When I created the model and posted this thread across various forums, I had no intention of using LED (as you can see in the model). I simply had a curious thought and decided to drop a post about LED. This tiny bit of curiosity and small post on a forum turned into me taking the idea seriously. I've only ever grown with T5 lights and HPS lights. This was 6 days ago. I'm not one of those people who thinks having people help me get shit right means a blow to my pride. The fact of the matter is, I openly admit to knowing very, very little about LED to the point where some of my posts on it make very little sense to people who are well versed in this technology.
As for your questions, the whole per plant thing is not fixed at this time. Maybe 10, maybe 20, possibly 30. I don't know yet. I'm not even a week into planning and 4-5 months from building the op. Why 15 per plant? Because that really isn't an exorbitant amount and my understanding is that the harder you drive your COBs the less efficiency you receive and I'm willing to spend the money to have higher efficiency. Not to mention you get better coverage with 15 rather than 9...
I used this data to choose the reflector.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/lens-and-reflector-optics-for-cob.893660/ Why are you so against that choice? Are you saying not to use any optics? I’m not doing that.
There will definitely be a grow journal on this.