NOOB COB- NEED HELP!

So I have chosen to buy 4 Vero29 SE 7th gen.

Now for the questions.

Is there any place I can order them that ship from inside Europe. I looked it up on digikey and it would cost me around 30€ for shipping and about 20€ for VAT , that's about 50€ for nothing which is almkst the price I would pay for the LEDs themselves. I'm from Latvia btw.

What driver should I use to power them ? Also where to buy it from?

Can I use any passive 130mm heatsink? If not, what would be my cheapest option and where to order it from?

What would be the best lens?

What would be the most efficient way to layer them out? 2x2 square or 1x4 line, assuming I have unlimited grow space? I will be growing autoflowers. How far apart should the leds be then?

And lastly, should I take the 4000k version?

Thank you so much for the person, who Is going to amswer all of this! I am breaking my head over all of this for the past weeks.

https://www.bridgelux.com/where-buy

Have a look on there and see if there is anywhere useful

Did you try digikey.co.uk? I assume you wouldn't pay VAT from there and orders over £33 could be free delivery.
Or
https://www.digikey.lv/ Not sure how ordering from them works.

You might be better reposting this in the LED section, there's lots of Europeans hang out there

I have read that Digikey ships from the US nomatter what website you order from, so I guess I would still have to pay Vat.

What about the other questions. What would be the best way to set them up 1x4 or 2x2 assuming I have unlimites grow space?

Well you kind of need to know what area you plan on covering so that you can work out the spacing and more importantly how hard you are going to run them to get the amount of light you require for that area. Which will help with the selection of driver and lenses.

I'm not a vero guy, so not the best person to answer. Honestly I would go look at some of the vero threads in the LED section.
Ask some Questions in there. You will most certainly get better answers and may find a few euro guys who know a good source.

Your right about digikey, I just rang them to check. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a co.uk or other website if they ship from the USA only.

I know for a fact that citizen chips are readily available I Europe and I know there is a guy next door to you in Estonia who sells them on ebay as well as an online store. But vero I have never looked. There will be distributers though.

coreywebster said:

Well you kind of need to know what area you plan on covering so that you can work out the spacing and more importantly how hard you are going to run them to get the amount of light you require for that area. Which will help with the selection of driver and lenses.

I'm not a vero guy, so not the best person to answer. Honestly I would go look at some of the vero threads in the LED section.
Ask some Questions in there. You will most certainly get better answers and may find a few euro guys who know a good source.

Your right about digikey, I just rang them to check. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a co.uk or other website if they ship from the USA only.

I know for a fact that citizen chips are readily available I Europe and I know there is a guy next door to you in Estonia who sells them on ebay as well as an online store. But vero I have never looked. There will be distributers though.

Click to expand...

What COBs are you using yourself?-I guess I could pick some other alternative, if there is a better one

Alex77145 said:

What COBs are you using yourself?-I guess I could pick some other alternative, if there is a better one

Click to expand...

I use 9x citizen clu058s over a 1.2m square area. Uses about 660w of power.

I hear the vero are very good. If you ask Cobkits on the other thread you have in the LED section he will tell you if there are better options. As far as which is most efficient and best value for money. He knows his Cobs.

You'll have way more luck posting in the indoor/LED section like they said. As far as a driver goes, meanwell is the brand most people suggest. They aren't the least expensive but they're solid as hell and basically waterproof, they're well worth the extra money. I highly recommend you get a fixed current driver. I have one in the HLG series. Cobkits is a great source for cobs (go figure) but it doesn't look like he carries Vero. Citizens are great too, especially for the price in comparison to 3950s. As far as 1x4 or 2x2 it depends on your dimensions but I try to spread it out as evenly as possible in the space I use. If space isn't an issue and you're getting 4 COBs the space you use will probably depend a lot on how high you are gonna drive the LEDs. A lot of people posting in the LED section tend to have more COBs and drive them at lower currents to maximize efficiency. Consider watts/m2.
4000k seems fine for veg/bloom. I use 3500k, might be better but it can vary a bit company to company.