When 400w is the LIMIT of wattage, COB or MH/HPS?

GreenLeafKief said:

Update: I think I may be going for a half-DIY setup - it is built for me, I just need to frame the 4 COBS in a way I like.

www.cobkits.com

Pricing is just unbeatable compared to Timber.

For ~$500 I will have a 4-COB setup, dimmable. Each with their own driver. Each COB can go to a max of 300Watts but is not efficient at higher loads.

This means I can idle all 4 at 33% power and get 400watts of extremely efficient LED light, and once I move to a larger space I can crank them to 600, even 640 watts total and have them not break a sweat.

I feel as though this setup @300-400w + Fluoro during Veg, then full blast flower, may be unbeatable in a 4x4 scrog.

@THE KONASSURE what is your opinion mate? You mentioned potentially lower prices, but this could solve my low-available-power-now but maybe-more-later problem

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what`s your budget ? shop around

Some people buy from the cops and sell the stuff in shops or from shipping containers they can be super cheap

Or there`s factories that`ll sell cob chips to you directly

or you can just type stuff like "cob led" and "induction lamp", "led grow", "grow light" into auction sites and other online sales pages and sites you never know what you pick up

You`ll be shocked the good lights people got for "keeping fish" or "lighting a loading bay" and such

some times you just find clearance sales full of lights in big casings that are going cheap but you can see a 600w hps or 300w induction or big leds inside it and you just know its worth the small price

you`ll want something that`ll make the most of your area without being a hazard or taking up too much space, but also you want good air flow and to make sure your chosen light won`t make the area too hot

of course some grows need more heat some people get better results running hot lights as they simply need the heat


Cobs chips that can run around 100w to 300w are not very expensive anymore, some brands are but good 5000k and good 3000k chips are out there for low money, just depends how much 2% or so more efficiency really matters to you ?

If the heat is not an issue I`d always just run more wire and pay a bit more on the electric as more par means more herbs, faster flowering and stronger weed

Space is normally what I run out of, I`ve used over 2000w of hid, led and induction on 1m x 1m before just because every gram mattered and ac was there, the electric bill did`nt matter

More electric was almost nothing more space, bro I`m in london space is stupid expensive, so want to get out of the fooking city, so I can get some bigger areas, I mean going to loads of trouble over 5m x 5m area seems silly, if I had 10m x 10m or 100m x 100m then I could make better use of my time......

$500 usd for a 4 cob set up sounds ok mate, I`d go all 3000k or 1 5000k and 3, 3000k, I`d make sure you had 200w of driver per led, I`d veg with 100 to 200w of 5000k and run the 3000k`s low, then turn up the 3000k`s during flowering till canopy temps were 25 to 30c max

good airflow and such

I mean you could use an aircooled hood and build your own cheaper, but $500 don`t sound that bad, that`s 200 to £300, I try and pay under £100 a light, that`s like $150 to $180 I did get some really nice 150w cob units with single chips lens`s and such, think I paid £100 or £150 for 3 of them, 450w would have been great for you, but I`m in the uk

Ofcourse they had no guarantee, if a light had a 3 to 6 year guarantee I`d pay a bit more for it

way I see it £100 or less per light if it works for a year or more I got good use out of it, if it brakes before then no huge loss... if something happens I know I can set up again cheap because I`m more used to being "resourceful" with my lighting shopping, lol



If you wanted to go uber fancy you could get a 300w plasma light and run 100w of 3000k or red leds, but them plasma lamps are like $300 to $600 for a kit or like $800 to $2000 for a lamp gavita do a nice aircooled one

but fuck knows how you fix one of them plasma lights but LEP does look pretty cool

haha I've had space before, but not now. This will be a tent grow. It was easier to go unnoticed 10 years ago believe it or not, outside.

which CAN be fun at times when you have to use a ladder to get to the tops

But bro, the title of the post shows that this is exactly the issue - electric, for now. Thats why I like the idea of spending a little more now, running @350-400Watts and sacrificing yield THIS time, then when I move I have a 600W+ system to use.

good advice with the color temps. i was curious about veg / avoiding stretch with all 3Ks or 3500s

GreenLeafKief said:

haha I've had space before, but not now. This will be a tent grow. It was easier to go unnoticed 10 years ago believe it or not, outside.

which CAN be fun at times when you have to use a ladder to get to the tops

But bro, the title of the post shows that this is exactly the issue - electric, for now. Thats why I like the idea of spending a little more now, running @350-400Watts and sacrificing yield THIS time, then when I move I have a 600W+ system to use.

good advice with the color temps. i was curious about veg / avoiding stretch with all 3Ks or 3500s

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you can veg with 3000k only issue can apart from them not being as bushey that you can fix with triacontanol/seaweed the issue with 3000k veg normally is warmer root zone, bugs and rot breeds up faster, less uv`s

I mean I`ve done a red led veg, plants looked ok, but the problem is when you go into bloom its best if the plants have only seen cool light or 50% warm white/red in the mix

like 1/3 red to blue then for flowering you go more to 3/1 red to blue

the plants go crazy as they have never had that mix before so it stimulated them in a different way

You`ll notice cuttings from a plant that`s been flowered will veg and bloom different to cuttings from a plant that is still in veg and has never seen bright light or red heavy light

That`s one of the more unspoken about benefits to a blue veg plus fungus and such seems to not like the blue light so much

THE KONASSURE said:

600 hps, 1/4m to 1msq, 300g to 600g some inventive people seem to claim 1kg using on hps in a 1msq area, that`s always 2m high, probably if you do vert its doable who knows

300w of cob, you`ll cover 1/4msq to 1/2m sq, you could pull 300g maybe more if there good leds and everything is spot on

Normally space, heat and airflow become the issue before power use

If you have over 1m x 1m to cover and want to go cheap use a 600w or 1k hps in a cool tube

if you want even coverage and less hot spots then 200w to 50w cobs

hard to know what`s best without actually walking the grow room and making the choice myself your the asshole that has to go in there and water and prune everything..............

