Oh, An entire new sticky filled with new words and acronyms about new technology that I don't know! You're all nuts if ya thinks I'm reading all this shit! heh.
A lot has changed in 2 years...
So... Which of my old school buds wants to give me the lowdown?
Why do I want to use COB's? How much cheaper are they over comparable panels that can be bought? What are the most popular "cookie cutter" builds? And anything else ya can crib-note to my behind-the-times-dumbass?
Oh, Good to be back RIU.
Well, I am at the same point, but a little farther perhaps. So, I can give a bit of Cliff Note.
How much cheaper? In that past that was a no brainer.....not much was the answer if you figure labor of wiring all those 3w LEDs.
Now we have them from trusted Cree, at 150w per COB. Instead of single emitters, they have a die of hundreds of tiny emiters, as a silicon chip. A Chip on Board. All the "wiring" is inside.
They all have different current and voltages for each tiny part, so typically you let the voltages vary and supply a regulated current. A steady current, driver, is used instead of a steady voltage type.
The rest is all about efficiency and heat vs steady light level.
HPS - 30% effective means that 70% of the energy is lost to heat, not light.
HPS - 20% of the light is IR, so it heats up the room and is not used by plants
HPS - 24% of total watts is PAR, ie something the plant can use
LED - 45% effective means that only 55% of the energy is lost to heat
LED - almost no IR to speak of
LED - 45% of total watts is PAR, ie something the plant can use
So, this is why we say, 600w of LED can more than replace 1000w of HPS. More than, is because these are so cool compared to HPS you can run them much closer to the plant. And we know illumination density is all about the cube of the distance. The closer the source the better within reason.
PROs
- no bulbs to change,
- no globes to clean
- no magnetic ballast to go out (more heat load, of course) (and they are heavy and loud)
- no fancy digital ballast to buy
- less operating cost per PAR watt
- easier to set up
- easier to manage
- lasts a long time
CONs
- higher upfront costs
- some math required
- soldering skills a must
- some more math required
- technical advances are year over year, so your shit is already shit
- it is a DIY design challenge to fit these into your grow and maybe advance the art
Your first design choice is:
- passive cooling
- active cooling
- hybrid passive-active cooling
And the good news is you are only about 100 hours and 400 pages behind.
Helps?
