60w Led Lights As Supplimenta Lighting

Randomblame said:

If the bulbs really take 20-30 watts it should be more than enough light for good growth and you should miss nothing.
Many have used 6500k CFL's or MH for vegging I see no reason why it should not work with LED too. Results should be nice and bushy with short stagged nodes, beefy leaves, a thick stem and lots of thick branches. Just the way we like it.

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I think they are around 25W actual draw..

These are listed as 25W, same brand and design as the 30W'ers, and seems like 3 draw 60-66W or 1 draws 20-23W, curious though how it drops over time???

3 x 25w..


Startup..


7min later..

The droop is because of the rising case temps. The diodes inside such bulbs run usually near the upper limits, especially the higher powered ones in plasic housings. Usually the drivers break down first because of the high case temps inside these bulbs.

I've modded a 24w bulb for my living room and changed the 12 warmwhite 3w EpiLED diodes(~19,5w, Tcase ~75-80°C!) against a Cree CXB1512/3k/CRI93. The driver inside has 48v with no load and 460mA, means the CXB run with ~16,5w now. Temps are much lower now(45°C, cool enough to touch it) and the bulb is much brighter now with good looking colors. The warmwhite 3w diodes have had a greenish yellow most probably not even CRI70. But I had to make a round alu base plate for the COB, which I had to glue (thermal glue) to the contact surfaces of the heatsink and they were not as cheap as yours, so do not take that as a suggestion to do the same.

Randomblame said:

The droop is because of the rising case temps. The diodes inside such bulbs run usually near the upper limits, especially the higher powered ones in plasic housings. Usually the drivers break down first because of the high case temps inside these bulbs.

I've modded a 24w bulb for my living room and changed the 12 warmwhite 3w EpiLED diodes(~19,5w, Tcase ~75-80°C!) against a Cree CXB1512/3k/CRI93. The driver inside has 48v with no load and 460mA, means the CXB run with ~16,5w now. Temps are much lower now(45°C, cool enough to touch it) and the bulb is much brighter now with good looking colors. The warmwhite 3w diodes have had a greenish yellow most probably not even CRI70. But I had to make a round alu base plate for the COB, which I had to glue (thermal glue) to the contact surfaces of the heatsink and they were not as cheap as yours, so do not take that as a suggestion to do the same.

Click to expand...

Those 30w LEDs measured 6.08v individually and 73.0v at the driver leads. Also .38A were measured at the driver. So.. 6v LEDs? 3 sets of 12? 126mA?



Could I wire a bunch of the drivers together in parrellell via busbar and add a POT between the "mega driver" output busbar and the "mega-driver" lead terminals connecting to the light rack, so I can dim the lights?

Not too many 72V drivers..

I want to be able to dim the driver so it doesn't work as hard if I don't need the lights as bright and not sure if a POT wired in series with the output leads is what I'm after. Seems like it's in the wrong place?..






Can I use non-electrically-conductive thermal glue to secure the circuit board drivers to the ceiling of an open ended plastic box with a heat sink mounted on top? Could I use a metal box and non-electrically-conductive thermal glue, or would that short the circuit board?

LED panels would be mounted onto aluminium stripping with heatsinks as needed.

Trying to stop wattage drop by keying drivers cool. Trying to increase LED efficacy by keeping LEDs cool.