Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
4 single lamps or 2 2 lamp fixtures?I use (4) UVB150s in a 4× 4, I'd opt for the UVB200s but 3× the money isn't worth the small bumb in intensity for me personally.
4 single lamps or 2 2 lamp fixtures?I use (4) UVB150s in a 4× 4, I'd opt for the UVB200s but 3× the money isn't worth the small bumb in intensity for me personally.
(4) 26w CFL, I got mine @ ~$8/ and am happy with the results. On all the time, never have to worry. They may not be the most effecient option, but for me they work great.4 single lamps or 2 2 lamp fixtures?
Watch "How Chinese making fake eggs" on YouTubeDon't bother about him. He makes a habbit of being rude to people.
He also makes some ridiculous claims (about fake eggs in China and that 500 companies in China copied his designs. Telling that he will show with pics when he is less busy. blablabla)
Perhaps he knows a lot about led, but he is speaking so much nonsense as well that it is hard to tell truth from lies.
Oh so e27 screw in CFLs I see. I thought I should use those too honestly for ease but the tubes give such better spread if you're gonna actually take the time to do it(4) 26w CFL, I got mine @ ~$8/ and am happy with the results. On all the time, never have to worry. They may not be the most effecient option, but for me they work great.
Where I bought:
https://www.google.com/search?q=uvb150&client=ms-android-americamovil-us&biw=360&bih=518&tbm=shop&prmd=mvin&tbas=0&tbs=vw:l,p_ord:p,mr:1
Yes, the LED tubes have a driver in one end.LED use DC, and most fluoro use AC, so I'm still confused how these ballasts are interchangeable and how it knows whether what type of bulb it has in it. I guess maybe the LED tubes have on board rectifiers and drivers??
If using LED tubes driven by a fluoro ballast, I actually think you're wasting energy, or is less effecient. I think you are powering a ballast ontop of your LED tube rectifier/driver.
I'm guessing they are actually calculating theoretical of base chip.Maybe they are measuring power delivered to the LED tube, but not counting power loss through the ballast?
Ya tubes are good too! I think they are actually more effecient.Oh so e27 screw in CFLs I see. I thought I should use those too honestly for ease but the tubes give such better spread if you're gonna actually take the time to do it
It's listed as 15w/2200lm, but I see system wattage is 18 in the spec sheet. Most of the others appear more honest. I imagine it's about the same tech as screw in, just a little more room for diodes and driver. At least the screw-in's I've checked match rated power. The 60w equivalents have been 80-105lm/w.... if they are really 800lm.I'm guessing they are actually calculating theoretical of base chip.
The chips are behind frosted glass. If its 146.6lm/wt then the chips they are using are pretty good, and that little driver must be pretty good too. I've yet to find a 24w driver over 91%. When I looked at the specsheet it was more or less a sales flyer, not much useful data but gave 18w (or 122lm/w) which is maybe believable but I'm guessing its closer to 105lm/wt 1900lm max with that frosted glass. And ya like you said they aren't taking into account the dissipated energy and extra step to get mains to LEDs. Those ballasts can't be 100% efficient.
One way to tell would be to plug LED tube -> kilowatt meter -> mains, ...
...
...and then plug LED tube -> ballast -> kilowatt meter -> mains, ... and check meter readings to see the difference. One reading with the ballast inline, and one reading without the ballast.
So, I'm assuming you mean T5 when you're taking about using 4 of them... Right? Cause they do not make it for t8. BUT they have these UV200 bulbs. Any information on these bro?@Airwalker16
A 4ft bulb is good to cover a 4x 2' area so you should use 2 of them above a 4x 4' area. With 24" distance to the sides the plants would get at least 4 times less like the plants in the center depending on hanging heights. With 12" distance to the canopy they would still have +24" distance to the tent walls. In this case it's probably 20 times more directly below the bulb.
With 2 parallel bulbs spaced ~24" apart you would get a pretty even coverage and the plants next to the walls would get at least 50% of the center readings. You can lower the fixture to 12" distance and you would still have a pretty good coverage with some overlapping in the middle.
The 14% T5 bulbs are currently the strongest reptile bulbs and produce the highest amounts of UV. E27 CFL's are not comparable because of their 360° angle you need a reflector to focus the light on a certain circular or rectangular area. With the 4ft. bulb you cover a 2x 4' area pretty evenly and the usable range is 12-20". They still have measurable UVB in 28" distance.
