GC 630 DE CMH

Howdy

I've been impressed with my 315 CMH, and was plotting and planning for a new space. I'll have room to do two rows of four plants in 10gal pots, with a path in the middle. Last run, two wide took up approximately 6ft wide.

My original layout was only 6 plants, and I was going to use 4 315CMH over that, but now that I'm going with 8 plants, I'm starting to consider other options... I could probably have decent results adding another two lamps, but at that point, with the air cooled attachment ($380 w/ added ductwork) x6 comes out to almost 2300. Now, if I use the new true DE CMH w/ enhanced Reds, I can drop my price down to about 1850. Here's the rub...

The CMH was designed to run on a low frequency square wave, and all the DE ballasts are designed to run a high frequency sine. So, until someone, which I'm sure GC in the process of doing, creates a LFSqW ballast, the bulb is going to be subject to reduced life. The question is, how much? The CMH already has a favorable lifespan, and only degrades up to 10%, but how fast will it degrade running the wrong wave?

I wish I could just run all COB, but I can't afford the upfront it'd take to make 4 1kW replacement fixtures like I'm making for a friend now (I figure a 10 bulb 3590 fixture at 1.4mA in a 3-4-3 config does the trick pretty well, my cost to build two was around $1400 after shipping, so I'd be at $2800)

So, to sum it up - What's going to be my best lighting config to cover a 6x12 area?

if you have a space in the middle to walk down

then for sure you should use that space for some side lights too as you can hit 2 sides of both rows of plants meaning you just have to top light and you`ll get doubt top buds rotate your plants weekly or daily and you`ll yield a lot more

I would just go with DE lamps and see how long they take to burn out

or build 50w to 200w of cob lights per plant and use your CMH`s in the middle as side lights or with parabolic

if your less fussy over what chips and drivers your buying leds get a lot cheaper but you take a risk that your light won`t be as good

1kw smd based led chips are now around $130 to $200 delivered, you just need about 4 x 200w drivers, a heatsink and a fan

depends how much room you have to install your lights more emitters works better due to multiple lighting angles spread heat and can be more efficient

but a bigger lamp is easier and less fuss and cheaper it`s why people take a 600 hps over a 400 or a 1k over a 600 more power for less money and less things to go wrong when you have less drivers and less emitters easier to keep spares and replace them then when you have 10`s or 100`s of lamps

Yeah, you know, my ideal setup would be a 315 between each plant, and a 3x 3590 bar on each side. I guess I could just run 3 HLG185 with that. So, 6 drivers total @ $55 = 330. 24 COB@ 37 (cutter) = ~900 and 24 heatsinks @ $13 a piece from PLC = $350.

So, that would put it at right about 3k for that setup, covering 8 plants with about 615W per 2 plants. Would be comparable wattage output to the DE setup, but significantly higher price. However, it would also noticably reduce heat and probably give a better spread with high umol over the footprint.

HockeyBeard said:

Yeah, you know, my ideal setup would be a 315 between each plant, and a 3x 3590 bar on each side. I guess I could just run 3 HLG185 with that. So, 6 drivers total @ $55 = 330. 24 COB@ 37 (cutter) = ~900 and 24 heatsinks @ $13 a piece from PLC = $350.

So, that would put it at right about 3k for that setup, covering 8 plants with about 615W per 2 plants. Would be comparable wattage output to the DE setup, but significantly higher price. However, it would also noticably reduce heat and probably give a better spread with high umol over the footprint.

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Honestly

I`d use whatever CMH`s you already have, hang a 600 or 1k hps in the middle of the room, build some cobs for the rest then replace the hps with cobs or cmh after your 1st yield, I mean you should be able to pay for the lights in one grow right?

its having to water more and losing plants or yield due to heat you don`t want to deal with ?

THE KONASSURE said:

Honestly

I`d use whatever CMH`s you already have, hang a 600 or 1k hps in the middle of the room, build some cobs for the rest then replace the hps with cobs or cmh after your 1st yield, I mean you should be able to pay for the lights in one grow right?

its having to water more and losing plants or yield due to heat you don`t want to deal with ?

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Yeah, mostly heat and amperage. I'm not on 220V and only have limited circuit space left. I have 2 CMH already in use. What I'm considering is running those 2, plus two more and doing the COB supplemental on the one row, and on the second set of 8, try using the DE CMH. A single 315 almost covered two plants length wise, so maybe the DE can get that extra foot on each side. I might also be able to get away with 2 CXB per side and cut down to 8 per side, 6 total. That would shave off a bit of price. CXB3590 does a 1.5x1.5 pretty well, right?

