Hydronics and LEDs

[SSGrower]

One of the more effecient ways of manging heat. I will try to cover the pluses and minuses what to watch out for. I like it because I can store and reuse the heat. Moving the heat with liquid is more effecient than trying to move it with air.

CPU and graphics card coolers and such are a great place to start there are many out of the box systems that will work, the radiator in my system is out of cpu chiller rated at 220W, it has a pump built in.

I have it installed in the ducting for my intake air.

You can also get each component individually. Like this seperate pump I have as a booster pump.

Notice how the the hose going down is beginning to kink, this is something to pay close attention to when running the lines. I would like to use pex to hard pipe as much as possible but for now the brackets for the tubing work well to fix the kink in the pic above.


I also have a wort chiller sitting in front of the air inlet, in the back corner of my flower area.


I use thermal paste to hold the leds to cpu/graphics card water blocks.


The growlights australia boards and my 21 cob rig run passive.



Here on top of the light you see the cutter uvb/c 2 channel strip (280nm/310nm) ( Cutter-ZGE285-12UVC_B MCPCB with UVB_UVC | Cutter Electronics ) and 2x 10w uva cobs (365nm) mounted on 2 water blocks because I couldnt fi d one one long enough, but if you are doing this mark from cutter posted up pics of some sweet looking extrusion that he wants to run 800w of their 3030 strips on with hydronics.

 

[SSGrower]

I use propylene glycol for rv plumbing systems. It has corosion inhibitors and probably some ethanol in it. One thing to watch out for is air bubbles in the line.

This connector for whatever reason seems to be a particular problem, I might have to just replace the hose.

 

[spyralout]

Nice SS. How much temp decrease are you seeing on avg with this water cooled setup?

The kinks - what about 90* angle attachments then the hose?

 

[JL2G]

One of the more effecient ways of manging heat. I will try to cover the pluses and minuses what to watch out for. I like it because I can store and reuse the heat. Moving the heat with liquid is more effecient than trying to move it with air.

CPU and graphics card coolers and such are a great place to start there are many out of the box systems that will work, the radiator in my system is out of cpu chiller rated at 220W, it has a pump built in.
View attachment 2555
I have it installed in the ducting for my intake air.

You can also get each component individually. Like this seperate pump I have as a booster pump.
View attachment 2556
Notice how the the hose going down is beginning to kink, this is something to pay close attention to when running the lines. I would like to use pex to hard pipe as much as possible but for now the brackets for the tubing work well to fix the kink in the pic above.
View attachment 2557

I also have a wort chiller sitting in front of the air inlet, in the back corner of my flower area.
View attachment 2558

I use thermal paste to hold the leds to cpu/graphics card water blocks.
View attachment 2560
View attachment 2561
The growlights australia boards and my 21 cob rig run passive.
View attachment 2562
View attachment 2563

Here on top of the light you see the cutter uvb/c 2 channel strip (280nm/310nm) ( Cutter-ZGE285-12UVC_B MCPCB with UVB_UVC | Cutter Electronics ) and 2x 10w uva cobs (365nm) mounted on 2 water blocks because I couldnt fi d one one long enough, but if you are doing this mark from cutter posted up pics of some sweet looking extrusion that he wants to run 800w of their 3030 strips on with hydronics. View attachment 2564

Awesomesauce mang. Always love seeing another water cooled setup.
Good stuff mang.

 

[SSGrower]

Nice SS. How much temp decrease are you seeing on avg with this water cooled setup?

The kinks - what about 90* angle attachments then the hose?

90's would work but just as in air flow they will add restriction, long radius 90's would be best.

As far as temperature reduction, not sure I am understanding. As long as the fluid leaving the last water block is good bit (30-40 deg) below operating temp of the leds I feel like I am good. If the difference in temperature between the water going into the first water block and coming out of the last one is greater than about 12 deg F (9 is my efdeciency target) the water is not moving fast enough. On the other hand if the difference is below 6 it is moving too fast.

I am not really targeting a temperature reduction of the environment, this allows me to push the leds harder vs. passive cooling at very low wattage. My passive rig is cxb3590s running at less than 15W ea. where the red and white cobs on the water unit are running 30-40W. If you are attempting to reduce the temperature of your environment, simply put the radiator outside. Even if it is 90 out your water in the system still has plenty of headroom to keep the leds at operating temp. You might need a larger radiator though. This is where hydronics excels moving and distributing heat.

I can pretty easilly add resivoirs to increase the heat capicity of the system, those resivoirs will act as heatsinks and release their heat at night when I need it.

 

[SSGrower]

Correction, the whites on the water circuit are running at 25W (1 cxb 3590 and 4 3070s) and the reds are at 40, the cobs are much closer together than what you could do with a standard heatsink and fan setup. IMO

 

[spyralout]

Your propylene glycol is orange and not green. Looks like the higher quality stuff. When I changed out my water pump, my car had 90k mi. I was gonna use new (green) antifreeze but the guy helping me (30+ year mechanic) suggested reusing the stock antifreeze cuz it was of superior quality. He was right. That was 10 years and 100k+ later. No overheating, no leaks, no visible corrosion, good stuff.

 

[JL2G]

90's would work but just as in air flow they will add restriction, long radius 90's would be best.

As far as temperature reduction, not sure I am understanding. As long as the fluid leaving the last water block is good bit (30-40 deg) below operating temp of the leds I feel like I am good. If the difference in temperature between the water going into the first water block and coming out of the last one is greater than about 12 deg F (9 is my efdeciency target) the water is not moving fast enough. On the other hand if the difference is below 6 it is moving too fast.

I am not really targeting a temperature reduction of the environment, this allows me to push the leds harder vs. passive cooling at very low wattage. My passive rig is cxb3590s running at less than 15W ea. where the red and white cobs on the water unit are running 30-40W. If you are attempting to reduce the temperature of your environment, simply put the radiator outside. Even if it is 90 out your water in the system still has plenty of headroom to keep the leds at operating temp. You might need a larger radiator though. This is where hydronics excels moving and distributing heat.

I can pretty easilly add resivoirs to increase the heat capicity of the system, those resivoirs will act as heatsinks and release their heat at night when I need it.

Water cooling is the way to go for serious heat management.
Sure does let the cobs run hard. Lol
I can run mine at 90% of their max power with no issues. 90 some watts each on citi 1212's
Cool to the touch. Lol.
Been running em like that for a yr plus now.