Criticize My 2250w Led Cob Build - Clu048 1212c4

[BobbyBoy]

I have been researching for the past few days LED COBS, CREE, Vero, and Citizens.
Read/learnt alot from users like fanleaf, Supra, BuddyColas, JorgeGonzalez, Rahz, Bobby_G, etc

I came to the conclusion after many hours that the Citizen CLU048-1212C4 seemed my best choice.
At $11 each I favoured the lower cob cost and lost around 300W in efficiency.
If I went with the watt savings my build would have cost another $1000+.

Here is my specifics


I have a grow area of 5ft x 10ft - 50 sq ft.
I will put 1 x CLU048 1212C4 at each sq ft, so 50 in total.
Each cob runs at 45W, producing 160/Lpw
This would give 7200 Lumens per sq ft.

50 COBS total
2250W total
360,000 Lumens total

I have not yet decided on drivers, I will be using passive cooling, undecided on thermal paste vs pads

Please offer any advice before I go ahead with the build.

 

[AvidLerner]

Running at higher current is going to cost you long term. Google 42 cree cobs on youtube and see what he did in an 8x8 tent

 

[Zen]

I'm very curious about this. I had been considering 117.5W CLU048-1212C4-353H6M3-F1 Version 6 COBs.
I'll be following with interest.

 

[DeepHydro]

I like it. Seems a little overkill though. I like the 50 COBs. With so many COBs going you could run at a lower current/wattage. Or, you could just run it like that and dim it down. I'm not familiar with the Citizen COBs though.

I built a similar sized room with 2250 watts CXB3590 and I'm constantly dimming. lol

 

[SpiderK]

@sixstring

fire up the presses .... choo choo .... :mushtache:

 

[G gnome]

@Toaster79 is very knowledgeable about led

 

[Freshone]

Sounds good to me but why not just use the best cobs and do it right the first time,buy cheap buy often.

 

[sixstring]

I have been researching for the past few days LED COBS, CREE, Vero, and Citizens.
Read/learnt alot from users like fanleaf, Supra, BuddyColas, JorgeGonzalez, Rahz, Bobby_G, etc

I came to the conclusion after many hours that the Citizen CLU048-1212C4 seemed my best choice.
At $11 each I favoured the lower cob cost and lost around 300W in efficiency.
If I went with the watt savings my build would have cost another $1000+.

Here is my specifics


I have a grow area of 5ft x 10ft - 50 sq ft.
I will put 1 x CLU048 1212C4 at each sq ft, so 50 in total.
Each cob runs at 45W, producing 160/Lpw
This would give 7200 Lumens per sq ft.

50 COBS total
2250W total
360,000 Lumens total

I have not yet decided on drivers, I will be using passive cooling, undecided on thermal paste vs pads

Please offer any advice before I go ahead with the build.

cobkits.com has the 1212 on sale right now.i would run them @ 35w each or drop your total cob number down to about 40 cobs.

 

[Zen]

Sounds good to me but why not just use the best cobs and do it right the first time,buy cheap buy often.

Well, there can be several reasons for it. First of all, buying expensive does not mean only buying once. They won't last the rest of your life.

From what I can tell, there is a lot of progress in the field of COBS. This is great. On the other hand, it happens so fast that I'm reminded of PCs in the late nineties and early 2000s. You're paying a premium for a piece of hardware that will be outdated as soon as you get it out of the box, but at least the salesman promised it was "future-proof." Okay, that's hyperbole, but have a look at SupraSPL's DIY thread. It's (almost) three years old, and already those top of the line COBs are merely so-so by the standards of our resident experts. People with this line of reasoning may never catch up with technology, but they will be just behind it, picking up yesterday's cutting edge at a discount.

Second, it may just be a cost/efficiency thing. 200 dollars worth of Citizen COBs will put out more power than 200 dollars of Cree 3590s. The Crees may put out less heat and be considerably more efficient, but if you don't have to worry about power or a small grow room, it might be worthwhile. Example: my employer has a luxury farm with a ton of land, as well as his own solar energy park. Were he so inclined, I don't think Citizens (or something like Cree 3070s) would be a bad choice, since the savings might be better put into expansion. Of the grow space, solar energy net, other gear, or what have you.

Related, a buyer on a budget may still be trying to maximize output per dollar, and just worry about costs and other issues down the road. Want to get started now with so-so? Or do you want to wait a year (or however long) to start your grow op? You'd love to have a Dodge Viper, but what you can get is a Civic.

Third... I can't get the damned things at a decent price. I moved to mainland Europe, and this particular country has some very aggressive customs. I bought 3 comic books from a Canadian cartoonist. It took 2½ months before the customs released them. I ordered some vermiculite, since you couldn't get it in the country at the time. It got through, but it had definitely been thoroughly checked. I don't want to draw needless attention to myself, and I don't trust these people with sensitive electronics.
I swear, every time I find a COB I like, I'm unable to find it around here. I did find a few Cree 3590s, but I could pick up around 10 generation 6 Citizens for each 3590 that I buy. Not sure it'd be a sensible purchase, but that's due to my inexperience. Finding brands outside of those two is tricky.

People like @sixstring obviously know what they're doing. It's inspiring to read their stuff. The best gear at comparatively low prices. I expect that most DIY people may be best off to go with their recommendations. I'm not saying otherwise. I'm merely noting that there may be unusual circumstances that make their approach less ideal to some people. Still doesn't change the fact that I envy their setups. :)

 

[sixstring]

So you may have read a few times where I refer to citizen cobs as shitizen haha.this is only to stir shit up with diehard shitizen fans,and because im kinda silly lol.but the citi 1818 is a very good cob,@wattages above 60w it starts to pull away from cree and is actually more efficient (so they say) lmao.under 50w the cree 3590 starts to look better.but At 40 to 60w they are damn near identical except the citi is way cheaper.if you can get citi in your country go for it.the 1818 is 50v so dont ask me about drivers,its different all around but workable none the less.gen 5 citi are on sale at a few spots and are pretty decent as well.
Will i use citi with my next build,prob not.i cant keep makin fun of all the citiots if im actually filling my rooms with em :)
The new vero gen7 are also very good cobs and priced well below cree.those im not affraid to buy and use,mostly because i have not come up with a catchy degrading term for them yet,other than yer not vero smart if Ya dont use cree haha.