Like we’ve talked before, i honestly can’t say as one i have never ran a gavita, also the grow size is larger than what i do, and them being decently efficient or the bulbs you were using anyways kinda brought out the point of sure possibly and in the 600w range of strips, but you’d be running them closer up anyways cause you could.
… also as a point im actually on the opposite end of the spectrum now with heat because of the strips, as in ive had to slow my fan down to the lowest and at times turn off circulation fans just to try and get some heat into my cabs lol so its kind of a double edge sword.
@Mr.Sparkle, all very good points, and I sort of figured the long-term finances might work out that way but never did the math on it. I just see people upgrading to the latest and greatest QBs or strips because they can get 200 lm/W and then over-drive them and not get near that efficiency. At that point, why spend the money at all on an upgrade, you know?
One stupid mistake that I made was thinking 90CRI would be that much better for plants because it is that much more similar to sunlight. In hindsight, I would have been better off with 80 CRI (or better yet 70) versions of my COBs because their efficiency is considerably higher than the 90CRI parts. Lots of excellent weed has been grown under HPS, after all, which has a CRI of 22 !!!
Good to know. I have ordered one of those voltmeter/ammeters like @anon58740919’s and I when I get it rigged up I am going to play with amperage dial on my driver a bit.
@Jetdro honestly though, if the heat is too high or the bulbs are due or have to be replaced as they have burnt out, then it wouldn’t be a bad time to upgrade
I agree. I wouldn’t spend the money till I needed to, unless the heat and power usage were really killing me.
When you do decide to go LED, just do it and don’t look back. The data is in and there is absolutely no doubt that you can build a system to rival any MH or HPS setup and it will be much cooler and more efficient. In my opinion this was true even 4 or 5 years ago, and LED has come another long way since then.
Have good bulbs, they only loose 5 % a year if used full time, mine still test as strong as when new. and I have 3 of them that I now rotate.
Heat is an issue in the summer, but since my house is central A/C not that big a deal…WHAT SCARES ME IS FIRE…i know if the thing goes down or blows up, it will start a fire…
That’s a legitimate concern. There’s those auto-extinguisher things that there was a thread about a while back, but that would fuck your crop anyway (still better than burning down the house).
LED is lower risk, for sure, but not zero risk. Electrical fires can start regardless of what is drawing the power. In theory, a poorly designed or implemented DIY LED solution could pose just as much risk as a MH or HPS. (Again, I see the irony in my words here)
TRUST ME, the bulb is Nuclear Sun HOT!!! The fixture falls down, or that bulb blows up, it WILL make a fire.
Been there, done that, scares the shit out of me. I am home when lights are on!
Hey @Mr.Sparkle I decided to play with the output current adjustment on my Meanwell and you are correct, I definitely squeezed a little more juice out of it.
255w lm561c or lm301b would be grand in a 2x4ft tent from experience. 2ft away seems a little far though. (I’ve not used a quantum board to be certain on that) I usually went for like a foot away. And at points had the plants touching the lights. Only the leaves got burn marks and that was where the literal diodes touched. I think you’ll be grand bro
This is kinda the crux of the issue - I know they don’t put off enough heat to burn the plants - but is there such a thing as over saturation of light and what are its specific indicators?
It’s a shit ton of diodes for a tiny space. HLG recommended no more than 2 boards in the same space but I figure I can run 3 at lower watts and get better efficiency.
I have a similar setup in a 2x3 tent with about 28 watts per sw ft and 2 boards, with very limited height, and the plants were singing hymns and prayers until they got ~16" of the light.
IDEK. I just need to embrace the mystery, I guess.
Yes, it’s possible. Don’t know if that’s the case here. With excess light, the plant can enter into photoinhibition converting excess light into heat (photoprotection).
The general understanding in the journals is that as the light intensity increases, the less efficient the conversion process by the plant. The plant can get to a point where it is unable to convert the excess photos (chlorophyll, reaction centers, co2, etc being limited) and it will try to protect itself by photoinhibition. This photoprotection system will convert a portion of the photon energy into heat. There have been studies that have shown long-term damage to the photosystem if in photoprotection with relatively high light levels or for extended periods of time. Other stressors can also lead to photoinhibition such as high temperatures.
Photoinhibition and the chlorophyll conversion efficiency can be detected using a specialized spectrophotometer. But without such an instrument, I’d think the most obvious sign over time would be bleaching (which usually looks unlike a nutrient problem and it’ll be nearest the fixture). Going off the cuff, it may also be possible to detect photoinhibition by simply measuring the leaf temperature relative to the ambient surrounding temperature. If it’s greater than the ambient temperature, then I’d think there there’s something wrong with the environment (vpd) and/or the light intensity is too high.
There’s no irony in being thorough and researching until you have a solid grasp of the variables imho… from an engineering perspective that’s the basis of every good design… As they say, a problem well defined is a problem half solved, it’s better to take the time up front and get it right than to wing it and have to put up with something sub par that doesn’t do the job.
melt a bit of plastic… Gallons of cooling water immediately dispersed.
Aha! I believe I observed this with the outdoor plants…& IIRC was kind of surprised at how much they cooled themselves.
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disco inferno time 