Water cooling leds

1212ham said:

Have you used those aluminum brazing rods? I tried once and that was enough, I tig welded my light.

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Induction brazing. Check it out! One of the tricks I might have up my sleeve If I try making the DIY coolant rails.

Almost done with building a 1000w 48v liquid cooled ZVS induction coil. Not only could I melt down some aluminum scraps in a mini crucible, and cast my own little square end plugs (with a tight interference fit) for capping off the 3/4' square tube rails... but also use it to heat up the parts more equally than any other method, and get perfect water tight solder joints within seconds. Without any welding, torching, or grinding on it.. Just zap it together with high frequency pulces. Then tap out the center hole the rest of the way on the end plugs, and screw in whatever compression or hose barb fitting on each end for the tubing to connect the loop..

Drop That Sound said:

EB Series™ Slim Gen 3 by Bridgelux Datasheet | DigiKey

View EB Series™ Slim Gen 3 by Bridgelux datasheet for technical specifications, dimensions and more at DigiKey.

www.digikey.com

View attachment 5441700


So I looked around and found these slim EB gen 3 series modules, that come in a few different lengths. Only a 1/2" wide. They look pretty efficient at upwards of 200lm per watt. I would probably be OVER driving them harder with liquid cooling though, so forget about efficiency ratings..

Are they good strips? Or, is there a better option?

Could adhere 2 of the 390mm long modules on one 32 inch aluminum baluster rail, or get the 590mm strips and put one on each 26" rail..
View attachment 5441698 View attachment 5441699
^ @ lowes

I would also make a wider "cold plate" water block to mount the driver\s on..

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After trying them I would not go back to work with them. Overdriven they lose a loooot of efficiency, theres tests on them somewhere, try searching on the forum i threaded some of tekniks tests. They are very flimsy, has to be glued and not screwed. Takes
.75mm wire no 1mm. You can also use one 390 + 590 strip for a longer type strip. I would only rec these if you cannot find youre preferred spectrum and if youre using many on low power. But then its also a bitch since youre doing so much wiring. Ymmv.

do yourself a favor and if you are going to try and make a water cooled light use either a hydroponic/icebath water chiller. or skip the thermal electric shit and get a big car radiator and a high flow pump and a big ass fan.
I made a water loop for my co2 laser with peltiers and has a lot of issues with freezing and blocking lines. you will have to use a PID controller to limit the power to the chips or it will freeze.
but in all honestly my guy you are going to create more problems then u are going to solve. just save the cash buy a proper light for the tent and get growing unless you know what u are doing its dangerous to be playing around with electricity and water.

Copy that. I see now the EB gen 3 series are lower voltage, so yeah they would need thicker gauge for the wiring, right... I was paying more attention to the dimensions if anything, to make sure whatever I get fits. I notice the occasional times I browse through the DIY LED threads you guys are generally using higher voltage strips (usually wider with more rows of diodes) and drivers, which likely offsets the cost and ease of wiring... Makes sense.

Good call on using a 390 + 590.. That would be around 38-39 inches, just short enough to fit on the longer\thinner 42" x 5/8" " aluminum stair "picket" rails. They cost a few bucks more than the shorter 3/4" wide balusters, but that extra 10 inches on each rail would make for a wider fixture, with better coverage and not as many gaps. I won't be able to screw into the rails anyway, and have to use some kind of thermal adhesive or double sided tape.

I'll keep looking for more slim strips that will work, before pulling the trigger.

If I do go with water cooling, I will be adding heat ex-changers and water blocks to everything in the sealed room, not just the LED lights & drivers. Including an extra radiator w/ shroud placed over the output on the dehumidifier, and also another integrated coil to suck the heat away from the gas co2 burners (just like the portable on demand gas water heaters work to make hot water), etc.

It only makes sense to go all the way IMO, and liquid cool the entire grow op, regardless of the scale. Share one central res with a chiller, or underground geothermal loop coil buried 5-6 ft down in the yard. If the plan works out, its only gonna cost pennies to control my climate... by the time I'm done spending a small fortune, lol.

Drop That Sound said:

If I do go with water cooling, I will be adding heat ex-changers and water blocks to everything in the sealed room, not just the LED lights & drivers. Including an extra radiator w/ shroud placed over the output on the dehumidifier, and also another integrated coil to suck the heat away from the gas co2 burners (just like the portable on demand gas water heaters work to make hot water), etc.

It only makes sense to go all the way IMO, and liquid cool the entire grow op, regardless of the scale. Share one central res with a chiller, or underground geothermal loop coil buried 5-6 ft down in the yard. If the plan works out, its only gonna cost pennies to control my climate... by the time I'm done spending a small fortune, lol.

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I use a central reservoir (25 gal insulated cooler), a water chiller, and 2 radiators for my climate control. This allows me to keep my 4’ x 8’ tent sealed, closed loop and I can supplement with CO2 without it just dissipating into outside air. Costs more than a split unit, but is more efficient and I can cool as much grow space as my chiller can handle, so I use the same central rez to cool my veg room as well. All of the same central water cooling system.

I’m a big proponent of this setup.

Lights could also easily be cooled just by tapping into the radiator feed lines, but once your environment is handled, it kinda makes cooling the lights somewhat of a moot point.