Heatsinks for DIY LED lamps

ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
fearnoevil said:
BTW, I must have been high when I ordered these tubes, 1/4" wall is WAY THICK and pretty heavy, not to mention more expensive. So these tubes cost $62, while the 1/8" would run me only about $38, so with fittings and welding cost one of these would run roughly $92 (instead of the $116 I paid) for a 4 foot heat sink which I'm pretty sure will handle just about any size fixture you'd want to build. But efficiency and cooling remain to be determined, so stay tuned ;?D
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Mine are also square section aluminum bar stock, only the details differ; 2"x4"x27" long, used 2" aluminum angle at the ends as end caps, drilling and tapping for 1/2" NPT, and drilling holes in the dog ears for mounting.

My stock is 3/16" thick so mounting screws can be drilled blind. I run chilled water through the bars and my biggest problem is condensation...

And no they aren't light.
 
fearnoevil

fearnoevil

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
And no they aren't light.
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Lights that aren't light, or "heavy lights", lol, sounds like an oxymoron, or to quote George Carlin, "Jumbo shrimp" ;?D

So Ttystikk, maybe you've run across these in your research - TEGs or thermoelectric generators, designed to turn heat into electricity:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/THERMOELECTRIC-POWER-GENERATOR-TEG-MODULE-NEW-USA-/310148993913?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

In my musings on the heat generation of COBs, it occurred to me that there should be a way to convert heat back into electricity (sans the need for high temp/pressure generators like steam turbines, moving parts etc). I imagined something like a solar panel but that used thermal energy instead of photons. So upon googling it I find there's something called the Seebeck generator which does just that, and once again another idea stolen, albeit 135 yrs before I was born:cuss:(how's a guy going to invent anything when people keep beating you to the punch, lol).

SO, is anyone using these, and can they generate enough juice from say a few COBs to run a fan to cool it? Seems like a neat trick to turn an active cooling system into a quasi-passive system, at least one that doesn't use any external energy.

I haven't had time to really look into these, and of course the added expense could tip the efficiency scale, at least concerning costs, but I thought it worth looking into. Of course this could be old news, lol, and I'm just discovering it (day late and all ;?).

EDIT: This is interesting enough that I think I'll create a thread since I can't find one on RIU ;?)
 
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Emaw74

Member
Total noob here. Working on my first grow. It's very small but looking to buy some cabinets for growing in the next month and stumbled upon this diy thread and love it. I'm working with limited space so my boxes are going to be 30" x 30" x 4'. I really want to build my own led but am really unsure about how I want to design it. I like the idea of being able to choose the color scheme but would it be better to just use 4 different COBs to get the whole spectrum and add red supplement lighting during flower. If you have any designs that would fit what I'm wanting to do or some other direction to go I would appreciate the advice. Thanks for your time and dedication to the cause of doing it yourself. This is my current setup tell me what you think I'm running a Kessil Sky blue 150w and 4 cfls for my veg and have a Kessil red H150 for flower. I turned an old blue screw top barrel that's three feet tall and fifteen inches around inside into my grow space with an intake fan mounted on the bottom and two exhaust fans on top. I also have a fan mounted inside to move air around in the container but am having a little bit of a hard time keeping the temp below 80 and the humidity above 40. My girl is ten days old.
 

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bassman999

bassman999

Well-Known Member
Emaw74 said:
Total noob here. Working on my first grow. It's very small but looking to buy some cabinets for growing in the next month and stumbled upon this diy thread and love it. I'm working with limited space so my boxes are going to be 30" x 30" x 4'. I really want to build my own led but am really unsure about how I want to design it. I like the idea of being able to choose the color scheme but would it be better to just use 4 different COBs to get the whole spectrum and add red supplement lighting during flower. If you have any designs that would fit what I'm wanting to do or some other direction to go I would appreciate the advice. Thanks for your time and dedication to the cause of doing it yourself. This is my current setup tell me what you think I'm running a Kessil Sky blue 150w and 4 cfls for my veg and have a Kessil red H150 for flower. I turned an old blue screw top barrel that's three feet tall and fifteen inches around inside into my grow space with an intake fan mounted on the bottom and two exhaust fans on top. I also have a fan mounted inside to move air around in the container but am having a little bit of a hard time keeping the temp below 80 and the humidity above 40. My girl is ten days old.
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I use 3000K and 3500K cobs only and dont see a need honestly for the other stuff.
Personal choice I guess.
In your tent I would put maybe a 200 watt driver and maybe 4 cobs and dim them to where you need.
(4)CLU048-1212(3500K) on one HLG-185H-C1400B
or
(5)CLU048-1212(3500K) on one HLG-185H-C1050B
 
