Aluminum would be great, but Ive been running a F series strip a good bit over max power for a while now with a decent heatsink and it seems to be holding up, so far.isn't the epoxy composite material of the samsung strips effectively insulating the LEDs from any heat sinks we might be adding? should we not shop for strips that use aluminum-PCBs instead for better heat transmission?
That's a handy tip. It definitely would save money and, if they don't actually require heat sinks I guess it won't matter that the metal is rather thin on these - I think about 1/40 inch in your parlance.If that's not an option then, I would definitely consider U-channel, instead of flat stock. Architectural U-channel is about the cheapest you will find. Here its about $10 for 8 foot lengths and most hardware stores carry it.
Flat stock is floppy and will droop anyway.
isn't the epoxy composite material of the samsung strips effectively insulating the LEDs from any heat sinks we might be adding? should we not shop for strips that use aluminum-PCBs instead for better heat transmission?
Thickness really doesn't matter - surface area is all that really counts.That's a handy tip. It definitely would save money and, if they don't actually require heat sinks I guess it won't matter that the metal is rather thin on these - I think about 1/40 inch in your parlance.
I posted this in the Quantum boards thread but want to start a new thread for my panel build:
So I'm about to buy some LED stripes.
It is supposed to be used for flower only.
The space is 3.3 x 6 ft. So 19.8 ft²
My favorites are:
samsung f-series gen3
SI-B8U521B20WW
or
EB Series Gen 2
BXEB-L1120Z-35E4000-C-B3
I was thinking of buying 10 of those samsung stripes and running them @450 W.
so that means 46v and 1A for each stripe.
In total they have 1440 LED.
I guess they are not S6 binning like the quantum boards from HLG but S4.
How big is this difference in real world use? at 50% power it seems to be a difference of arround 11% in lumen output. Quite a number but:
The stripes would be more distributed on the space and have more single LED as an lightsource than the Quantum boards. So might this compensate for the worse binning?
In COB threads its all about 1 COB for 1 sqft.
Is this still the better solution?
Is there any data showing that the narrow space of a Quantum board is superior to distributed COB or stripes with S4 binning?
Im also having a hard time finding some data for comparison between Quantum boards vs Stripes vs COB.
Did anyone ever tested this? @CobKits maybe?
Now I also discovered the Bridgelux EB Series Gen 2
One stripe only have 114 LED instead of Samsungs 144, but with the cheaper price I could purchase more of them.
For the same price (little less actually) I could buy 15 Bridgelux Stripes.
In total 1710 LED.
So even more then Samsung with more distribution.
They are slightly less efficient but maybe more LED + wider distribution will get better results?
Basically I just want to know how to build the best bang in the buck panel with good results.
Hard to find any real use case data out there, just a lot of theory
Electricity is very expensive here were I live so better efficiency makes a lot of difference.
But how much more yield will I get with (for example) with 10 of those bridgelux stripes and 15 or Quantum boards ?
Does it justify the greater investement?
That speaks to my original question - and confirms my thoughts. Cheers!Thickness really doesn't matter - surface area is all that really counts.
Thank goodness - a better reason to do less wiring than me being a slacker.That's not how uniformity works. The distance between the strips relates to the mimimum distance between the light and the canopy. If you have more strips you could hang the lights slightly closer to the plants, but even with double row strips they can already go very close. Double row strips spaced 6" apart can be at 4" to 5" from the plants. There is little light distribution benefit from doubling the number of strips and going closer still. I'd personally say it's becomes awkward to get them closer than 5" anyway.
I have 90cm/3ft height for pots, plants, light fixture, carbon filter, fans. I went with Eb2s to be able to keep plants close to lightsThank goodness - a better reason to do less wiring than me being a slacker.
Out of curiosity, which Eb2s are you running and how close to the plant tops have you got them?I have 90cm/3ft height for pots, plants, light fixture, carbon filter, fans. I went with Eb2s to be able to keep plants close to lights
Everything arrived but got no time to put it together.Out of curiosity, which Eb2s are you running and how close to the plant tops have you got them?
Ok so about 6 or 8 single row strips will be spaced around 167mm or 125mm apart depending how many strips I'll choose. Thats on 1000mm total length.You need about 6 rows of LEDs for 600mm if you drive them at typical currents, 8 for higher output at same input.
Whether you take those as 3 double row or 6 single row strips is up to your budget. For low ceilings, I would use 6 or 8 the single row strips.And then another 1 or 2 on the last foot or so.