Chemist77 315 watt CDL grow

[a senile fungus]

I'll be using a couple CMH for flowering here pretty soon guys so I'll be able to weigh in a little bit more.

IIRC Philips said that the pressures within the structure of the bulb were too high and that's why they safely cannot go over 315w, at least for now.

 

[ttystikk]

do you think they will make a higher square wave ballast for the 860 watt bulbs any time soon? why would a higher watt ballast/bulb make it unstable? i think it would be nice to have the 860 pushing 30% more light per watt, that bulb would easily cover my 4x6 table and much easier to have 1 lamp than 3..id want one if i had not already paid for the smaller 315's..

do you think the 860 cmh is comparable to a 1k hps? 5x5 coverage at 2ft from bulb?
personally i think the 2 315's may have given my 2 600 hps's a run for the money had i vegged longer and had a bigger root structure..im sure the 3 315's will produce just as well if not better than the 2 600's and with 215 less watts..

They tried and the company making the ballasts went out of business- high failure rate on the lamps. @a senile fungus hit it in the head as to why.

I think the 860W CDM lamp is comparable to about 86% of an HPS lamp run on a magnetic ballast. Quality is clearly better, though. BTW, this also implies that higher CRI doesn't necessarily translate into higher yields, though it does improve quality. Finally, it's better than MH because it doesn't impose a yield penalty in return for that improved quality.

 

[TheChemist77]

just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on digital,digital dimmable and magnetic ballsts for hps/mh? i have all, im not a fan of the dimmable as using that feature lowers bulb life..i like that the digitals run both hps/mh bulbs but i find the fans for cooling are always going out, however i use the digitals most of the time..as for magnetic, they are my favorite especially the ones with a switch to run both hps and mh, yes a lttle bigger, a little buzzing sound, but air cooled so no issues and they last forever..i have a couple in the garage i keep incase the digitals go out. they have been kicked around, wet, etc.. ive had them since the 90's and they always fire up and work to my amazment..i cant tell you why i even bought the digitals and dig dimmables, maybe just because i always like to try the new or newer products..also as far as yield under dif ballasts,, my best yields wer under the old magnetics, but there could be many factors as to why,strains,grow type,etc that have notghing to do with the ballast i was using...anyways just my personal opinion,, whats your thoughts?

 

[ttystikk]

just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on digital,digital dimmable and magnetic ballsts for hps/mh? i have all, im not a fan of the dimmable as using that feature lowers bulb life..i like that the digitals run both hps/mh bulbs but i find the fans for cooling are always going out, however i use the digitals most of the time..as for magnetic, they are my favorite especially the ones with a switch to run both hps and mh, yes a lttle bigger, a little buzzing sound, but air cooled so no issues and they last forever..i have a couple in the garage i keep incase the digitals go out. they have been kicked around, wet, etc.. ive had them since the 90's and they always fire up and work to my amazment..i cant tell you why i even bought the digitals and dig dimmables, maybe just because i always like to try the new or newer products..also as far as yield under dif ballasts,, my best yields wer under the old magnetics, but there could be many factors as to why,strains,grow type,etc that have notghing to do with the ballast i was using...anyways just my personal opinion,, whats your thoughts?

Magnetic is reliable, but inefficient. That's a deadly flaw. HPS on digital is powerful, but there are now more efficient options that can match the power- with much better spectrum. As you've probably seen from postings elsewhere, I'm a big fan of broad spectrum lighting. I'm over the need to buy bulbs all the Damn time, too.

In short, I'm predicting the death of HID lighting within 5 years as knowledge of the benefits and cost of COB LED continue to propagate through their respective industries.

Now- save your money and get to clickin' on over to the LED lighting section of this fine forum and start studying up on DIY COB LED fixtures.

If you don't feel up to the task of building some yourself, commercially produced options featuring Vero 29, CXA3070 and even some CXB3590 are coming on the market. The meme (typo, but I gotta leave it in!) brand units are expensive but they'll last as long as their drivers if you get one with a decent quality chip (i.e. one from the short list above), which could be decades.

 

[TheChemist77]

Magnetic is reliable, but inefficient. That's a deadly flaw. HPS on digital is powerful, but there are now more efficient options that can match the power- with much better spectrum. As you've probably seen from postings elsewhere, I'm a big fan of broad spectrum lighting. I'm over the need to buy bulbs all the Damn time, too.

In short, I'm predicting the death of HID lighting within 5 years as knowledge of the benefits and cost of COB LED continue to propagate through their respective industries.

