Hello All!!
First off I would just like to thank you all for your contributions over the years. Over the past few days or so I have become hyper focused on LED technology as I became aware of the CXB3590 and COB's in general. I had often considered LED but discounted it for the same reasons stated before in this thread such as the lack of penetration. However, after reading through what feels like thousands of post from guys like Supra, RealStyles, and so many others; poring over all the technical spec sheets I could find on everything; generally obsessing on the subject, I am convinced of the merits of COB growing and want to participate.
I have some questions that are no doubt answered elsewhere, but I haven't found it yet.
Most important is the luminous efficacy/watt. By my understanding this would be the best way of theoretically determining heat output in terms of btu/watt or btu/lumen or whatever else you can equate to each other. Maybe you guys can point me in the right direction or give me a better idea of how to determine this. I just assumed the theory was that x% of watts produced light then (100-x)% of watts must be heat. As I write this I am sure the answer is somewhere easy and I've missed it, but backspace seems like a hassle.
Next question, and again maybe I just need to look around longer. Has anyone done a side-by-side with hps vs COB?
I have been growing with 5200 watts of HPS (2 x 600w + 4 x 1000w) for several years now. I have experimented with running more 600's on movers vs 1000's and other things. Its always the same battle, how many lumens can I make while still maintaining a reasonable temperature while getting the penetration for taller plants. So, I want to replace some 1000w HPS lamps with LED. As much as I would love to drop $4k+ on this endeavor and swap them all at once, its not in the cards at the moment. However, I think I can scratch up the dough to make at least one light to compete with a 1k watt HPS.
Finally, the BIG question is what seems fair for a side by side? Do I assume 140k lumens from a 1k watt HPS and try to match this with the same lumen output from COB's or just run 20-CXB3590's on like 4 of those
HLG-240H type drivers to make roughly 160k lumens but ~1k watts. I think it would take about 16-CXB3590's to make 140k-ish lumens. I'm basing all of this on the spec sheet available for these COB's and the assumption that I can source 16-20 3000k or 3500k CXB3590's with a bin of CD or better and run 5 of them in series at about 700mA, 72v. I may need to adjust my driver configuration.....but it seems like that should work. Otherwise 5 of the 185H types would be fine like I've seen Realstyles do with 4 Cobs in series. I want to enclose all of these in a Raptor hood so I can vent it inline with my others or vent it separately at ambient room temp if that's reasonable.
Perhaps this would be better in a thread of its own, I certainly don't mean to Hi-Jack.
-HJB
My first post here, but long time reader. Thanks again everyone for all your help over the years!