Please Help Me Set Up My New Quantum Lights!

[Jimjon22]

Hey guys, so I made the quantum leap and bought this:

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/all/products/320w-xl-qb-v2-led-kit

Anyways I’ve always used blurple lights in my 2x4 and they were never adjustable. Between my 2 300s in my tent they drew 270 watts from the wall.

Between 35-40 watts per sq ft has always worked well for me with the blurples, I went to 50 once and the plants HATED it (did two 450s and went back to the 2 300s) but what about QBs?

Well this board goes from 100-320 and I’ve never had to adjust for wattage before, just height obviously.

I’ve read that veg needs less watts per sq ft than flower, so I’m not sure if I maybe start at 200 watts then adjust the driver to 300 come flower time?

Same with the height. The blurples always just used the 30/24/18 (seedling/veg/flower) height rule and it worked fine.

I guess I could just set the driver to 270 watts (verify with my killawatt meter) like my blurples and use the same old heights as always, but I figured I’d get your guys input and maybe experiment properly.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[FarmerDaniel]

Well forget about watts and start thinking PAR, photosynthetic active radiation. Wattage is good to know to get you in the range but with a dimmable fixture you're gonna be able to really deliver a broad range of PAR.

Right now you're guessing and asking others to guess better for you when you could just buy a good PAR meter and know for certain. It will pay for itself soon enough by maximizing your harvest. Once your start measuring you'll see how far off you can be by using "rules of thumb" for lighting heights and wattage

Imagine knowing that your plants are getting just enough light but not too much. Imagine being able to accurately ramp up each day and know how much you've increased the photon energy going to your plants

 

[Buzzer777]

Hey guys, so I made the quantum leap and bought this:

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/all/products/320w-xl-qb-v2-led-kit

Anyways I’ve always used blurple lights in my 2x4 and they were never adjustable. Between my 2 300s in my tent they drew 270 watts from the wall.

Between 35-40 watts per sq ft has always worked well for me with the blurples, I went to 50 once and the plants HATED it (did two 450s and went back to the 2 300s) but what about QBs?

Well this board goes from 100-320 and I’ve never had to adjust for wattage before, just height obviously.

I’ve read that veg needs less watts per sq ft than flower, so I’m not sure if I maybe start at 200 watts then adjust the driver to 300 come flower time?

Same with the height. The blurples always just used the 30/24/18 (seedling/veg/flower) height rule and it worked fine.

I guess I could just set the driver to 270 watts (verify with my killawatt meter) like my blurples and use the same old heights as always, but I figured I’d get your guys input and maybe experiment properly.

Any input is appreciated.

For the time being, you can just get a <$20 Kill-A-Watt meter..it will measure Ma, Voltage, wattage etc. Not perfect, but better than nothing..QBs do just fine with 40watts per sq ft..Not sure what happened, but when I ran 2x Meizhi 450 burples (about 190w true each), my plants loved it.

 

[Jimjon22]

I appreciate the answers fellas! I’m gonna get a PAR meter ASAP!

If anyone else has used QB’s in my sized tent, please post your own personal results!