Are Bridgelux EB series gen 2 strips still the best bang for your buck if you're in Canada?

Rocket Soul said:

Depends on what space your doing. Id rec 20-25w per 2 foot strip. Standard 30-35w per square foot although i wouldnt be surprised if 25-30 work just fine aswell.

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I'm running a 5x5 space

CBDseeker said:

I'm running a 5x5 space

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read that thread, its filled with good info, the OP was building lights for a 5x10 tent. He ended up going with cutter j series as well

What do you guys use for thermal management with these strips? Are they run at max current?

DonPetro said:

What do you guys use for thermal management with these strips? Are they run at max current?

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Although my strips are run hella soft, I still have them stuck to heat sinks with thermal tape. At the moment my lights run at 1440 watts, I could easily buy more drivers and safely run them at 2880 watts without issue.

cutters j series at 25-30w per strip don’t need heat sinking.

if you sink them you can run them at 50w per strip easy enough

diggs99 said:

Although my strips are run hella soft, I still have them stuck to heat sinks with thermal tape. At the moment my lights run at 1440 watts, I could easily buy more drivers and safely run them at 2880 watts without issue.

cutters j series at 25-30w per strip don’t need heat sinking.

if you sink them you can run them at 50w per strip easy enough

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1440 watts wow!! What size space?
Do you use finned heatsinks or just flat bar?
Would 1/8" flat bar aluminum work?

DonPetro said:

1440 watts wow!! What size space?
Do you use finned heatsinks or just flat bar?
Would 1/8" flat bar aluminum work?

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its 3 separate fixtures, all 480w each, 1 light per 3x4 table. The room is 7x14

This is the sinks i used , they are finned, but this was for the older version j series, the new version are wider and need bigger sinks than the .61

DonPetro said:

What do you guys use for thermal management with these strips? Are they run at max current?

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You can run eb gen 2s at 1050ma without a heatsink. I run 12 per hlg-240-1050b. I have 48 in my 4x4 running at 75% full power.

I have the lights over 4 feet away from my canopy and get 600 par, and hardly any shadows.

If you can, try to get something higher cri. I got 80 cri and am kicking myself for it.

5x5 done nicely, in a tent or open space, anywhere you can access all for corners so that it can be raised and lowered: make a frame just over 4x4 of sturdy alu t-channel and kit it out with 4 foot strips and put a separate driver to this. Id probably go for a 200w driver for this bit. You can do it with with gen2s or gen 3s, use 1 or 2 strips per side depending on how much you wanna spend versus how hard you wanna drive your strips. This is so that you can dial in one intensity for the edges separately from the middle. If you spread your strips evenly in a square you will automatically have a bit of hotspotting in the middle, having a separate "all the sides" driver means you can remedy this buy boosting the sides a bit.

Then the middle section. You could do this with a 600, 480 or 2x240 drivers. If you go for 2x240 drivers you could even mix spectrums: evenly divide 3500 and 2700k strips between the two for vegg/flower. If youre really keen on 90 cri you could also opt for vesta strips if you cannot source gen 3s in 90. If you go for this then id suggest 3000k on the other driver. The vestas would use 2 channels: 5000k for veg and 2700k for flower added to the 3000k on the other driver. Remember that drivers would differ between vestas and ebs.

If this spectrum thing sounds complicated just go all to complicated: then go for one 600/480 driver with 3000k or 3500k. CV driver would be preferred here. That way you could add more strips at a later date if you like for efficiency. I would try to not run strips harder than 1050.

Dont skimp out or at least make it so you can come back and improve.

So your basic setup for 4 footers would be x4 for sides, 12 for the middle.
If you wanna do the vesta thing id get a cc driver for 12 vesta strips. Connect them up in 2 parallel strings, 6 in each with the 2 channels separated. 320h-c1750 or xlg240-M, AB driver type if possible. If not i allways prefer A for voltage adjustment for protexting your strips.
With 20w per 2 foot only minimal sinking is need.

These alternatives may be a bit complicated dont do anything you cannot wrap your head around. Cant remember if youre OP, if not make your own thread and type/draw out your design first that way its easier for you to know whether you know what to do.