HockeyBeard said:

Yeah, mostly heat and amperage. I'm not on 220V and only have limited circuit space left. I have 2 CMH already in use. What I'm considering is running those 2, plus two more and doing the COB supplemental on the one row, and on the second set of 8, try using the DE CMH. A single 315 almost covered two plants length wise, so maybe the DE can get that extra foot on each side. I might also be able to get away with 2 CXB per side and cut down to 8 per side, 6 total. That would shave off a bit of price. CXB3590 does a 1.5x1.5 pretty well, right?

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I normally say 1w per gram but that`s still dreaming sometimes other times you seem to get more

I always try for 100w per plant as I wanna grow plants over 100g or I get upset trimming them, that being said its all about growing frosty easy to trimm nugs

So your thinking 6 cbx3590`s and 2 if the DE cmh`s ?

Yeah you might get 500g to 800g per row of plants depends on what strain and how well you use the space

Maybe one CMH on each side of the room firing into the side of the plants and a CMH in the middle too then you just need 2 to 3 cobs above the plants per side still tempting to go for 4 to 8 cobs per side and use the CMH`s for side light

but you could probably get away with 3 to 4 cmh`s and 4 to 6 cobs

In fact 3 to 4 cmh`s with cobs above filling in the dark spots would be pretty good, you`d be lighting every part of the plant so the top buds and lower buds should develop pretty much the same

after one run you`ll know what branches to leave on and what to take off before flowering

I`d do that side light with CMH if you can it`ll be cheaper than building the cobs and probably give you more yield using them that way

just as long as they don`t give you a heat issue you might only get away with using 2 of them

THE KONASSURE said:

I normally say 1w per gram but that`s still dreaming sometimes other times you seem to get more

I always try for 100w per plant as I wanna grow plants over 100g or I get upset trimming them, that being said its all about growing frosty easy to trimm nugs

So your thinking 6 cbx3590`s and 2 if the DE cmh`s ?

Yeah you might get 500g to 800g per row of plants depends on what strain and how well you use the space

Maybe one CMH on each side of the room firing into the side of the plants and a CMH in the middle too then you just need 2 to 3 cobs above the plants per side still tempting to go for 4 to 8 cobs per side and use the CMH`s for side light

but you could probably get away with 3 to 4 cmh`s and 4 to 6 cobs

In fact 3 to 4 cmh`s with cobs above filling in the dark spots would be pretty good, you`d be lighting every part of the plant so the top buds and lower buds should develop pretty much the same

after one run you`ll know what branches to leave on and what to take off before flowering

I`d do that side light with CMH if you can it`ll be cheaper than building the cobs and probably give you more yield using them that way

just as long as they don`t give you a heat issue you might only get away with using 2 of them

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I was thinking 4 315CMH, and two rows of 8 COB (16 total), two on each side of a CMH. CMH hung directly between the row, and the COB pointing in on each side. If I was going to do the DE, I'd do just the 4 long. Either way, it breaks down to about 300W per plant. 10oz plants would be 1G/W, and I feel like that should be attainable, even in organics like I'm doing.

HockeyBeard said:

I was thinking 4 315CMH, and two rows of 8 COB (16 total), two on each side of a CMH. CMH hung directly between the row, and the COB pointing in on each side. If I was going to do the DE, I'd do just the 4 long. Either way, it breaks down to about 300W per plant. 10oz plants would be 1G/W, and I feel like that should be attainable, even in organics like I'm doing.

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Getting 100g per plant is not too hard going for 300g can get tricky easier with clones for sure otherwise you don`t know what your going to end up with

but yeah if you over veg them and hack them back you should be able to get 300g per plant

I've only been running clones, tbh. Even still, that's my high water mark, if I can get there, I'll be thrilled. I easily pulled 100g per plant last run, and I had so many stressors. My two black hole plants ended up doing about 6oz a piece with almost no larf. Everything tight and dense... That was under a 315 with a couple of the Kessil side lights filling out the area. The Sunshine on the other side didn't fare as well, however. I only ended up with about 5oz of nice usable and another 5oz of larf that ended up being fantastic oil.

I do a longer veg with a mainline topping technique, so yeah, I do hack em a bit.