T5s to QBs..

[Ryante55]

Are strips better than the latest qbs?

Depends what strips your referring to the new boards use lm301b diodes if the strips use lm301b it might be the same as a quantum board. That being said I think hlg gets all the highest bin diodes so the hlg would still win by a couple percent.

 

[wietefras]

What would make you say that? I'm pretty sure he was referring to the lm561c strips which are not as effecient.

Price and uniformity.

100W to 130W boards give you very poor light uniformity. 25W or 50W 2 foot strips or 100W 4 foot strips are much better. Even 50W or 25W COBs are (much) better at uniformity than boards.

It's actually even worse with these kits because they are two boards lumped together. So you get 260W on a footprint that's way too small for that much light.

Result is that you need to hang boards way too high. Twice (and more) as high as a strip fixture. That means you double wall losses and that actually matters a lot. Much more than the tiny increase in efficiency of LMB301 over LM516C

Strips are also available with the new SMDs. Trouble with these new SMDs is that they are more expensive and in the end you can buy more LM561C's for the same amount, run them softer and then end up with a higher efficiency anyway.

 

[eLite_gRowr]

I'd be putting in about 500-550W of the most efficient setup I could find and running it 24/0.

With 512W at 50% efficiency, you'd be getting 8W/sqft of PAR. You'd need around 1024W of T5 to get that same 8W/sqft of PAR.

Just curious how many watts of T5 you're using now, and how long you run them for each day? Also, how tall do you veg your plants to?

I'm running 2-8 bulb fixtures with powerveg bulbs in at 24/0 in there now. normal runs they're in there MAX 4 weeks from clone.

 

[eLite_gRowr]

BS!!!
A 4ft double row F-strips is ~55$ incl. VAT und deliver 103w with 168lm/w(3k, 171lm/w with 3500k). That's >17.000lm's and ~2,4μMol/j!
You could run it at 150w and still get 160lm/w(2,25μMol/j) or ~24.000lm's from only one DR F strip!

https://www.digikey.de/products/de?keywords=SI-B8UZ91B20WW

@eLite_gRowr

3 double row F strips per 4x 4' on an HLG-240H-48A would be ~260w net., 280w at the wall and should be more than enough to veg anything you want.
Each strip would run at only 87w, so you can expect ~176lm/w(2,48μMol/j) when you take the 3500°k strips and because there is a current poti on the driver you can dimm the light down to 50% for early stages.

For your 4x 8' you would need 6 strips(330$, digikey) and 2 HLG-240H-48A(130$, mousser) and of course a frame made from alu "L"- and "C"-channels, to mount and hang the strips to the ceiling.(another 100$)
~ 560$ for ~560w is 1$/w which is not bad!
At least 90.000lm or 1.282μMol/s PPF means Ø~435μMol/s/m² PPFD above your ~3m² area.
Enough for tomatoes for instance and I'm pretty sure it's enough to veg trees or whatever you put below it...
You could also use only 2 DR strips per driver or 4 single row strips. Each strip would be run at 120-130w(60-65w for the single rows), but you'll still get ~165lm/w or 2,3μMol/j.

THIS could definitely be an option, I do like building shit lol

 

[OneHitDone]

I'm running 2-8 bulb fixtures with powerveg bulbs in at 24/0 in there now. normal runs they're in there MAX 4 weeks from clone.

How do you like the power veg lamps?

 

[eLite_gRowr]

How do you like the power veg lamps?

I kinda fell that they burned out quicker than a normal 54w bulb, and are more money. Besides that, I really dont have anything bad to say. I'm not very good on efficiency, pretty much the reason I wanna hop into leds.

 

[OneHitDone]

I kinda fell that they burned out quicker than a normal 54w bulb, and are more money. Besides that, I really dont have anything bad to say. I'm not very good on efficiency, pretty much the reason I wanna hop into leds.

Cut your light cycle back 6 hours in veg and you could save some power for free

 

[churchhaze]

Cut your light cycle back 6 hours in veg and you could save some power for free

Then you'd need a more powerful lamp to get the same DLI. It'd end up costing more money.