Now- save your money and get to clickin' on over to the LED lighting section of this fine forum and start studying up on DIY COB LED fixtures.

If you don't feel up to the task of building some yourself, commercially produced options featuring Vero 29, CXA3070 and even some CXB3590 are coming on the market. The meme (typo, but I gotta leave it in!) brand units are expensive but they'll last as long as their drivers if you get one with a decent quality chip (i.e. one from the short list above), which could be decades.

led may be the future, however in my opinion as of now led is a waste of cash if you can NOT build your own.. a brand new good led bought today will be looked at as garbage in 2-3 years,, as they are always improving..pluss the very high up front cost of buying a good one to me just isnt worth the investment wile hps/mh/cmh's all produce quality yields of dank..DIY is deffinatly the golden ticket for led tech wright now,,and im unfortunatly NOT inclined.. not to mention there are alot of led's that are complete garbage and to those of us who dont know any better buy and throw away the money as a loss..PLEASE DONT GET ME WRONG! im very interested in led tech and i do believe in some years they will be the indoor lamp of choice,, but thats years away for the up front costs to come down, and the spectrum to be perfected..
i lost a bunch of money some years back buying the 1 watt diode panels, thought that spending $800.00,, it must be great!! i was dead wrong, that thing was complete garbage and i couldnt give it away in good concience. it was bad in veg and even worse in flower, even using it to supliment my hps was a waste of wattage.. so in conclusion you must really know what your paying for, if your like me and just going by what you hear is good,,stay away!! to go with led you had better know how they work,whats going in them, par,ppfd, coverage, and spectrum...led is either build your own, or buy at risk!! only my personal opinion,, once prices come down and im assured its not going to be an antique shortly after purchace,, i will definatly be buying one...

 

[ttystikk]

led may be the future, however in my opinion as of now led is a waste of cash if you can NOT build your own.. a brand new good led bought today will be looked at as garbage in 2-3 years,, as they are always improving..pluss the very high up front cost of buying a good one to me just isnt worth the investment wile hps/mh/cmh's all produce quality yields of dank..DIY is deffinatly the golden ticket for led tech wright now,,and im unfortunatly NOT inclined.. not to mention there are alot of led's that are complete garbage and to those of us who dont know any better buy and throw away the money as a loss..PLEASE DONT GET ME WRONG! im very interested in led tech and i do believe in some years they will be the indoor lamp of choice,, but thats years away for the up front costs to come down, and the spectrum to be perfected..
i lost a bunch of money some years back buying the 1 watt diode panels, thought that spending $800.00,, it must be great!! i was dead wrong, that thing was complete garbage and i couldnt give it away in good concience. it was bad in veg and even worse in flower, even using it to supliment my hps was a waste of wattage.. so in conclusion you must really know what your paying for, if your like me and just going by what you hear is good,,stay away!! to go with led you had better know how they work,whats going in them, par,ppfd, coverage, and spectrum...led is either build your own, or buy at risk!! only my personal opinion,, once prices come down and im assured its not going to be an antique shortly after purchace,, i will definatly be buying one...

I wouldn't be saying what I said without some good supporting data. I've seen unbiased people run great grows with the new chips- something I never saw from the old blurple shit. I've seen specifications and comparisons and all that. I did my own investigating and I'm convinced enough to drop ten grand on a custom built COB LED array using CXB3590 chips. We will do some serious head to head testing and see what grows out of it.

You DID ask me what I thought, and I told you. I guess the next five years will prove which of us is right. Betting against me is risky business... LOL

 

[TheChemist77]

I wouldn't be saying what I said without some good supporting data. I've seen unbiased people run great grows with the new chips- something I never saw from the old blurple shit. I've seen specifications and comparisons and all that. I did my own investigating and I'm convinced enough to drop ten grand on a custom built COB LED array using CXB3590 chips. We will do some serious head to head testing and see what grows out of it.

You DID ask me what I thought, and I told you. I guess the next five years will prove which of us is right. Betting against me is risky business... LOL

