but that doesnt tell the whole tale. basically with one exception that list is almost entirely ranked by chip size (flagship chips by any manufacturer are more expensive per unit cost, just like buying the latest and greatest hard drive vs say the second size down -ok maybe im dating myself. iphone 8 vs iphone 7 or whatever... think of it as 3590 vs 3070, or 3618 vs 1212, etc)
to level the playing field lets add $5 in holders and reflectors to each cob:
lets assume youre a passive pinfin guy, add $20 per cob :
different story now, huh? and if your head is already spinning lets look at some other factors we havent considered:
-at a given efficiency, smaller chips like a 1212 are running at lower wattage than say a larger chip like an 1825. So in a build out of similar total wattage, the smaller chips could use smaller heatsinks, say $10 heatsinks instead of $20 heatsinks, which would skew the curve above
-does not factor in labor to install, mount, and wire more, smaller COBs (again, fundamental to our argument of why COBs beat individual diodes
-in large buildouts, you may get a better deal on 100pc of smaller chips vs 10 pc of larger chips which would skew the economics
-in an array of many smaller chips vs fewer larger chips, one may elect to use or not use optics accordingly, again skewing the economics of a given build
-in the zoomed in charts above we are snobs looking at the 60-70% efficiency range. What about the average joe who is on a budget, doesnt have heat issues, and just wants to get better coverage, better spectrum, reduced maintenance, and a little efficiency bump over his current SE HPS. That guy could be totally happy with a 45% efficient rig, but move on down the chart and we see a whole different set of variables. Suddenly, the chips that were the best value at 70% efficiency arent the leaders at 45% efficiency. And the difference in cost effectiveness from top to bottom is now not a factor of two but a factor of 3.5 between the best and worst chips.
etc etc. many many factors. I guess the takeaway is know your operating range, and choose wisely because across the board at any efficiency, the most cost effective chip is getting you 2-3.5X the light per dollar of the ones at the bottom