2 drivers or 1

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pan2707

Well-Known Member
hi, got four 288 quantum boards i want to run in a 2x4 veg tent, i only want to run them at 60w each board.
should i run them all off 1 meanwell 240h-48 or 2 meanwell 240h-48 and dim them.
have 2 of the drivers spare so whichever is more efficient will go with.
 
TEKNIK

TEKNIK

Well-Known Member
Driving your boards at lower current increases the efficiency at the board that is true. But at the same time if you are dimming a driver to do this it offsets the efficiency at the board as the driver becomes less efficient. I will try and make a video to explain this when I can as I don't think alot of people realise how it works and they have no way of testing it correctly.
 
61falcon

61falcon

Well-Known Member
TEKNIK said:
Driving your boards at lower current increases the efficiency at the board that is true. But at the same time if you are dimming a driver to do this it offsets the efficiency at the board as the driver becomes less efficient. I will try and make a video to explain this when I can as I don't think alot of people realise how it works and they have no way of testing it correctly.
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So are you saying in theory that you will get higher PPFD running 4X boards on 1x 240 driver than running 2 boards each on 2x 240 drivers dimmed to 120 watt each driver?
 
WeedSexWeightsShakes

WeedSexWeightsShakes

Well-Known Member
If you look at charts of hlg drivers they are more efficient maxed.
There are 2 efficiencies, that I know of, at play. Board efficiency and driver efficiency.
It looks like most drivers at 80% run somewhere around 90%. While at 100% they are anywhere from 93-96% based on what driver.
 
DesertPlants

DesertPlants

Well-Known Member
The cooler the diode, the more efficient it is. That goes with all things electric. I would go with two drivers at full power. You won’t have the efficiency loss of dimming and you can have two different canopy heights in case you run more than one strain at a time.
 
TEKNIK

TEKNIK

Well-Known Member
61falcon said:
So are you saying in theory that you will get higher PPFD running 4X boards on 1x 240 driver than running 2 boards each on 2x 240 drivers dimmed to 120 watt each driver?
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Not in theory in reality, you will get higher overall efficiency.
 
TEKNIK

TEKNIK

Well-Known Member
How many watts do you want to use in total is what it comes down to. Also if you have the leds spaced correctly then why do you want separate drivers for them all?
 
61falcon

61falcon

Well-Known Member
TEKNIK said:
How many watts do you want to use in total is what it comes down to. Also if you have the leds spaced correctly then why do you want separate drivers for them all?
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For the flexibility to use from propergation to flower. I could run just 1 for propergation 2-3 for veg & 4 for flower. I would be using a light meter to get the correct ppfd for each stage. On just say 1 driver with 4 qb96’s in parallel on a 320h-54a I wouldn’t be able to dim it enough with 4 lights to get 100ppfd/7000lux
 
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TEKNIK

TEKNIK

Well-Known Member
I would by something with a dual spectrum if you are going to to something that needs to be that versatile, you should use alot more blue to veg.
 
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