Yeah I get it, you could do it in steps to validate though and DIY kits are getting really easy, more or less assembly, some you have to build a frame, some provide them. Here's 300w of 3590's covering about 12 sq. ft. so more like ~25w/sq. ft. 30w/sq. ft. kills it with these, 1.5+ gpw with any decent strain. That's 4x plants all different strains.
What kind of temps? Cooling? and if you dont mind my asking, how much were the lights? I know you bought ready to go.
I went from CMH which is already cool and temps were getting out of hand the last couple of weeks because it's in between season (I depend on my HVAC for heat in winter/Air in summer, but when neither is kicking in temps can be a bitch. So the last couple of weeks I'm just running the COBs and temps dropped by 10F from 88F to 78F at the worst time of year for me. Huge difference.
For veg I just run those blurple panels (MARS, VIPAR and the like) at 25w/sq. ft., I've had several of them for 3+ years with no issues, they're cheap and very effective for vegging.
I don't know if it's because people are used to HPS or just because of the strains I grow (have grown the full catalog of hybrids lol) but my plants generally triple in size or more after I put them in flower so I really don't need strong veg lights, just enough to keep em alive, I use 400 watts and t5s, only because I can't afford or justify buying COBS 3590 5000k for the veg room. I spent enough for the flower room over the years. The flower room is mix of old LEDs, cobs Vero 29 and cxb 3590. I think I like the 3500k the best, had good results mixing 3000k and 4000k. But yeah a few years from now I will buy COBs LEDs for the veggie
At $2.40/w it would cost me $38 400 to replace my flower rooms HID, not including any electrical modifications. My current lighting cost about $6000....
So you're running 16,000 watts of HID ? If so probably not a viable option using COB's although you would probably only need 10,000 watts of COB's. I would expect you to pay way under 2.00 a watt for that qty. DIY would probably be way cheaper as you can get discounts on volume. I think the cxb 3590 are around 32.00 ea now plus heat sinks and drivers.
Thats true...could cut the wattage in half with cobs.
Don't do it......you will regret it. LED's are best suited for growing cannabis on the space shuttle.
Yeah they're horrible, thinking of switching to incandescent bulbs next after getting nothing off these LED's...
Don't get me wrong, I have seen some impressive results from closet LED grows. But to spend $25k-$30k to replace HID's is not worth it IMO. Looks good GroErr. LED's have their application, but their initial capital cost makes them prohibitive for most who grow for production.
They out-perform any form of hid/hps from a production standpoint watt-for-watt, just a higher up-front cost. It depends on how you look at it. Smaller grows are easier to get into from a capital standpoint, like I'm only running 600w over 3.5 x 7' or so. But the same logic applies to larger ops.