Alright finally got permission to post the sphere results...............Big thanks to Nick for letting us use his UL testing facility in OH again and Dan for sending in the gear, I sure as hell wouldn't do it
........I'm trying to do this on my crappy android phone so bear with me. Edited some shit out that we're not privy to
"We finally had time to get your fixture in the sphere and I was able to do all channels at the same time, as well as each individual channel. Everything labeled Timber V2 below is from this round of testing. These actually performed a little worse than the stuff you sent me last year, but I'm guessing that's due to the high CRI. You sacrifice 10-15% of your efficiency by going to high CRI. It's worth playing around with to see if there is any noticeable difference between 80 and 90 CRI, but from everything I have ever played with efficiency is king.
The build looks great and I like the extrusions you used for the frame, we have a ton of that stuff around here that we use for shelving. I think you could gain some efficiency by running these at 75 watts but your parts list will increase and possibly be too expensive.
As far as UL goes, they want to see all wiring terminal connections inside an enclosure, all wiring pass throughs need to go through a grommet and you have to fuse anything over 100 KVA (approximately 100 watts). If you only sell to home growers you don't need to worry about it, but electricians cannot touch anything that does not have a UL or ETL label for the entire fixture.
Let me know how the testing goes and if you see any appreciable difference between the high CRI and standard.
Power (W) Flux (lm) Radiant Flux (W) Efficacy (lm/W) Radiant efficacy (W/W) Waste Heat (W) PPF (umol) PPF/J
Timber 660nm 4 94.78 1257 25.9 13.26 0.273 68.88 143 1.51
Timber 3000K 4 212.7 27824 86.19 130.81 0.405 126.51 402 1.89
Timber 3000K 4 Ref 212.8 25463 79.11 119.66 0.372 133.69 369 1.73
Timber 4000K 214.4 29084 89.8 135.65 0.419 124.6 410 1.91
Timber V2 658.2 67706 235.44 102.87 0.358 422.76 1082 1.64
Timber V2 1750K 208.9 14603 69.42 69.90 0.332 139.48 315 1.51
Timber V2 3000K 216.9 26243 81.97 120.99 0.378 134.93 381 1.76
Timber V2 3500K 214.7 27192 84.42 126.65 0.393 130.28 388 1.81
"
First three fixtures were the cxb3590 from last year, top bin, mw driver, 1.4 amps 4cobs, 50w a cob, mechatronix 100mm pin sink. 3000k Ref==with reflector, rest where bare. Also the osram oslon 660nm "puck " , top group mid bin I believe, Dan can correct me. All cobs 80ra, cri.
All V2 is the vero 29c gen 7 fixture just sent in, three circuits, two cobs per circuit, 1.4 amps, 100w per cob. All bare no reflectors, 3000/3500k 90ra,cri. Makes nicks life easier and just can test each circuit/ kelvin separately without moving fixtures in and out of the large sphere.
I first was puzzled why he thought the veros performed worse than the cxbs, YES high cri will knock it down, we know that, also isn't factoring in that their getting double the wattage, he just looks at the total draw= which is right (doesn't care what theoretically can achieve at lower current, just what you sent him to test) . Asked him if maybe the hlg splayed sinks are garbage? Reminded him that the 1750k, 15- 18% of it's spd is above 700nm and isn't factored in the ppf. Did ambient temps affect the outcome, hot as shit in Ohio! Lol..... essentially asked to elaborate
He responded:
"We let it warm up in the warehouse before it goes in the sphere, ambient temps were in the mid 70s. I like looking at the radiant efficacy because it sums the entire output of the fixture from 380nm to 800nm and doesn't give any weight to any particular wavelength, unlike PPF. Radiant efficacy is the sum of all light energy captured in the sphere divided by the actual input wattage at the wall, and it is the true efficiency of the entire system. For comparison's sake the Mega does 309 watts of radiant flux and has a radiant efficacy of 0.46. This is what all companies should be advertising, not PPF/watt.
I don't think the splayed heat sinks are performing worse, I think you're just seeing how poorly high CRI performs from an efficiency standpoint. If you put those old CREE ones we did last year in that same rig I think you might pick up a point or two.
I'm pretty sure all 3 you sent this time were high CRI, though that 1750K really highlights the shortcomings of the CRI tile measurement system. Those things are obnoxious lol. If you are looking for higher efficacy you are going to have to spread the heat out and the best way to do that is with lots of LEDs on big huge boards. Just for fun you should try some liquid phase change coolers like they use for CPU coolers in big gaming rigs. They can't be any more expensive than those crazy pin things."
We get it, you really hate high cri! Ha. Hlg Splayed sinks don't suck . He also seems to think that the 1750k are 97+cri like I did? Strange, vero datasheet says otherwise. Nothing new here really with the test, can go high power its a watt to watt de hps replacement with lower lumen maintenance/ depreciation. Active cooling (don't like liquid) with some low watt cpu fans are becoming almost mandatory with these pin sinks driven hard imo. If chasing efficiency, electrical savings==more cobs, lower ma ,way more $$$. Also qbs are a good option no doubt. Can't recommend any other boards until tested/ verified. Sorry but China Factory can sell/ tell you anything, doesn't mean is true. Enough bull shit in this industry already.
Edit........ phone, sorry I'll fix the results/ table when I'm back home again. Getting 4+ inches of rain tomorrow, crazy.