I get it man, nothing like working the kinks out as you go. Well I'll be following along, waiting for the big unveil so to speak. Can't wait to see what you can do with the new setup.
So far, here's what we've got;
The modules; I had them made to my own specs, but the COBs and driver are completely standard fare; 4 x CXB3590 3500K CD bin 72V on a Meanwell HLG-185H-C700B. They run at 224W apiece with the dimming leads capped off, for 54W per COB and a whole 8W lost to driver inefficiency.
Depending on who's running the numbers, the combo is good for 56% efficiency and between 811 and 824PPfD delivered to 6 sq ft. I designed my modules to each light a 2x3' area as evenly as possible, so four of them will fit nicely together on my 4' x 6' trellis panels.
The Rack; Twenty four of these modules have been thusly arranged on a large rack stand bolted to the ceiling to light six trellis panels, three on each side. That makes the rack ten feet long and effectively floor to ceiling.
Work is continuing on getting the power situation sorted out, which brings me to a question for someone who knows his Meanwell COB drivers pretty well; I've heard about inrush current on initial startup being a problem, and that problem is magnified in large arrays to the point where it can trip circuit breakers that would ordinarily hold the load. How do I quantify this phenomenon so I can build the electrical service to handle it?
@churchhaze @REALSTYLES , a lil help here?
Without knowing the limits, I've so far simply gone the route of overkill; 60A breaker on heavy gauge service wire to the rack! This for only 5400W, or 22.5A@240V!
Anyone need to light a small town?
The RDWC; each leafy lady gets to dip her roots in a 27 gallon tuffbox, all connected together and to the control bucket with one inch lines and simple irrigation fittings. A copper heat exchange coil passes cold water through the control bucket, where a pump sits and pushes water through a manifold that delivers water to each tubsite right by the netpot. The resulting waterfall aerates and mixes the nutrient solution, doing away with air pumps, lines and stones altogether! Six tubs typically hold up to 100 gallons of nutrient solution, which is topped up as needed and changed halfway through.
A lot of this stuff has been running for some time now. For example, I designed and built this RDWC system several years ago.
A big visual change is that I used to run curved trellis panels in order to best control the distance between HID lamp and leaf. That turned out not to be a good idea, and in any case the upgrade to COB LED rendered the technique obsolete. So goes the Super Silo, may it rust into pieces... Now, the two rows of plants on flat panels look just like a hallway with really killer wall art! The upside is that I might finally be able to take a decent picture of it, lol!
The Chilling System; I'm upgrading to a 5 Ton chiller with hot gas recovery. This unit will provide both cold and hot water to my home and op. The cold water will service the heat exchange coil in the control bucket I mentioned, as well as the water cooled air handlers. These both cool the air and remove moisture by condensation. The hot water will provide dry heat for dehumidification, home heating, domestic hot water, garage heat, hot tub heat, a driveway ice melting system when it gets repoured, and who knows what else? Lol Hey, it's MY heat; I've already paid for it AND paid again to remove it from my grow, so it only makes sense that I get to do what I want with it! If all those things sound like great money savers, you are definitely paying attention.
There's much, much more to this whole hot mess, but that's the overview. Y'all have been caught up!
Feel free to heckle but bring your A game; everything is the way it is for good reasons, so it will take better ones for me to make changes. Frankly, that's meant more as an invitation for discussion and constructive debate than a challenge to a pissing contest. I'm all about implementing the best ideas and I give few fucks about where or who they came from.