Diy cob led help

Hey guys I could use some help from the experts.

I was looking at growmau5 diy cob led kits at cutter,com,au and It seems one of the single 3590 lights puts out max 137 watts which means i should get 4 to cover my 4x4x6.5 area as I read I should have ~32 watts per sq/ft. Then I look at the 4 light kit with the same light. It the driver runs the lights at 50 watts giving 200 total watts. I don't think thats enough power. Then I look at the same kit without driver. With a stronger driver I would be able to run the 4 cobs at a higher wattage to get closer to the 500 I need right? If I do that will the heat sink that is designed for the cobs to be run at 50 watts be sufficient to cool when run at 100-120 watts?

I guess I'm looking for kit or component recomendations for 4x4x6.5 tent

Thanks for the help

You would either need bigger heatsinks. Or to add say a 120mm fan to each heatsink/ or great airflow to cool those sufficiently.

Not entirely sure my maths is correct. But you may need more wattage than that. You have 16 feet to cover. 30-50w per sq foot... 480-800w.

I'm running a tent with cobs at about 28 watts per square foot, and doing fine with it - 900 watts in a 4x8. The same space used to have a pair of 600 HIDs.

You should look into Citizens. They're cheaper than Cree chips. I don't run any of my cobs past 75 watts - the tops of the plants can get really close to the lights and not burn. I don't use reflectors or lenses either.

Go here - https://www.rollitup.org/f/led-and-other-lighting.124/

Thanks for the replies. I'm debating whether I should build or just buy 2 platinum p300 for my 4x4 or 5x5 space. The 2 would be right at $700. What would you estimate the price of diy cob for 5x5 space? If its a difference of $200 then I would pay that to avoid the hassel of making the light. I understand it's not difficult to make but is time consuming and I would rather not mess with it if price is not a lot cheaper for diy.

Nicholas Daniel said:

Thanks for the replies. I'm debating whether I should build or just buy 2 platinum p300 for my 4x4 or 5x5 space. The 2 would be right at $700. What would you estimate the price of diy cob for 5x5 space? If its a difference of $200 then I would pay that to avoid the hassel of making the light. I understand it's not difficult to make but is time consuming and I would rather not mess with it if price is not a lot cheaper for diy.

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Two of these would outperform those overpriced Platinums. http://timbergrowlights.com/200-watt-citizen-clu048-linear-framework/

Platinums are garbage. They're equally efficient as an HID light for a lot more money. You'd be better off with an air cooled 600.

Or just get a kit and build a frame for them. http://timbergrowlights.com/citizen-clu048-kits/

Buy the Timber lights and be done with it.

For now, the DIY parts are so wide spread and so many so suspect it's just not worth throwing money at it only to find out you didn't really get what you paid for.

Timber is a good company. Yes, you pay for them, but they work and work well. Better to buy a known quality than go the DIY route, spend just as much if not more, wind up disappointed and be right back where you started from, only broke.

Thanks tocomac. That takes a lot of the guess work out of it. Is there any light quality difference between citizen and cree cob lights? Also, in all of my reading about led grow lights the important thing was PAR and light spectrum high in blue and red and not much in the middle because the plants don't use that light as much. With the diy cob lights all I see is wattage. What is the PAR and light spectrum of those compared with platinum p300? I know since its white it will have the middle colors in the spectru. But is it heavy enough on ir, red an blue spectrum?

Thanks again...a lot to wrap my head around. A lot of changes in the last several years.

Nicholas Daniel said:

Thanks again...a lot to wrap my head around. A lot of changes in the last several years.

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Yes, and the jury is still out on a great deal of it which is why I'm still running MH/HPS.

The biggest problem (and fights ALWAYS start when I say this) is that everybody in the LED/Cob community beats their chest about which is best simply because it's the one they bought.

It's like motorcycles or cars or video cards or anything else: Since they bought it, it's best. No matter what.

Sadly, the VAST majority of the LED market in particular is complete shit. There's a reason some of those lights cost less than 100 bucks. Frankly, they're not even worth that.

Same goes for a lot of the parts market: everybody swears this is better than that, and vice versa, with very little to ever back it up other than their opinion more times than not.

That's why when it comes to LED, I wouldn't waste my money at all on any of it. Cob on the other hand is well worth it. Pricey, yes. But well worth it.