Rocket Soul said:

5x5 done nicely, in a tent or open space, anywhere you can access all for corners so that it can be raised and lowered: make a frame just over 4x4 of sturdy alu t-channel and kit it out with 4 foot strips and put a separate driver to this. Id probably go for a 200w driver for this bit. You can do it with with gen2s or gen 3s, use 1 or 2 strips per side depending on how much you wanna spend versus how hard you wanna drive your strips. This is so that you can dial in one intensity for the edges separately from the middle. If you spread your strips evenly in a square you will automatically have a bit of hotspotting in the middle, having a separate "all the sides" driver means you can remedy this buy boosting the sides a bit.

Then the middle section. You could do this with a 600, 480 or 2x240 drivers. If you go for 2x240 drivers you could even mix spectrums: evenly divide 3500 and 2700k strips between the two for vegg/flower. If youre really keen on 90 cri you could also opt for vesta strips if you cannot source gen 3s in 90. If you go for this then id suggest 3000k on the other driver. The vestas would use 2 channels: 5000k for veg and 2700k for flower added to the 3000k on the other driver. Remember that drivers would differ between vestas and ebs.

If this spectrum thing sounds complicated just go all to complicated: then go for one 600/480 driver with 3000k or 3500k. CV driver would be preferred here. That way you could add more strips at a later date if you like for efficiency. I would try to not run strips harder than 1050.

Dont skimp out or at least make it so you can come back and improve.

So your basic setup for 4 footers would be x4 for sides, 12 for the middle.
If you wanna do the vesta thing id get a cc driver for 12 vesta strips. Connect them up in 2 parallel strings, 6 in each with the 2 channels separated. 320h-c1750 or xlg240-M, AB driver type if possible. If not i allways prefer A for voltage adjustment for protexting your strips.
With 20w per 2 foot only minimal sinking is need.

These alternatives may be a bit complicated dont do anything you cannot wrap your head around. Cant remember if youre OP, if not make your own thread and type/draw out your design first that way its easier for you to know whether you know what to do.

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To me that seems overly complicated considering I'm just planning to use this light for flower. With a setup in mind consisting of 12x 4ft gen 3 eb 3000k 80 cri strips, 2 pairs of 6 grouped, one driver, all I see to be desired is that those strips are going to be 80 cri rather than 90. that build would run me 523.00$ before tax. If I really wanted to go 90 cri, I'd either have to do the hybrid vesta strips, or order from cutter, this would either result in atleast double the amount of fixtures, and double the cost amount. do you feel that having the lights be 2700k and/or 90 cri would really make that big of a difference? I know I've already gotten very good results from flowering with my gen 2 3500k 80cri lights as well.

I'm not trying to say your recommendation is bad or that I don't appreciate it. It just seems like a lot of increased cost and complication for what seems to me to be fairly minimal difference. I am no expert on this obviously though, hence I am hear and appreciate all that everyone has to say!

CBDseeker said:

To me that seems overly complicated considering I'm just planning to use this light for flower. With a setup in mind consisting of 12x 4ft gen 3 eb 3000k 80 cri strips, 2 pairs of 6 grouped, one driver, all I see to be desired is that those strips are going to be 80 cri rather than 90. that build would run me 523.00$ before tax. If I really wanted to go 90 cri, I'd either have to do the hybrid vesta strips, or order from cutter, this would either result in atleast double the amount of fixtures, and double the cost amount. do you feel that having the lights be 2700k and/or 90 cri would really make that big of a difference? I know I've already gotten very good results from flowering with my gen 2 3500k 80cri lights as well.

I'm not trying to say your recommendation is bad or that I don't appreciate it. It just seems like a lot of increased cost and complication for what seems to me to be fairly minimal difference. I am no expert on this obviously though, hence I am hear and appreciate all that everyone has to say!

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I find that the long term good performance aand spread of a fixture generally makees it wworth it, especially if you feel like maybe youd go back and revise your light later. To each their own. Maybe i dont value it the same, if think challenge insttead of complicated, i build for commercial so little details which make for an ounce or two have more importance.

