DIY questions.

Hey i have a couple questions. I'm deciding which route i want to take here... i am considering getting a kit from timber grow lights but to hit roughly 900 ppfd in my 18x 26 area if need the cree 2 light kit. I was also considering building my own light with citizen cobs the 1212 048's. And running 3 of those off a 1050 ma driver giving me just over 900 ppfd.

My question is, the meanwell hlg240c driver is out of stock... if i upgraded the driver to the 320h would it increase my power draw from the wall using the same cobs or no?

Also, is there any advantage to using thermal paste over thermal pads?

If i end up going with a kit from timber grow lights are there any discount codes anyone is aware of? The only reason I'm interested in trying to build my own is because my budget is so limited at roughly 200-250$.

I'm using a homemade cfl light right now that has 8 of the 23w cfls at 1600 lumens each right now. Is it even possible to estimate how much increase in weight i would see if upgrading to a cob light like this? I'm pulling a little over 3 ounces off 4 plants dwc right now. Assuming all conditions remained the same except for lighting is it possible to guess the increase or not? I know there are a ton of factors in this and it's usually laughable to ask "how much will i get" but just curious if anyone has done a side by side with cfl vs cobs at all?

Thank you!

Buttknuckle said:

Hey i have a couple questions. I'm deciding which route i want to take here... i am considering getting a kit from timber grow lights but to hit roughly 900 ppfd in my 18x 26 area if need the cree 2 light kit. I was also considering building my own light with citizen cobs the 1212 048's. And running 3 of those off a 1050 ma driver giving me just over 900 ppfd.

My question is, the meanwell hlg240c driver is out of stock... if i upgraded the driver to the 320h would it increase my power draw from the wall using the same cobs or no?

Also, is there any advantage to using thermal paste over thermal pads?

If i end up going with a kit from timber grow lights are there any discount codes anyone is aware of? The only reason I'm interested in trying to build my own is because my budget is so limited at roughly 200-250$.

I'm using a homemade cfl light right now that has 8 of the 23w cfls at 1600 lumens each right now. Is it even possible to estimate how much increase in weight i would see if upgrading to a cob light like this? I'm pulling a little over 3 ounces off 4 plants dwc right now. Assuming all conditions remained the same except for lighting is it possible to guess the increase or not? I know there are a ton of factors in this and it's usually laughable to ask "how much will i get" but just curious if anyone has done a side by side with cfl vs cobs at all?

Thank you!

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Hi @Buttknuckle

I can answer a few of your questions for you.....

The benefit of thermal paste is it better fills in any crevices that an adhesive pad might not - we use Arctic Silver 5 in all of our builds.

The current Timber discount code is "TREES". It will save you $25 on any product on our website.

@Danielson999 - thanks for the bump.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Dan

I think you could get a big bump in yield but more importantly, a bump in quality. I know what it's like using cfl's too and they just don't cut it when it comes to growing nice size and dense nugs.
You can use a bigger driver and it will simply use whatever wattage it's drawing from your cobs use. I couldn't fit 4 vero29 gen 6 on one HLG-185 so I bought HLG240 instead, knowing I will end up repurposing them in the future anyway. They are dimmable so I'm using anywhere from 20w up to 200w with the 4 of them running @1400ma.

Thank you for the quick reply! That helps a lot.

For my setup i don't know that i would need to dim them but it would be helpful for future planning because my stealth setup isn't permanent lol. I would imagine running the 2 lights at 100% at 1400ma would be about right for my grow area.

Danielson999 said:

I think you could get a big bump in yield but more importantly, a bump in quality. I know what it's like using cfl's too and they just don't cut it when it comes to growing nice size and dense nugs.
You can use a bigger driver and it will simply use whatever wattage it's drawing from your cobs use. I couldn't fit 4 vero29 gen 6 on one HLG-185 so I bought HLG240 instead, knowing I will end up repurposing them in the future anyway. They are dimmable so I'm using anywhere from 20w up to 200w with the 4 of them running @1400ma.

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Honestly other than an amateurish cure i was not disappointed in the quality, I'm growing aurora indica and came up with colas that were about 5 inches in length and barely shy of 2 inch diameter which I'm sure is inferior to some but they weren't airy at all so i was happy lol. At least for my first couple runs. But this light will be the cost of my entire setup including the cabinet and seeds and cfl lights i have now so essentially doubling my investment is probably necessary but makes me nervous still

approx 3sqft so anywhere from 80 to 150w for that area. Timber kits come (not sure if it's all of them) with a pre-wired potentiometer for dimming so you're covered there. If you wanted to futureproof alittle, the $299 Citizen 200w kit is a nice value, comes with dimming down to 10% also. Other than that, the 100w kit is the only thing cheaper and also has dimming.

Danielson999 said:

approx 3sqft so anywhere from 80 to 150w for that area. Timber kits come (not sure if it's all of them) with a pre-wired potentiometer for dimming so you're covered there. If you wanted to futureproof alittle, the $299 Citizen 200w kit is a nice value, comes with dimming down to 10% also. Other than that, the 100w kit is the only thing cheaper and also has dimming.

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Yeah the ppfd in the cree kit is better than the citizen kit so i was going to go with the cree 100w kit for the moment and expand later on as needed. Probably the best bang for my buck... what would i have to dim the 200w kit down to to not be wasting power, to my understanding 900 ppfd is like the sweet spot but i have yet to find the chart

200w in that space would somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300-1400ppfd. For dimming you'd simply dim it down to 100w by having your light plugged in to a Kill-a-watt meter like THIS. I think 100w in that space would be a bit under 900ppfd, closer to 800 maybe.

Awesome man thank you, i think ill stick with the 100w kit for ease at the moment and crank it at 100% until i need otherwise.

i have about half of my drivers on dimmers,its nice to dim them when your going to be in there longer than a few mins to water.i do wish all my drivers had dimmers,and i will prob add them at some point just so i dont go blind every time i cut down a plant lol.

sixstring2112 said:

i have about half of my drivers on dimmers,its nice to dim them when your going to be in there longer than a few mins to water.i do wish all my drivers had dimmers,and i will prob add them at some point just so i dont go blind every time i cut down a plant lol.

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I legitimately had not even thought about this...lol not much of that issue from a cfl bulb haha. This may have just saved me a bout of temporary blindness

im crackin up at your screen name

Hahaha thanks, i have used it for my gamertag for a while now

Random question while I'm here, would you say these are ready for harvest or nah? I'm thinking another week or 2... but I'm still a newbie compared to many.

tough call on those pics.maybe a whole branch shot ? how old are they into 12/12 and what is the strain? i have clones i have ran for going on 6 years now and they still need to be looked at under a scope to get it just perfect but i know im good i i take it between 55 and 60 days most times.from those pics i get the impression it still has too many white hairs but some strains do that right up to chop

They are only 7 weeks now that I'm looking at the dates... so probably another week to 2. I'll get a full shot tomorrow after work. Strain is aurora indica

i ran the AI a few years ago,cant rememberhow long i let it go.prob 8 weeks

Here's some zoomed out shots... definitely another week i think.

yeah i would say another week,lookin real nice though.