Past and present grows with qb's

[Bengfan]

Hello and hope everyone is growing well. I am wanting to buy an HLG qb (probably the 260xl??) for my 2'x4'x6' grow tent. I was looking to get everyone that has actually used qb's to chime in with their experiences. Good, bad or indifferent. I am trying to get all of the information I can so please be detailed in your reply's.
If we all work together to help build each other up, then we all benefit!! Thank you all in advance!

 

[Humple]

Hello and hope everyone is growing well. I am wanting to buy an HLG qb (probably the 260xl??) for my 2'x4'x6' grow tent. I was looking to get everyone that has actually used qb's to chime in with their experiences. Good, bad or indifferent. I am trying to get all of the information I can so please be detailed in your reply's.
If we all work together to help build each other up, then we all benefit!! Thank you all in advance!

If you're after as much info as possible, you should read through the "DIY with Quantum Boards" thread. Yes, it's hundreds of pages long, but there's a lot of good data to be gleaned.

 

[Bengfan]

Thank you Humple. I have been doing just that but my eyes begin to hurt when I read too much so I thought I would give this venue a try. I think by reading comments when they come in will be easier on these old eyes, haha!

 

[Humple]

Thank you Humple. I have been doing just that but my eyes begin to hurt when I read too much so I thought I would give this venue a try. I think by reading comments when they come in will be easier on these old eyes, haha!

Well, for my part, I think QBs are great, but I'm more a fan of the lower-cost QB120 (I have 8 ) and QB132 than the QB304 or QB288 (of which I have 2). The fact that they don't need heatsinks makes them the best bargain, in my opinion. Also, I think the spread of the diodes is preferable to the densely clustered diodes on the higher-power boards. You can see one of my QB120 builds in my avatar pic. I would opt for more 120s or 132s, spread over a canopy for better uniformity, rather than a couple of 288s at an equivalent wattage.

 

[Bengfan]

Well, for my part, I think QBs are great, but I'm more a fan of the lower-cost QB120 (I have 8 ) and QB132 than the QB304 or QB288 (of which I have 2). The fact that they don't need heatsinks makes them the best bargain, in my opinion. Also, I think the spread of the diodes is preferable to the densely clustered diodes on the higher-power boards. You can see one of my QB120 builds in my avatar pic. I would opt for more 120s or 132s, spread over a canopy for better uniformity, rather than a couple of 288s at an equivalent wattage.

Humple, that's exactly the kind of info. needed!. I suppose I would need three or four of these for an 8sq.ft. space correct?

 

[Humple]

Humple, that's exactly the kind of info. needed!. I suppose I would need three or four of these for an 8sq.ft. space correct?

Four. You want 30-40 watts per square foot. Four QB120s powered in series by a Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100A will give you 250 watts from the wall and put you right around the minimum. Four QB132s powered in parallel by a Meanwell HLG-320H-36A would give you 300 watts (even a little more, but I wouldn't run them past 80 watts per board without heatsinks), and that puts you at nearly 40 watts per square foot. I'd recommend the latter.