 

[OneHitDone]

Then you'd need a more powerful lamp to get the same DLI. It'd end up costing more money.

If you don't think an 8 bulb T5 on a 18 hour cycle over a 4x4 for veg is enough light you've cooked your brain

 

[churchhaze]

If you don't think an 8 bulb T5 on a 18 hour cycle over a 4x4 for veg is enough light you've cooked your brain

If that's the case, why not use 6 tubes at 24/0 instead of 8? He's talking about getting LEDs. He'd need less of whatever he's buying if he ran 24/0. Going 18/6 means spending more money on a lamp.

 

[Ryante55]

Price and uniformity.

100W to 130W boards give you very poor light uniformity. 25W or 50W 2 foot strips or 100W 4 foot strips are much better. Even 50W or 25W COBs are (much) better at uniformity than boards.

It's actually even worse with these kits because they are two boards lumped together. So you get 260W on a footprint that's way too small for that much light.

Result is that you need to hang boards way too high. Twice (and more) as high as a strip fixture. That means you double wall losses and that actually matters a lot. Much more than the tiny increase in efficiency of LMB301 over LM516C

Strips are also available with the new SMDs. Trouble with these new SMDs is that they are more expensive and in the end you can buy more LM561C's for the same amount, run them softer and then end up with a higher efficiency anyway.

I was wasn't aware he was asking about uniformity or the cheapest option I thought he was asking what's better performance.

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

my veg "tent" is 2.5 X 5, i've got a 4 foot 8 bulb t5, and i've only got 6 bulbs in it. seems to be more than adequate for this area, and i get these results at 18/6

 

[OneHitDone]

my veg "tent" is 2.5 X 5, i've got a 4 foot 8 bulb t5, and i've only got 6 bulbs in it. seems to be more than adequate for this area, and i get these results at 18/6View attachment 4147870

Those babies look Full Spectrum Healthy to me

What really boggles my mind is those who go so far as use No-Till looking for a complete mineral nutrition in the root zone but yet run narrow / incomplete / spectrum deficient led's

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

i've got 4 6500K bulbs, 2 on each side, and 2 3000K in the middle, with room for 2 more of whatever i want to put in there. just using Vivosun, not high quality but better than generic bulbs from the hardware store. i'd invest some more if i was going to use it to flower.

 

[nfhiggs]

Depends what strips your referring to the new boards use lm301b diodes if the strips use lm301b it might be the same as a quantum board. That being said I think hlg gets all the highest bin diodes so the hlg would still win by a couple percent.

You think Samsung doesn't put the top bin diodes on their own product?

 

[Ryante55]

You think Samsung doesn't put the top bin diodes on their own product?

Probably not you don't need top bin to light an office...also Samsung makes the new QB and they put the top bin in that so I guess you are right on accident.

 

[nfhiggs]

Probably not you don't need top bin to light an office...

Not necessarily true - a smart building manager is going to shop for the most cost efficient lighting.

also Samsung makes the new QB and they put the top bin in that so I guess you are right on accident.

Wouldn't be very smart to sell the competition your top bins and not reserve them (or at least a portion of them) for your own product. I don't think Samsung is that dumb.

The Samsung Engine calculator bears this out.

 

[eLite_gRowr]

Loving the discussion so far, we got ppl for led, strip led and t5. Exactly what I wanted, love hearing everybody's honest opinion and experiences! Thank u fellas

 

[OneHitDone]

Loving the discussion so far, we got ppl for led, strip led and t5. Exactly what I wanted, love hearing everybody's honest opinion and experiences! Thank u fellas

How about let's see some pics of plants vegging under the various light sources??

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

How about let's see some pics of plants vegging under the various light sources??

look up, i got t5 covered. those are from 10 days to...5 1/2 weeks...maybe 6. the big GG4 on the left could have went into the flower room last week, but i'm waiting on a stubborn plant to ripen up, so it's in a holding pattern for now.