You would need probably 3 or 4 of these e27 CFL's to create something comparable. These bulbs are used to create a UVB spot inside the terrarium the reptiles can use when they need it. T5/T8 bulbs are use to create an environment that simulates the natural environment of certain reptiles. So the animals always get enough UVB no matter where they are.
So, I'm assuming you mean T5 when you're taking about using 4 of them... Right? Cause they do not make it for t8. BUT they have these UV200 bulbs. Any information on these bro?
http://www.reptilesupplyco.com/t8-uvb-bulbs/3416-reptile-uvb-200-linear-bulb-48-exo-terra.html
Yes return them.What should I do with these 5 t8 ballasts now though?
Make 2 4 lamp fixtures for veg?
Or should I just ship them back
To make them used to UVB is neccessary cuz its the same as when you bring a small indoor plant in summer outdoors in the sun. She would need a few days in the shade to acclimate to the new conditions because of the UV radiation. With these bulbs it's the same. I would wait a week until the clone has rooted in properly and than start with maybe 2-4x 15 minutes the day. It takes around a week to make them used to it so in the 2nd week you can already start to increase it.@Randomblame
I did ask this before, but this subject is so busy that it easily gets overlooked.
I read here (and also in another topic I think), that the plants have to get used to UV-B.
Let's say one would maintain the following schedule: Clones 2-3 weeks, veg for 1-2 weeks and flower for 8-10 weeks.
And one would have 3 different rooms: A: Clone, B: veg and C: flower.
Would it then be possible to - once the clones get to the veg room - start with 1 hour of UV-B the first day in the veg room?
Then 2 hours the next day, etc., and then slowly building it up to 12 hours the day before they go the flower room?
Nope! Until now I've not seen such a multi channel driver.Yes return them.
I hate that feeling, I know you wanted this to work.
@Randomblame are you aware of any suitably effeccient drivers with multiple adjustable voltage and current outputs (at least 4) that could run both cobs (say 24 - 72V) and red and uv monos or monocobs (generally a lower voltage (6 - 14V)? Looking for 400-600 total watts.
I was trying to avoid the ldds because wanting to run when main light not on and if LDD is on same channel any adjustments would impact the main channel unless it were on its own lld too?Nope! Until now I've not seen such a multi channel driver.
Aquarium peeps usually use a big HLG-xxx CV/CC driver to fire a bunch of Meanwell LDD's which is a dc-to-dc driver.
But the highest input voltage is 52v and the usable output voltage is ~50v. You can find lots of dc-to-dc converters on ebay too also with adjustable CC output. I've seen them with 200w and more also with a higher voltage range.
These LDD's have up to 1,5A and could run an CXM22/32 for instance or any other COB with less than 50v@1,5A. You can get them from 350-1500mA, 35 and 52v version and they all are 5v PWM dimmable. So the cheapest reef controller is already enough to control each LDD separately. You can also get PCB's with 4 or 5 build in LDD's and all the needed connectors. You only need to connect the HLG-driver, the COB's, mono strings or strips and the reef controller to this board and its done. The controller firmware is stored on an additional sdcard you get with the controller and the better ones also have a smartphone app to set them up.
The only downside is you'll lose driver efficiency. Lets say you power 10 LDD's with an HLG-480H-48A set to 52v you get 95% efficiency. The LDD's can have up to 97% efficiency when input voltage is only 2-3v above output voltage. The higher the difference the less efficient.52v input and 36: output voltage means probably only 94% or so. So in the best case it's (0,95 x 0,97 =) 92,15% conversion efficiency. In use probably between 85 and 92% depending on setup, channel voltage and dimmer settings.
On e3ay you can find 3 channel RGB drivers with 3 channels and a remote controller. I've seen them from 10-100w. The 100w ones have 3 channels with 20- 40v/900mA. The 50w ones have 600mA per channel but only 33v or less. 30w RGB drivers have only 33v/270mA per channel. They look the same like they other 10-100w china drivers with their silver or golden driver housing. They have just 3 + and one - wire on the DC side. One + wire for each channel and a just one negative connection for all three channels. You can find them for ~20$..
View attachment 4318062