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I found someone selling a apollo 600w hps for 100$ only use it for 1 cycle but if i can get my hand on them cob i would i would need 10 or more cob for a 4x4 tent that alot of $$

RolllingStone said:

I found someone selling a apollo 600w hps for 100$ only use it for 1 cycle but if i can get my hand on them cob i would i would need 10 or more cob for a 4x4 tent that alot of $$

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4x4 you`ll want to use like 400w to 1000w of cobs to make the most of it

A lot of people like the older magnetic hid ballasts, honestly they do seem brighter like an old mag ballast 600w looks kinda like when you put a modern digital hid ballast on 600w+super

I think the newer digital ballasts run at a higher frequency so the light is a bit less intense but there is more of it, but idk they lamps seem to heat up more but the ballasts run a bit cooler older mag ballasts seem to get a bit hotter but the lamps seem to stay a bit cooler

a 600w hps is normally the cheapest way to get light for 1/2msq to 1msq and you get 300g to 1kg off a lamp depends on your set up

just try and use a new bulb every year or so

but cobs will give more even covarage and good ones better GPW and less watering is normally needed, 1600w of hid in 1.2m x 2m I was watering every 3 to 4 days sometimes every 2 days near the end

1600w of led in the same space watering every 4 to 7 days

but it depends on the airflow as with loads of airflow you can just ram more lights in there maybe your gpw would go down but your Grams Per Meter would go up

THE KONASSURE said:

4x4 you`ll want to use like 400w to 1000w of cobs to make the most of it

A lot of people like the older magnetic hid ballasts, honestly they do seem brighter like an old mag ballast 600w looks kinda like when you put a modern digital hid ballast on 600w+super

I think the newer digital ballasts run at a higher frequency so the light is a bit less intense but there is more of it, but idk they lamps seem to heat up more but the ballasts run a bit cooler older mag ballasts seem to get a bit hotter but the lamps seem to stay a bit cooler

a 600w hps is normally the cheapest way to get light for 1/2msq to 1msq and you get 300g to 1kg off a lamp depends on your set up

just try and use a new bulb every year or so

but cobs will give more even covarage and good ones better GPW and less watering is normally needed, 1600w of hid in 1.2m x 2m I was watering every 3 to 4 days sometimes every 2 days near the end

1600w of led in the same space watering every 4 to 7 days

but it depends on the airflow as with loads of airflow you can just ram more lights in there maybe your gpw would go down but your Grams Per Meter would go up

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Once i get enough $ in my pocket ill switch to cob but for now apollo 600w coolhood for 100$ is a deal on cob for 600w would run me 1000$

RolllingStone said:

Once i get enough $ in my pocket ill switch to cob but for now apollo 600w coolhood for 100$ is a deal on cob for 600w would run me 1000$

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unless you plan to run a cool hood without glass a cool tube normally does a better job

but cool hoods make for great led lights

you can fit the heat sinks up in the hood, use some high thermal plastic or tape to seal the unit up with the heatsinks and drivers in there

then rig a fan upto the hood just like with a hps

I`ve put 3 heatsinks with 3 cobs into one 2 x 340w drivers fired up a 680w led, with a 6" fan blowing into it, got it sitting on the fan that`s sitting on a carbon filter (no dust`s going in my light) Great side lights for my 1.4m x 2.4m bloom area as we have a walkway so we only use around 1.4m x 1.6m wide, 2 rows of plants

and winter just hit the UK so I can fire the bitch up with the above head lamps now, hopefully that gets me an extra zip or 2 per plant, lol

If money is an issue, I'd go 400w hps. Currently I've been looking at building my own cob and for 4x4 coverage I'm looking at nearly $1k for 12 cree cobs, two drivers, heat sinks and extras. Sure the cob are more efficient but with a 400w hps you'll spend about $250-300 for light ant in a 4x4 you probably won't have heat issues so no need for air cooled hood unless you're in a hot climate. You might want a can fan and carbon filter for smell. You should be able to pull over a half pound no problem with 400w hps.

GreenLeafKief said:

haha I've had space before, but not now. This will be a tent grow. It was easier to go unnoticed 10 years ago believe it or not, outside.

which CAN be fun at times when you have to use a ladder to get to the tops

But bro, the title of the post shows that this is exactly the issue - electric, for now. Thats why I like the idea of spending a little more now, running @350-400Watts and sacrificing yield THIS time, then when I move I have a 600W+ system to use.

good advice with the color temps. i was curious about veg / avoiding stretch with all 3Ks or 3500s

Click to expand...

You can get more than a 600w hps with 400w of really good quality COB LEDs.