Good Morning,
For a bit of background I'm looking to setup a flowering section over a veg section. The footprint is 2x4' (.61x1.21m). The veg section is about 3' tall (.91m) and the flowering section would sit atop that in a 5' (1.52m) tall tent. Because of the height restrictions I'm going to be doing LST training and shorter grows to keep the plants shorter. I've also ordered twelve 48V 70W 560mm (1.83') quantum strips from Kingbrite (link) so I can keep the light source closer to the plants and still have uniform coverage. Six are 3000k and six are 4000k . These strips are in transit and I've got everything else needed, but I still haven't picked out drivers. I'd have to run them dimmed because that's a lot of wattage for that space, especially if ran close to the plants.
I thought some HLG series drivers seemed like the obvious choice, but then I learned about the XLG line which seems to be more versatile and cheaper.
I spent some time familiarizing myself with the constant current, constant voltage, and cc/cv features of the HLG series. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but it appears The XLG line works differently in that that they have a wide range of output voltage it can supply constant current in (27V-56V for the "H" models). There's one potentiometer on the underside and i've been told it adjusts "wattage", so both the current and voltage. The unit somehow senses the voltage needed. There's a lot of magic going on here and I can't find nearly as much stuff on it as the HLG series. Saving money is nice and having a more versatile driver is nice, but the HLG line has a longer warranty and beefier enclosure. I get the sense that you get what you pay for. I know it's newer tech, but there's gotta be a catch.
My current plan is to run 2x 240W drivers in the flowering space substantially dimmed. Three strips per driver. This looks to be the sweet spot for Cost per Watt and two drivers allow redundancy in case one needs to be serviced. If theres one driver and it craps out it could screw up my lighting schedules. If I had two I could just wire them all to one of them and run it full power and have 30W per square foot. If I go with the HLG line 2x 185H drivers would be a better fit, but if I had to fall back on one the light would be lacking.
I also have the veg tier to consider. Same premise, six strips, two drives. I don't know what wattage per square foot is ideal here, but I'm guessing 30W would be a good number. I might just do two more 240W drivers dimmed even lower and if a flowering one needed to be serviced I could take one from the veg section, run the remaining one veg driver at full power and get more acceptable wattage per square foot.
I've been overthinking this for probably weeks at this point. The lights will be here soon and I'll still haven't picked out the drivers at this rate. I'm hoping someone has used both drivers and has some anecdotal experience with them. Open to all recommendations and criticism.
For a bit of background I'm looking to setup a flowering section over a veg section. The footprint is 2x4' (.61x1.21m). The veg section is about 3' tall (.91m) and the flowering section would sit atop that in a 5' (1.52m) tall tent. Because of the height restrictions I'm going to be doing LST training and shorter grows to keep the plants shorter. I've also ordered twelve 48V 70W 560mm (1.83') quantum strips from Kingbrite (link) so I can keep the light source closer to the plants and still have uniform coverage. Six are 3000k and six are 4000k . These strips are in transit and I've got everything else needed, but I still haven't picked out drivers. I'd have to run them dimmed because that's a lot of wattage for that space, especially if ran close to the plants.
I thought some HLG series drivers seemed like the obvious choice, but then I learned about the XLG line which seems to be more versatile and cheaper.
| Model | Wattage | Cost (USD) | Cost Per Watt |
| HLG-600H-48AB | 600 | $ 183.00 | $ 0.31 |
| HLG-480H-48AB | 480 | $ 135.00 | $ 0.28 |
| HLG-320H-48AB | 320 | $ 85.50 | $ 0.27 |
| HLG-240H-48AB | 240 | $ 63.70 | $ 0.27 |
| HLG-185H-48AB | 185 | $ 51.50 | $ 0.28 |
| HLG-150H-48AB | 150 | $ 48.10 | $ 0.32 |
| HLG-120H-48AB | 120 | $ 47.50 | $ 0.40 |
| HLG-100H-48AB | 100 | $ 46.00 | $ 0.46 |
| HLG-80H-48AB | 80 | $ 38.00 | $ 0.48 |
| HLG-60H-48AB | 60 | $ 32.50 | $ 0.54 |
| HLG-40H-48AB | 40 | $ 31.40 | $ 0.79 |
| XLG-240-H-AB | 240 | $ 41.80 | $ 0.17 |
| XLG-200-H-AB | 200 | $ 39.90 | $ 0.20 |
| XLG-150-H-AB | 150 | $ 33.30 | $ 0.22 |
| XLG-100-H-AB | 100 | $ 30.40 | $ 0.30 |
| XLG-75-H-AB | 75 | $ 27.60 | $ 0.37 |
| XLG-50-AB | 50 | $ 22.80 | $ 0.46 |
| XLG-25-AB | 25 | $ 21.90 | $ 0.88 |
I spent some time familiarizing myself with the constant current, constant voltage, and cc/cv features of the HLG series. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but it appears The XLG line works differently in that that they have a wide range of output voltage it can supply constant current in (27V-56V for the "H" models). There's one potentiometer on the underside and i've been told it adjusts "wattage", so both the current and voltage. The unit somehow senses the voltage needed. There's a lot of magic going on here and I can't find nearly as much stuff on it as the HLG series. Saving money is nice and having a more versatile driver is nice, but the HLG line has a longer warranty and beefier enclosure. I get the sense that you get what you pay for. I know it's newer tech, but there's gotta be a catch.
My current plan is to run 2x 240W drivers in the flowering space substantially dimmed. Three strips per driver. This looks to be the sweet spot for Cost per Watt and two drivers allow redundancy in case one needs to be serviced. If theres one driver and it craps out it could screw up my lighting schedules. If I had two I could just wire them all to one of them and run it full power and have 30W per square foot. If I go with the HLG line 2x 185H drivers would be a better fit, but if I had to fall back on one the light would be lacking.
I also have the veg tier to consider. Same premise, six strips, two drives. I don't know what wattage per square foot is ideal here, but I'm guessing 30W would be a good number. I might just do two more 240W drivers dimmed even lower and if a flowering one needed to be serviced I could take one from the veg section, run the remaining one veg driver at full power and get more acceptable wattage per square foot.
I've been overthinking this for probably weeks at this point. The lights will be here soon and I'll still haven't picked out the drivers at this rate. I'm hoping someone has used both drivers and has some anecdotal experience with them. Open to all recommendations and criticism.
