Upgrading leds to draw more power... Is it possible?

So I know I’ve seen a post where the diodes were upgraded. But can it be upgraded to make the diodes run the full 10 watts? From my understanding, the reason that 1000 watts isn’t a true thousand is because the leds aren’t getting that full power. Can I pull more watts from the wall? Or would it burn out the leds?

I’m not the light-guy here but I think you want to upgrade the led’s and run the driver’s you have :clown_face:

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I’ve got a hollandstar cob right now. And I love it. Not even too sure I want to upgrade it. Just curious if it was possible. And if it was, would it be worth it?

DIY Tutorial: Upgrading the Roleadro 400w COB

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Yes, you could upgrade the driver but you would be then using out of date, not very good diodes and running them at their most inefficient rate (max output). Where the real savings comes in with newest gen top bin diodes driven at about 75% of peak. Then you can use LESS power than you are using now. For a better result.

@dbrn32 could say it much better.

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I agree with the others, you can but you definitely don’t want to. If anything, you would want to do the opposite. For example keeping your drivers and replacing leds.

A 10 watt led refers to its forward voltage at maximum current. So they usually have a forward voltage of 3-3.5 at 3 amps. I’m going to guess your light is 100 ten watt diodes? And it consumes 200-250 watts?

What they’re doing there is running the leds at a lower current where they’re more efficient and easier to cool. It probably uses epistar leds that are about 30% efficient at 700ma. That means for every watt you consume 30% of it goes to light and 70% is heat loss. Generally speaking, doubling the current will cost you at least 10% efficiency. You would be more than 4x the current to run them at max. Another consideration is that as those heat losses go up so does the diode temp. When diode temp goes up, more efficiency losses. And those Chinese fixtures are notoriously known for already being undersized on the heatsinks.

I hate using lumens when it comes to grow lights, but just about everyone understands it. So let’s say your light runs at 100 lumens per watt and is 200 watt consumption, that’s 20,000 lumens. Then you quadruple the current and take a 20% hit, and then have your diode temp raise to something like 70c is probably another 10%. Now your light is probably 70 lumens per watt at best and consumes about 900 or so watts. That’s 63,000 lumens.

Yes you have a lot more light. But you’re 4.5x the power and only 3x the light. Not to mention running probably far beyond the thermal load that factory cooling can handle.

The better alternative here is to see if there’s some more efficient leds that match up with your drivers. There’s definitely leds capable of running 60%+ efficient. Which means your 200 watts at 100 lumens per watt could potentially be something like 200 watts at 200 lumens per watt. You not only could double your output that way while staying on the same consumption, your light will also run a lot a cooler and probably for a lot longer.

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My current flowering light is a cob. How would I know if other cob diodes would work for my driver? Would any one work? Or do they have to be compatible?

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Take a picture of the driver label and wiring. Specifically if fans have their own power supply or are wired in with leds.

Yes yes yes. There needs to be an “extra like” button.

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What is draw power of the 10W chips? I am using MarsproII light, 5w chips, draw power is 2.2–2.3W

Varies depending on drive current. The 560 eb strips are like 14 watts at 700ma and 20 watts at 1000ma.