i know,, you know your shit! 10 grand,,,wow,,wish i had that knid of cash..unfortunatly growing legally as a care giver, im lucky to make a profit..had i been good with money, id be sitting on a pretty nice pile from back in the 90's and early 2000's wen i was growing illegally, back then i was getting 400 an ounce, was single and lived like a king..i traveled, took weekends to vegas, amsterdam,mexico,cali,etc.. the money spent as fast as i made it..those wer the days! but i settled down,got married, have a son, and went legal because i love growing but didnt want my family in danger..if for some reason i got divorced, id jump wright back into it, move back to chicago and have lots of fun,id make lots of cash and spend it just as fast,,, but id be miserable.. ive come to enjoy living in the middle of nowere,fishing,hunting,4 wheeling,no traffic,no hussle and bussle of the city..i miss my friends that i talk to ocasionally, but most of them are married now too. i guess the past is the past, as with all of us the good times,and crazy shit is behind me..every few years a few buds come up here to go deer hunting, and hit the bar,, funny how we always reminice on the same stupid shit we used to do, fighting,fucking,drinking,laughing,drugs,im sure you know how it is...the week turns into 1 long drunken, hazy,night..but my stomach hurts for days from all the laughter, about as long as the headache and hang over.lol. i guess i went off subject? oh well, ever want to go hunting your welcome to stay here...were was i?? oh yah LED's!!!!lol

 

[ttystikk]

i know,, you know your shit! 10 grand,,,wow,,wish i had that knid of cash..unfortunatly growing legally as a care giver, im lucky to make a profit..had i been good with money, id be sitting on a pretty nice pile from back in the 90's and early 2000's wen i was growing illegally, back then i was getting 400 an ounce, was single and lived like a king..i traveled, took weekends to vegas, amsterdam,mexico,cali,etc.. the money spent as fast as i made it..those wer the days! but i settled down,got married, have a son, and went legal because i love growing but didnt want my family in danger..if for some reason i got divorced, id jump wright back into it, move back to chicago and have lots of fun,id make lots of cash and spend it just as fast,,, but id be miserable.. ive come to enjoy living in the middle of nowere,fishing,hunting,4 wheeling,no traffic,no hussle and bussle of the city..i miss my friends that i talk to ocasionally, but most of them are married now too. i guess the past is the past, as with all of us the good times,and crazy shit is behind me..every few years a few buds come up here to go deer hunting, and hit the bar,, funny how we always reminice on the same stupid shit we used to do, fighting,fucking,drinking,laughing,drugs,im sure you know how it is...the week turns into 1 long drunken, hazy,night..but my stomach hurts for days from all the laughter, about as long as the headache and hang over.lol. i guess i went off subject? oh well, ever want to go hunting your welcome to stay here...were was i?? oh yah LED's!!!!lol

Great ramble! Love it and you never know, I'm prone to taking people up on offers to visit.

To be crystal clear, so nobody gets the wrong idea, I'm running a growing technology laboratory and equipment testbed facility. I'm allllllll legal, tax ID and everything, and I'll be doing basic research on the utility and efficacy of large COB LED arrays in commercial settings. This is the next logical step from similar research conducted using various HID options. The lab itself also has all the necessary certifications to carry out my work without interference from law enforcement. In fact, they've already seen it.

If and when it makes sense to advertise my shit to the general public, RIU will be on the short list of those to contact first. Until then, no company names, no conversations about prices, I'm soooooo not ready to take orders and ship product! I'm still trying to figure out if and how well the shit actually WORKS first!

 

[TheChemist77]

i like it,, i wish more lights would be performance tested by growers before being sold and told " they are the best!"...hope all goes well, it would be nice to buy a lamp and know you wont have to upgrade or replace anytime in the near or rellitivly distant future...

can say im really pleased with the cmh so far,,if it lives up to being interchangable with a 600 watt hps remains to be seen, but i would say if choosing between a 400 watt hps/mh or 315 cmh,, id go with the 315 any day of the week!!!

 

[ttystikk]

i like it,, i wish more lights would be performance tested by growers before being sold and told " they are the best!"...hope all goes well, it would be nice to buy a lamp and know you wont have to upgrade or replace anytime in the near or rellitivly distant future...

can say im really pleased with the cmh so far,,if it lives up to being interchangable with a 600 watt hps remains to be seen, but i would say if choosing between a 400 watt hps/mh or 315 cmh,, id go with the 315 any day of the week!!!

From what I've seen so far, I think that three 315W LEC lights would be roughly equivalent to two 600W HPS lamps. That's better spectrum and 25% more output. Nice!

 

[TheChemist77]

No, I have the Sun Systems 315w LEC, the main thing is the bulb is the same, that's what makes these things rock, regardless of what they call it. It's the 315w Philips Elite Agro CMH bulb that makes the magic happen, nice haul!

can you post a pic of your grow under the cmh lamps? did you ever run a comparison against hps? if so what wer your results?