And when it comes to Cob lights I can tell you that Timber is a known quality simply by the sheer number of people that use them, have had great success with them and continue to do so.

I have two friends that use Timber Cob lighting and they do quite well. That is why I recommend them. You simply can't go wrong.

All of that said (yes, I know it's getting long winded) let's look real quick at how that Timber Cob Johnny recommended stacks up against the P300.

P300 LED
Coverage area (effective): 3' x 2' or 6 square feet
Watts avg draw: 93 watts veg / 180 watts flower
Advertised watts: 300

Citizen CLU048 200
Coverage area (effective): 1.5' x 4' or 6 square feet
Watts avg draw: 200
Advertised watts: 200

Now, on its face they look pretty even, but they're not. At all. The Cob draws a constant 200 watts and produces a far superior overall spectrum. The P300 on veg is, quite literally, half the light of the Citizen.

Although coverage area is nearly identical on paper, they're not in practice. The cobs are going to result in much better overall growth which in turn is going to increase your yield a pretty decent amount. What's more, the cobs are smaller, better built, and lighter.

It's really a considerable quality difference between the two.

Can the P300's get you some good results? Sure. But will they give you great results? No.

The Cobs will. Guaranteed.

That's all there is to it.

Nicholas Daniel said:

Is there any light quality difference between citizen and cree cob lights?

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They are comparable in terms of performance/efficiency. The Citizens are less expensive.

Also, the Timber kits and frames are dimmable. I run mine at about half power during veg.

TacoMac covered everything else.

Thanks Johnny. Your first post didmt show up until I just now viewed it. Thanks for the links you guys have made this A lot easier. I am suprise you say the platinums are crap. They are expensive but I watched a live video of PAR and spectrum and the numbers looked pretty good. The wattage draw from wall was 298 with the meter. And the way they explain it is that although wattage draw is low the light output for plants (PAR) was very high as verified by meter.

You guys have more experience with this and of you say the cobs are the way to go them who am I to argue. I won't buy the prefabricated set as i want to make a custom frame for the cobs to fit my space.

Here is my set up
I am decided since I'm going with cobs to do a 5x5 tent. I am growing from fem seeds and will be scrogging. I am using a simple top drip hydro unit. What do you guys think of 2 of the 5 cob 250w kits for that area.

For scrogging in that space what do you think would be optimal number of plants? I was thinking 4 in a 4x4 and 6 in a 5x5 vegging for roughly 6-8 weeks.

Again thanks for all the help so far and any other opponioms or suggestions are appreciated.

Done properly, 4 plants will completely fill a 5 x 5 wall to wall with ease. And your lighting choice will work just fine.

Awsome, thanks tacomac! I've never done scrog before but I've done a standard grow. I was tossed up between 4, 5 or 6 plants in the 5x5 and I know the number of plants for space is determined by how long you veg. For 8 week veg you recomended 4 plants. If I veg 4-6 weeks and used 6 plants would you think yield would be comparable to veging 4 plants for 8 weeks? I know a lot of this is theory just trying figure out town I want to approach the grow.

Thanks guys...any other tips for scroggin with cobs and top drip hydro system are much appreciated!

Most people actually stunt the growth of their plants by growing too many to begin with and overcrowding them. I don't use tents as I have a full basement at my disposal. I grow two white widow plants in soil once each year and net between 4 and 6 ounces from each one, so in one grow I get within shouting distance of a pound. That's more than enough to last me the year.

(I used to grow just one scrogged but I wound up falling just short of a years supply, and it was more work than it was worth vs. just growing two plants and topping and letting them grow on their own.)

You scrog 4 plants out over 8 or 9 weeks veg and you'll definitely be able to fill up a 5 x 5 tent with ease. You should be able to easily get 5 to 8 ounces per plant which is going to have you knocking on the door of a pound and a half.

That's exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks for all the help bud. I will update with a log when I get up and growing.

Tacomac, I got another one for you. I just went to buy the lights from timber. They have a cool chat feature. I spoke with Dan and he was saying that I need 30-50w per sq ft meaning 500 watts would be the low end of what is sufficient for 4x4. Are these numbers exagerated by seller or will 500w be underwhelming for 5x5? I can't afford more light but I can downgrade to 4x4 of there will be a big difference in yield with 500w of cob light on a 5x5 vs 4x4.