Edit: i advice to not get into something too complicated unless you have a clear plaan how.

You know if you price out a bridgelux strip build the finished lights from truenorthernlighting.com are almost the same price I think. Check it out I have four lights from them and I’ve built a snack load of lights from quantum boards, chilled gen2, chilled logic, photon fantom and the price of the tnl lights were hella low

Tnl 1.3$/w
Eb diy using 250$ of aluminum for the frame Around the same price

kkookoo said:

You know if you price out a bridgelux strip build the finished lights from truenorthernlighting.com are almost the same price I think. Check it out I have four lights from them and I’ve built a snack load of lights from quantum boards, chilled gen2, chilled logic, photon fantom and the price of the tnl lights were hella low

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Hmm nice name drop.
I assume the price is in CAD so 174usd isn't bad for 238w but im pretty sure you could build the same for less. No problem with them making a profit though.
I do take issue with them saying you can flower a 4x4 , I mean its less than half the wattage I would use.
See tester page , any idea where that is?

I dunno. Honestly I went price per watt I thought one sec

yea 1.3$ per watt. Cdn for tnl

I think you can build for 1$ per watt when I checked two years ago with Eb stripsdepending where you get your aluminum. Using alum L bracket tho from metals supermarket it’s around the same price

Hlg600h-42 280$
20 eb gen2 3500/5000k strips 250$
12 46” 1x2 aluminum L 240$ (20$ each)
20’ Remote driver cabtire wire 20$
Power cord (free)
2 Waterproof connectors 10$
18 gauge solid core 10$
Plastic junction box 12$
2 cable glands 2$
4 bolts and nuts 1$
2 sets yo-yo hangers 15$
Rivet gun and Rivets 20$

860$ For 600+W at 170 lm/w = 1.43$/W
So damn close to tnl but I did add remote wire, junction box, hangars, tools to my build - sorry it’s not an exact comparison but I dont want to go retype it now lol

Using two strips of eb per aluminum L channel pretty sure you could do better with a single sheet of aluminum and four 4 10$ computer case fans for cooling

so that’s what I thought it’s a waste of time IMO to do all this if tnl is so close in price and you’d have warranty on the light at least. I dunno close call but you could do something more custom specific if you build yourself. I like getting shit ready to use in the mail though.

kkookoo said:

Hlg600h-42 280$
20 eb gen2 3500/5000k strips 250$
12 46” 1x2 aluminum L 240$ (20$ each)
20’ Remote driver cabtire wire 20$
Power cord (free)
2 Waterproof connectors 10$
18 gauge solid core 10$
Plastic junction box 12$
2 cable glands 2$
4 bolts and nuts 1$
2 sets yo-yo hangers 15$
Rivet gun and Rivets 20$

860$ For 600+W at 170 lm/w

Using two strips of eb per aluminum L channel pretty sure you could do better with a single sheet of aluminum and four 4 10$ computer case fans for cooling

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Your price for aluminium is crazy high, only cost me like £9 for 4 meters and that's U channel.
Ive seen this before, you guys must be getting bum raped on aluminium.

coreywebster said:

Your price for aluminium is crazy high, only cost me like £9 for 4 meters and that's U channel.
Ive seen this before, you guys must be getting bum raped on aluminium.

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Pretty much lol. So that said if you have cheap alum you can do it cheaper. Hook a brother up

kkookoo said:

Pretty much lol. So that said if you have cheap alum you can do it cheaper. Hook a brother up

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lol I think it would be expensive to ship from uk to Canada
I use aluminium warehouse but even local stores are pretty cheap in comparison.

It is crazy that Canada has such high prices, in the uk we still have to import everything to make it from Africa and south America.

coreywebster said:

Your price for aluminium is crazy high, only cost me like £9 for 4 meters and that's U channel.
Ive seen this before, you guys must be getting bum raped on aluminium.

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Love alu warehouse.
But even for some of the niche profiles, you can get bummed in UK. That stuff for carpentry tools (T-track) is an example.
Pricing on thinner material can be favourable. Buy and try.