 

[TheChemist77]

From what I've seen so far, I think that three 315W LEC lights would be roughly equivalent to two 600W HPS lamps. That's better spectrum and 25% more output. Nice!

im in agreement at this time,, im fairly confident this next run will easily get 1200 grams under 945 watts cmh...
i also believe had i vegged longer and had covered the table with just the 2 lamps id had yielded at least 100 grams more than i did,, if so it would have put 630 watts cmh damn near a 1k hps..maybe i should redo the first run with 2 315 watt cmh's with a longer veg and covered table,,,but not till after the next 3 tests runs,,we will see how it goes...

 

[GroErr]

can you post a pic of your grow under the cmh lamps? did you ever run a comparison against hps? if so what wer your results?

I post regularly in my thread (sig), here's a shot of my current grow. I'm typically running 2 of the 315's offset by 3-4 weeks perpetual. I haven't run hps indoor, when I went indoor I decided to use more efficient tech, I run some LED COBs in a small 2x2 tent as well mainly for breeding projects. My son's been running hps for a few years so I have a reference there. imo these are somewhere between a 400 and 600. Cheers.

 

[TheChemist77]

I post regularly in my thread (sig), here's a shot of my current grow. I'm typically running 2 of the 315's offset by 3-4 weeks perpetual. I haven't run hps indoor, when I went indoor I decided to use more efficient tech, I run some LED COBs in a small 2x2 tent as well mainly for breeding projects. My son's been running hps for a few years so I have a reference there. imo these are somewhere between a 400 and 600. Cheers.

View attachment 3520363

what strain are you running? also whats the best yielding strain youve run that is not just a producer but great medicine too?

just bought more seeds, budzilla,incredible bulk,violletta,spliffs blueberry,black skulls five 0 and finally was able to find nirvanas misty.. i bought 20 regular misty seeds, it was an all time fav of mine back in the late 90's to mid 2000's. my best yielding,dank was nigeria shiva,,cant find it anymore,,lost her back in 99 after running her for 4 years..

 

[GroErr]

what strain are you running? also whats the best yielding strain youve run that is not just a producer but great medicine too?

just bought more seeds, budzilla,incredible bulk,violletta,spliffs blueberry,black skulls five 0 and finally was able to find nirvanas misty.. i bought 20 regular misty seeds, it was an all time fav of mine back in the late 90's to mid 2000's. my best yielding,dank was nigeria shiva,,cant find it anymore,,lost her back in 99 after running her for 4 years..

I've been working on a couple of DIY strains so a lot of pheno hunts on the go, the one cross is my best quality and producer in one. On average I have various (7) strains going and cycle them for meds with different purposes. Right now in the above pic I have Jack The Ripper, Blue Pyramid, and 3x phenos of a DIY cross of Jack The Ripper x Blueberry I call Blue Ripper. On deck I have some Harlequin (CBD), Blue Dream, JTR, various clones/phenos of this DIY Blue Ripper, a few F2 seedlings of another DIY strain which is a cross of PPP x Blueberry.

The biggest producers in the current line up are the Blue Dream (HSO), the original Blue Ripper winner pheno that started my breeding project, and one pheno of the PPP x Blueberry DIY cross. All 3 can produce ~1 oz. per gallon of medium with some training. As far as quality meds, considering punch/flavour/effects I'd put the Blue Dream at the low end of an average quality strain that produces well, good taste & smell but not enough punch for my liking. The Blue Ripper cross is fire, like JTR in the mid twenties for THC, a nice fruit/hashy flavour, real crowd pleaser for those with high tolerance, it gets you shit-faced and smells/tastes good. I have F2's to hunt through for a very nice pheno of that PPP x Blueberry which produced in that 1 oz./gallon range and was also fire but produced more of a body stone.

Have some new seedlings coming up as well, will likely replace the Blue Dream now that I have a better quality producer in the Blue Ripper. Trying some Fire OG and just popped 5x Fireballs which I've been wanting to try for a while, neither expected to be huge producers, just hunting for a quality pheno form each of these.

 

[TheChemist77]

Veg. closet completed!! Flower table thirty plants receiving 18/6 light sched. until they are taller.
Closet completely light proof from flower room. Turned out very well.
3 315 watt CDLs = 945 watts total for this run.

Hope you guys like it. Any comments or feedback welcome! These are the best pics i could get since im not great with tech!

 

[TheChemist77]

 

[TheChemist77]

 

[TheChemist77]

 

[GroErr]

Looking good @TheChemist77. How large is that area you're covering with the 3x 315w CDL's? I cover up to 3.5' x 7', typically 3ft. H with 2x 315w Sun Systems LEC's. Best yield so far has come from a single 315w covering 3.5' x 3.5' x 3ft H