At 107 lumens per watt, I believe it’s more efficient than the the driverless cobs. The ones I’ve seen list 80-90 lumens, per watt I’m assuming.
So it’s not great, but I bet doing something with a19’s is comparable if not greater performance.
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I guess there is always some cheaper way to make a product. If your efficiency is that bad, you are better off with HPS. It will actually make less heat, since inefficiency is all generated heat.
T-8 fluorescents are 88 lumens per watt and a lot cheaper to buy.
Personally I wouldn’t do that either. But I can point out the problem with looking at it that way. The t8’s aren’t a directional light source and their photons are a lot less condensed. Using lumens to compare the two is almost useless. The par levels will be much higher under the leds. But we’ll say we’re not going to consider that.
Throwing 4 of those leds in a way splitter will be as cheap or cheaper than buying a t8 fixture with bulbs too. So you get around a 20% increase in efficacy for about the same price if buying new. You may be able to pull a few extra lumens from hps, but that’s going to cost more. And then you’re stuck having veg under different light source due to garbage light they produce.
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is trc the only one carrying these?
they have up to 100w, too.
heatsinks? any good cheap places/sites to get these?
Trc is not. They are just the easiest website to use. Once we figure out a direction we can find cheapest prices. At that cost, probably won’t find them much cheaper. But if arrow has them can get free overnight shipping.
I don’t believe that style of driver goes that big, but I can look around. Throughout the industry, 100 watt cobs aren’t very common. Most of them have too poor of efficiency that high. You only really see them on budget builds when people are trying to cram watts. You end up having twice the power consumption for only like a 20% increase in light. If you’re concerned about watts, I would probably suggest a vero 29 in the 70-75 watt range. I will have to do some more searching if you like that that style of driver, I’m not sure if they’re available.
Heatsinks are kind of hit and miss. Passive pin sinks are around $20. Bigger is more, you can sometimes get into the smaller ones a little cheaper. Buying in bulk can save some money too. Cob kits, rapid led, hlg, and plc should all sell heatsinks depending on stock.
The cob prices vary, but you’re usually at more of who has what in stock. Depending on cob you go with, you may have to watch binning info. A digit or 2 in the part number can make big difference. All of the places above are good for cobs and drivers. Plus digikey, mouser, arrow electronics, and I’m sure there are others.
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If you really want LED floodlamps, look at walmart on line. They have a very large selection of them in multiple packs. Pretty cheap, like $23 for a 4 pack of 12 watt lamps. They even give you lumens and color temperature for most of them. I think they will ship any of them to a store near you for free.
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thank you again @dbrn32 for all the help… i will go through these options and come up with something and get back with you…lol
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No problem! I’ll continue to look for other versions of that driver in my free time too.
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@SmoknGranny this is one of my threads, so I would like to continue that conversation here.
I’m not a prime member myself. I probably should be, but I don’t order there as much as other places. And there is a relatively new amazon hub very close to me, so as long as it’s fulfilling from amazon and I spend the $35, it ships for free and I usually get in a few days anyway. I used amazon for that particular post because it’s site friendly, and easy to search. You can purchase those bulbs wherever is convenient or cheapest as far as I’m concerned lol.
The couple of things I’d like to point out about those particular bulbs… they are 3000k 90 cri. In a lower color rendering index the 3000k would probably promote a little more stretch. So if you are confined by height, could potentially be an issue. The 90 cri offer a more crisp representation of the blue wavelengths, and peak deeper in the red wavelengths. These are our friend. Unfortunately, the higher cri comes at cost of efficacy(lumens per watt). On those particular bulbs, it still hovers around 100 lumens per watt. Not bad at all for the cost. The latest and greatest cxb3590 cob (probably the most well known, often referred to as best) is like 130 lumens per watt in that color temp. 50 Watts of that will run about $100 for reference. So dollar for dollar, those bulbs stack up well. They’re not the typical bulb you will find dirt cheap at local store, but anything is possible. But even if they cost an extra couple bucks, the investment will pay dividends without costing ridiculous amount more.
As far as the lamp holder, I don’t care what anyone uses. Find something out of the trash or a bathroom remodel lol. Cheap is the name of the game. Sometimes however, more is less. You can very easily nickel and dime yourself into paying more trying to make something not as compatible work. The y splitter is very popular for cfl, but you really don’t want these bulbs pointing at angle. Ideally you unscrew diffuser and have the point straight down.
All things considered, I think I did pretty good lol. You’re not going to grow ounces with that, but it will outperform cfl of the same wattage no problem. To get the most out of them you just put that green thumb to work.
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@BIGE do you have 240v access for cobs? Not a big deal if you don’t, but it can save you couple bucks on driver.
Here is what I’m working with so far. Wouldn’t be ideal for like a short 2x2 grow, as you would need a little height to tame intensity and get light spread. I would probably opt for strips or lower powered cobs or qb if height is regulated. But single cob at higher power, this is good balance at about 75 Watts. Rapid doesn’t have compatible driver either. But I’ll find one.
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just add driver huh? i have it wired 110 now and will probably stay that way for now @dbrn32
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i also do not mind buying from multiple company’s if need be.
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Ya. You’ll need some hardware too. Sometimes rapid sends cob mounting bolts with heatsinks and sometimes they don’t lol. But I think I covered just about everything there.
You have a couple of options for drivers. The elg series is couple bucks cheaper, but it derates at 120v. Then depending on dimming options. You can choose onboard dimmer from 50-100%. Or to hook up your own dimmer and go from like 10%-100%. Would need extra parts for that though.
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Okay. I just used those bulbs as an example or comparison. And I agree with what you said.
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Sourcing the parts gets tricky. Sometimes you’re better off paying $2 more to get free shipping somewhere else. The electronics outlets are usually cheapest on cobs, but stock goes quick and they don’t carry the heatsinks.
Right now rapid has 15% off. Arrow has 10% off, but they don’t have driver I was looking for in stock.
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I understand. I just try to be as clear as possible to avoid confusion. If you end up with 5000k bulb in any cri, that changes a lot. To some people here I can spit those numbers out easily and they know exactly what I mean. Others, I want to make sure I give enough information without making it anymore confusing than need be. I try to be here to help, not confuse people more. It’s sometimes hard to do with led tech, especially without getting carpal tunnel haha.
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have you checked out the optic one single cob?
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And of course I’m out of likes again 
. I’m married to a chemical engineer who always says “Isopropyl alcohol” as opposed to rubbing alcohol. I also have taught and the best advice I was given was to not assume others knew what you are talking about 
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thermal pad> Bridgelux says not to use these under Vero29s. It’s in their heatsinking document. Use a TIM (thermal grease) like you would for a microprocessor. I think it is pretty easy to find. I got some on ebay.
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