You got it right. Efficiency and lm/w go hand in hand. More lumens, more light, less heat (efficient). Less lumens, less light, more heat (less efficient).
You should be able to get your canopy maxed out for less than or around $400. If you go with 1212's be sure to get 80 cri, ppfd is much higher than the 90's.
So then you actually get more light at lower currents? Depending on chip obviously. I know some are more efficient at different currents so its just a matter of finding the optimal current for the chip you want tongo with?
Looking at vero29, on the charts that Ive managed to find scattered around the interwebs, they seem to be pretty damn close to 3590 at ~1400ma-2100mA and them vero looks like it kind of pulls ahead above that. Then cree pulls ahead below 1400ish, but really not by much. Maybe ~100lu or so at any given current at the most. I can only get an idea though because none of them show the exact same current, Tj, spectrum, cri, etc. so I can only put together a rough guess. Id say its definitely not enough to really stress over though haha.
Right on brotha, thanks for confirming that for me. I think that will be my best bet to get started here and Im sure Ill be playing around with other builds as I go. Im already thinking of a cheap citi build for veg
You want easy man, get some citizen 1818/1812's and your driver of choice and push them between 50-100w a piece and have at it and save some $$$
Yea I had been looking at the 1212's and 1818's. I kinda wanted to stick with 36v chips for compatability later on if I wanted to just swap them out for a newer chip or something. The 1818's do look nice though. Looking at vero again, I can't find a single configuration that will fit on a meanwell driver without either just being over, or a lot of space left over. Maybe Ill just do the 1212's at 1750 or 10 of them at 1400 (5 each on 240-1400's). The other option is to run the vero in parallel. Greengene mentioned the 42v series drivers will work great... but when I looked it up, the 240-42a/b driver would run them at around 1400mA not the 1700 I was looking for. Unless Im missing something? The are 5.72a.
Well I need 2 bars to get the light distribution I want, so Id like to have either 2 bars of 4, or 2 bars of 3 with a 50v chip like the 1818. Ill be running one bar on either side of my 315cmh. Thats why I was looking at the 250w drivers because if the price and they seem to work the best for strings of 4 36v chips. I could fit 5 1212's on a 240-1400, or 4 on a 250-1750. As of now its looking like unless I want to run them parallel, Ill have to use either citi 1212 or 3590. I was trying to keep this build at or under $500, and with cree Id probably be closer to $600. Still an option, but Id prefer to do it cheaper obviously.
Thanks, but Im looking for more coverage than just 4 cobs. Im wanting to do 6 or 8, and $500 is waaaaay too much for just 4. I can do the 8 citi 1212 or 6 1818 build for around $400-500 and get far greater output and coverage. Those are kinda cool though, where are the drivers? It doesn't say what current they use or any technical specs.