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Emaw74

Member
bassman999 said:
I use 3000K and 3500K cobs only and dont see a need honestly for the other stuff.
Personal choice I guess.
In your tent I would put maybe a 200 watt driver and maybe 4 cobs and dim them to where you need.
(4)CLU048-1212(3500K) on one HLG-185H-C1400B
or
(5)CLU048-1212(3500K) on one HLG-185H-C1050B
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I could put that setup on a 5.886" x 20"active heat sink? Or can I go with something smaller. It's only 30"x30" space
 
bassman999

bassman999

Well-Known Member
Emaw74 said:
I could put that setup on a 5.886" x 20"active heat sink? Or can I go with something smaller. It's only 30"x30" space
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I made my lights with long heatsinks, but the new ones seem to be using the circular pin style hs now.
You will get much better spread with the that style as opposed to a single hs in the middle
 
S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
I may have lucked out...?!

I have the opportunity to snag 7x 36" long by 4" wide heatsinks (3/8 thick overall and the baseplate is 5/16 thick) on craigslist for $100... :clap:

However I don't want to make a huge miscalculation here and blow a ton of dough

My plan is to build a 2x4 vegging bar. So I will do 4x Citizen 1212s on each bar (2 bars, 8 total COBs) running on an HLG 320 @ 1400ma

Following that, I'll build a 4x4 cxb3590 or citizen equivilant build later this year. I figure I can put 5 ofin the 4x4. Maybe do 4 per bar for a total of 24 cobs in the 4x4.

Overheating issues?
Any issues you guys can think of?

 
fearnoevil

fearnoevil

Well-Known Member
So I have my prototype water cooled light up and running. Just tested it today, let it run for a couple of hours to see what was what, and so far it's staying cool as a cucumber, or at least the heat sink.

I put a small fountain pump (185 g/hr) in a 5-gal bucket and circulated it through the fixture then fired her up, and I must add here that you don't want to look directly at these lights for any amount of time, talk about blinded by the light, lol, even just the light hitting my peripheral vision started making me nauseous, which I found weird and uncomfortable. I finally put on my gas welding goggles, and it STILL was too bright to see well.
Russbilt Sunbar 2000.jpg

After 3 hours the COB temp had reached nearly 49C and the water in the bucket was noticeably warmer (still cool, just not as cold as when it came out of the tap). Not sure yet how to extrapolate what that means regarding sizing the system when/if I get the other 7 fixtures built, but I think it's definitely promising, especially since this was strictly passive, as in the water itself wasn't cooled in any manner. With a radiator and fan installed it should do better, but more testing needs to be done to get more useful data.
20161011_201630.jpg
Btw, I'm officially christening this the Russbilt Sunbar 2000, lol, copyright pending :fire:
 
bassman999

bassman999

Well-Known Member
Seriousbuds said:
I may have lucked out...?!

I have the opportunity to snag 7x 36" long by 4" wide heatsinks (3/8 thick overall and the baseplate is 5/16 thick) on craigslist for $100... :clap:

However I don't want to make a huge miscalculation here and blow a ton of dough

My plan is to build a 2x4 vegging bar. So I will do 4x Citizen 1212s on each bar (2 bars, 8 total COBs) running on an HLG 320 @ 1400ma

Following that, I'll build a 4x4 cxb3590 or citizen equivilant build later this year. I figure I can put 5 ofin the 4x4. Maybe do 4 per bar for a total of 24 cobs in the 4x4.

Overheating issues?
Any issues you guys can think of?

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There is a thread here somewhere that has info on surface area and wattage for passive and active...
I dont think those sinks will work for the wattage you mentioned passively because your fin height isnt substantial enough.
 
HolyGhost23

HolyGhost23

Well-Known Member
anyone ever thought of using some old pc water blocks and maybe a heater core from a car.. especially on those 100V bastards..or... a Peltier module?
 
S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
bassman999 said:
There is a thread here somewhere that has info on surface area and wattage for passive and active...
I dont think those sinks will work for the wattage you mentioned passively because your fin height isnt substantial enough.
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You think I could still use it and weld it into a liquid cooled setup?
 
S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
bassman999 said:
Hopefully someone else with more knowledge will chime in.
I am not really knowledgeable in this area as other here are.
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Haha if you couldn't tell, I went out and bought those heatsinks..

Oh well, I'll definitely use these sinks when better SMD size tech comes out, or something of the like.
 
bassman999

bassman999

Well-Known Member
Seriousbuds said:
Haha if you couldn't tell, I went out and bought those heatsinks..

Oh well, I'll definitely use these sinks when better SMD size tech comes out, or something of the like.
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They arent bad sinks, but just make sure what wattage they can dissipate, and adding fans on the back will do wonders
 
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