x as good as HPS, if you have good LED... Oddly I can build the best LED in the world (or in that range) for almost nothing compared to buying crap led's... I can also build my LED's for right around HPS DE's costs but I lose heat issues, AC costs, bulb costs and half my energy costs.

A real side by side would be 2k of led VS 2k of HPS, and see what one grows more... LEDs win by almost 2x the volume of bud. Or we can use 1k LED watts vs 500 HPS watts and lolz at HPS for doing piss poor. The problem is we accept that LED is so much better than HPS that we allow LED to run a 50% disadvantage when comparing the 2 lights. Basically, if we raced the 2 cars but limited the gas allowed to just 5... one car would finish and the other would be sitting half way through the course, and that's where HPS is, sitting half way to the finish line.

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Very well put

Chopntrvp said:

6 x 100w full spectrum cob setup with a 550 hlg quantum board far out performs in the long run as far as $ used.. I don't wanna argue, I just find it hard to believe you still think DE bulbs are more efficient..

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Confirmation bias is strong with Yodaweed. He doesn't want to believe that LED is superior, so he doesn't.

Not sure why but I can't like anyone's comments, my like button has disappeared lol

I would also like to point out the inherent increased fire risk of using HPS or MH bulbs over LED.

Next round I am running a 315 CMH in 3k and a 200 watt vero in 3500 and maybe a 135 watt quantum in 4k in one tent. Or the first two in a 4 x 4 and the last in a 20 x 36 " tent. If I can control the heat all bets are off.

The 315 CMH is great for trichs. Like GREAT. It grew the best bud I have ever grown but I like the no bulbs thing a lot. Hell I could run the 200 watts of vero and the quantum and it will equal the 315. I need to get a grow in to see if i will make the switch to a 320 watt quantum fixture for the 4 x 4 (with 200 watts of vero to cover the space better).

I love having a potentiometer or a means to dial the heat down so i can cover the space and get it right.