LED / COB cool down period

jjng5

jjng5

Well-Known Member
Hello all --

My friend has experience with HPS growing and currently has 40 clones cooking in his aerocloner which will be moving into DWC in his veg tent to prep them to go into one of the flower tents. These are under T5HO's from his mother tent. He is trying to get everything setup and in place for his grow.

Question is -- he just purchased 4 units of "1800W" (300W from plug) x6 COB lights; so four total lights to supplement his air-cooled HPS lights in his two flower tents. He is setting up a monthly perpetual grow setup. He has never used COB LEDS or LED's at all for that matter -- they were not big many years ago; only HPS/MH. Everything I read says that the LED's need a cool down period for maximum life usage. Since these lights are supplemental lights, he was planning on a 15 minute or 30 minute cool down period part way thru the 12/12 cycle.

Anyone who is using COB's, what are your thoughts? Maybe a 15 minute cool down (turned off) on a timer every 4 hours? Maybe a 30 minute cool down 6 hours into the 12/12 cycle?

I appreciate your help!
 
jjng5

jjng5

Well-Known Member
Observe & Report said:
Thermal management is important to LEDs, too hot can shorten their life or destroy them but a "cool down period" sounds like stoner mythology. If you bought a prefabbed unit or kit it should have adequate thermal management.
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Thanks for your response. What do you suggest then; not to turn it off part way thru 12/12? Most manufactures state that equipment should not run longer than 8-10 hours?
 
jjng5

jjng5

Well-Known Member
Aww.. it's a possibility. I've done a bit of research on both. This wasn't what was purchased however. COB x6 "1800" (300W from plug) x 4 were bought. So it should be fine without any need for cool down it sounds?
 
NanoGadget

NanoGadget

Well-Known Member
We could just end all the speculation if the OP could just gives a make and model on the lights in question. Beyond that, I agree with the previous posts... if a grow light is suggesting a cool down after 8 to 10 hours it is very likely a poorly made light built from low quality parts.
 
Observe & Report

Observe & Report

Well-Known Member
Don't buy that shit. If it can't be left on for 18 hours in grow room conditions it's a shit light. A light that doesn't have the means to shed waste heat and has to be turned off periodically is a shit light. That site you linked to only exists to get affiliate kickbacks from Amazon. Amazon has shit lights.

There is a limit to how much people will pay for a fully assembled weed growing light and after you supply an enclosure, fans, switches, sockets, certifications, logos, box, manual, advertisements, amazon/alibaba fees, profit, etc... there is apparently little budget left for decent LEDs so they use the cheapest shit they can get. At that point you should just get a used HPS fixture/ballast with a new lamp. It's more efficient than shitty LEDs and a lot cheaper up front.

Light vendors don't pay your electric bill and most people are terrible at math and generally pretty clueless so vendors have little incentive to use efficient or a sufficient quantity of LEDs to spread the power around, which both cost more up front but end up costing less over the life of the light from reduced electricity use (Your Mileage May Vary.)

All that plus the fact that LEDs are still improving rapidly means that DIY with the latest components, either sourced yourself or from a kit, is still the best way to go. You can run as soft as you want, spread as much as you want, easily replace a damaged component, etc...
 
Antitheist

Antitheist

Well-Known Member
They will last longer if you give them a 30 min CD every 6 hours. All the blurples recommend it. It's not ideal but nothing is gonna die from it. Run 2 timers. Don't have them all on cd at the same time.

I once saw a guy on here say a blurple was like a kid getting his first car. It's not that nice of a car, but that kid will use it to learn how to drive until he can get a better car.... or something like that.
 
jtrizzy

jtrizzy

Well-Known Member
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
NanoGadget said:
We could just end all the speculation if the OP could just gives a make and model on the lights in question. Beyond that, I agree with the previous posts... if a grow light is suggesting a cool down after 8 to 10 hours it is very likely a poorly made light built from low quality parts.
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The clue was in the part where he said 1800w but 300w at the wall! lol oh dear...
I imagine they are running them hard with minimum heat sink. :sad:
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
jjng5

jjng5

Well-Known Member
Antitheist said:
They will last longer if you give them a 30 min CD every 6 hours. All the blurples recommend it. It's not ideal but nothing is gonna die from it. Run 2 timers. Don't have them all on cd at the same time.

I once saw a guy on here say a blurple was like a kid getting his first car. It's not that nice of a car, but that kid will use it to learn how to drive until he can get a better car.... or something like that.
Click to expand...
Okay thanks. A blurple light was not purchased, a COB x6 300W x 4 units were bought online. I wasn't sure if COB required the same type of cool down like you mentioning that blurple does. I know that fans are usually the first thing to go out on any LED lamp, so I'm trying to find out how to prolong it's life before one has to start sourcing parts! Ugh...
 
jtrizzy

jtrizzy

Well-Known Member
jjng5 said:
Okay thanks. A blurple light was not purchased, a COB x6 300W x 4 units were bought online. I wasn't sure if COB required the same type of cool down like you mentioning that blurple does. I know that fans are usually the first thing to go out on any LED lamp, so I'm trying to find out how to prolong it's life before one has to start sourcing parts! Ugh...
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can you please link the lights you bought. the link you dropped has ZERO cobs on that list. just for the record probably the best light on that list is the solar storm but that is a stretch.
 
jjng5

jjng5

Well-Known Member
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