led cost per hid

I underdtand leds are way cheaper on electricity and am looking into swirching to cxa3070s I run 3k hids mh/hps. How much has your electric bill changed from hids to leds. I no w 3k lights a monster fan for just lighting irs good be a big differmece anyone no how much differemce there is roughly

about as much difference as having a high school education versus dropping out in the 7th grade....

It depends a lot on how much you are paying per kWh and how much AC you use if you live somewhere hot. I was using 600W X 4 cheapo HPS bulbs and switched to about 1300W LED (2000W equivalent in commercial panels). Yields improved hugely for me and if you have a separate veg area LED can do a lot for you there as well. I save a good amount on my electric bill each month but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the increased yield.

SupraSPL said:

It depends a lot on how much you are paying per kWh and how much AC you use if you live somewhere hot. I was using 600W X 4 cheapo HPS bulbs and switched to about 1300W LED (2000W equivalent in commercial panels). Yields improved hugely for me and if you have a separate veg area LED can do a lot for you there as well. I save a good amount on my electric bill each month but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the increased yield.

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I see your diy led threads and I understand what your saying.to a point. I want to replace my lights of course w cxa3070s 2700k and 3000k as well as red prob 650-670nm and blues not sure about.. is there. A driver or drivers you would recommend or setup you would recommend my area ia 8x8. I no I can run 3 leds per driver but would like your opinion as you no eberything and have tested everything thanks

Ya man if you are up for a DIY you can really pimp an 8X8. Currently the 1.4A drivers we have been using from eBay are sold out, although you can order similar ones from China. I tested a pair of these and they were very similar to the sold out ones that ship from Cali. Warmed up they put out 1.475A, run up to 42vf, power factor corrected and ~89% efficient.

If you prefer the higher voltage style of the Mean Wells, the HLG-185H-C1400A/B is a great option. As you said you can run (3) of them on each driver. If you get the B version I think you can dim a whole bunch of drivers from one control unit. That might come in handy in the first few weeks of flowering as the canopy expands and/or the final week of flowering.

So for a simple setup, with (3) COBs on each heatsink with one fan. Each module would be dissipating about 160W. If you used every bit of canopy in the 8X8 at 30W / sq ft, we would need 12 modules or about 1920W of dissipation. That should get you a minimum of 5LB per cycle. It would draw about 2150W or 18.5A at 120V. It would be no problem to wire it for 240V and then it would draw only 9.5A.

Are you planning on aisles in the 8X8?

The room is 10x12 I am able to get all the way around with a lilttle moving to get to center girls. Which is no problem as I have been doing for a few years now. Sometimes i allow them to veg a touch longer and they stretch more and take up more space so i take up the walking paths but oh well. How many 2700k,3000k red and blue would you run per light set up. 4 red 2 blue amd rest 2700k and 3000k. Is it best to have a veg and flower or all an all in one will work for entire cycle.

For builds that size we have been using 3000Ks on their own (see @CaliWorthington and @foreverflyhi ) My build is borderline irrational because of running soft (700-800mA) and because of massive passive cooling heatsinks. Mostly that was because I had huge amounts of heatsinks and COBs on hand so I figured why not. But for those who are not trying to prove something in terms of efficiency, I recommend straight CXA3070 3000K ABs at 1.4A with active cooling and you will still be nearly peerless in terms of efficiency (~42%).

To my knowledge the Cree CXA3070 3000K AB bin is the highest efficiency warm white available or conceived. It is even more efficient than most cool whites. There are currently no 2700K that are worth the sacrifice in efficiency IMO. Maybe the 3000K Vero29 could fill that role? I believe (if you are ambitious) adding in deep reds and deep blues is a better approach than working with the 2700Ks currently available (no disrespect to those with 2700K, it grows dank bud for sure!). You could work in some Cree photo reds (deep red) and Luxeon royal blues with excellent efficiency. The downside is, they would need separate strings and drivers, which would complicate the wiring a bit. But it could be done and that is what I currently use.

Another option, you could work in some CXA3070 4000K AD bin to get some extra blue and that would not complicate the wiring or compromise the efficiency. But that does not address the deep reds.

I use a separate vegging area and build vegging specific lamps. The CXA3070 4000K AD might be helpful for that job. In part of my vegging room I use CXA3590 5000K for the stretchiest ladies. Other parts of the room are using 4500K and some are using a red/white/blue mixture. You could mix the 4000K and the 5000K for a simple lamp.

One thing to consider though, color mixing of COBs may not be that great because ideally they will be pretty close to your canopy and will not have much chance for the photons to mingle. The main reason I added deep reds and blues to my warm white COBs is because I already had them on hand, but it is really not necessary for dank dense buds.

Ok run 3 3000k cxa3070's on a Mean Wells, the HLG-185H-C1400A/B correct with artic fans. Heatsinks from ebay.or.or another site... red and blue s may help but because there close to plants the reds will not be able to spread through out the plant and it will be more concentrated then spreading. Am I correct so far... make a veg panel and flower panel ill probably make 2 flower panels to cover the area or 3. For veg run the 5000k with some blues. Do the colored leds have to have there own drivers seperate from the 3000k bexause they are different milliamp and different power levels etc dude I needed this and you have helped me tremendously I appreciate your time and help with everything brother

If you run the cxas at 1a instead of 1.4 you could run oslon hyper red on the same channel. Then it would take 4 cxa 3070 to fill the driver at 40w each. Cost more but it's a little more efficient and allows mixing in 1a rated deep reds and blues. Cxas would take up 160w...red/blue would have 20w...20w for driver inefficiencys. The driver would be used fully

Trend seems to be heading towards just white though. I don't think 2000w of cxa ab would need any help..lol

Positivity said:

If you run the cxas at 1a instead of 1.4 you could run oslon hyper red on the same channel. Then it would take 4 cxa 3070 to fill the driver at 40w each. Cost more but it's a little more efficient and allows mixing in 1a rated deep reds and blues. Cxas would take up 160w...red/blue would have 20w...20w for driver inefficiencys. The driver would be used fully

Trend seems to be heading towards just white though. I don't think 2000w of cxa ab would need any help..lol

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Sweet thanks for the input so should I make 2 panels with 8 3070s per panel so 4 per row and 2 drivers per light. Also what is the recommended size heatsink fan combo per the 3070s. It I had 16 3070s covering an 8x8 area that would be plenty or should I get more.... the drivers can be adjusted for amp output or gow would I change from 1.4a to 1.oA

The trend is probably based on the fact that cree or bridgelux doesn't have mono cobs.

Positivity said:

Trend seems to be heading towards just white though. I don't think 2000w of cxa ab would need any help..lol

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churchhaze said:

The trend is probably based on the fact that cree or bridgelux doesn't have mono cobs.

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So would you recommend reds for flower wnd blues in veg or whats your recomnendation? I hear full spectrum a lot

I've never tried reds for flowering, only white. With the efficiency of the xp-e photo red, i'm sure it works great along side white.

For that large an area I'd do light bars. 4 - 72" heatsinks 8 cobs each. The 4" wide profile would be $100 from heatsink USA. That'd be a pretty good start. I would leave the reds out and drive the cxa at 1.4a to lower the cost of the system a bit.

You can always modify or add later

That's just what I imagine... I've never outfitted that large a room.

Positivity said:

For that large an area I'd do light bars. 4 - 72" heatsinks 8 cobs each. The 4" wide profile would be $100 from heatsink USA. That'd be a pretty good start. I would leave the reds out and drive the cxa at 1.4a to lower the cost of the system a bit.

You can always modify or add later

That's just what I imagine... I've never outfitted that large a room.

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So driving the cxas at 1.4a would be 3 per driver correct and if I ran 4 cxas at 1a I can run 4 which way would be better.

If you ran everything at 1A, the CXAs would be 45.5% efficient and the Oslon 3T deep reds would be about 36%. If you ran the CXAs at 1.4A and photo reds at .7A (separate driver), the CXAs would be 42% and the photo reds would be 42.4%. But again, due to the size of the build I encourage a straight warm white setup at 1.4A.

I recommend the 5.88" profile because it has a thick base plate and it fits the 140mm PC fan perfectly for efficient quiet cooling. The length for each heatsink would be about 24" which would allow decent spacing between the COBs.

SupraSPL said:

If you ran everything at 1A, the CXAs would be 45.5% efficient and the Oslon 3T deep reds would be about 36%. If you ran the CXAs at 1.4A and photo reds at .7A (separate driver), the CXAs would be 42% and the photo reds would be 42.4%. But again, due to the size of the build I encourage a straight warm white setup at 1.4A.

I recommend the 5.88" profile because it has a thick base plate and it fits the 140mm PC fan perfectly for efficient quiet cooling. The length for each heatsink would be about 24" which would allow decent spacing between the COBs.

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Would smaller heat sinks be better then big long ones and put multiple on like above post