LED Liquid Cooler?

[Just2Many]

So I was thinking would it be possible to cool your LED's with liquid coolers that could double as a heater for the tank? Been throwing the idea around and don't see any reason on why not. Obviously have to up the hardware to non-copper based and use stainless steel or plastic where possible but has anyone tried something like this? :idea:

 

[mcgyvr]

Its been done a few times.. In general not worth the effort/cost..

 

[Just2Many]

What's cheaper then? I mean your offsetting the cost to heat the tank from the heat from the LEDs

 

[mcgyvr]

Most go LED because their tank is already too warm from MH,etc... or just because its LED and bulb saving costs..

But a typical fan/heatsink will be far cheaper.. and you can't get much more efficient than a regular heater..
s
It will take a substantial amount of PEX coiled up or expensive titanium for a heat exchanger..

 

[Just2Many]

Well I was thinking more like a mg1200 running the tank water over the heat sink and then back to the tank, no exchanger or fans at all... maybe 1 or 2 fans for the canopy but nothing major

 

[Just2Many]

Anyone know the ideal temp for leds?

 

[Gorgok]

Anyone know the ideal temp for leds?

If you can pull all the heat they generate away instantly that would be ideal... so ambient is all they experience. Not gonna happen though.

Running tank water on the heatsinks, in air, will kill the sinks and LEDs sooner than later. It has to be pure water (or anti-corrosive blend, but i wouldn't put anything like that near the tank), separate loop, and sealed for it to not go downhill fast.

In the end the amount of effort it would take to get the 100-200W down from the lights into the tank seems like a waste when a 200W heater is so simple...

 

[salty joe]

I was thinking about doing something similar to warm seedling roots. I don't have a welder, so I was going to get 1" or 1 1/4" square aluminum tubing and epoxy aluminum ends with a threaded hole. Use 3/8 poly tubing in a serpentine pattern under the soil and a water pump. While plastic is not the ideal heat exchanger, it can work. Regular water as the coolant.

If you could hide the tubing somewhere in the tank or sump, it just might work. Using Ts and valves, you could use a radiator in the summer.

 

[zachfishman]

Personally I think it'd be neater to run a few of those 100w chips (Lumia, etc) on their own dedicated CPU coolers. There are some wild-looking ones that would be display-worthy in their own right.

 

[Just2Many]

I'm looking into that now... trying to get cost down though too.

 

[dacianb]

Heatpipes or water cooling - it is generaly used when you have high power concentrated on a small surface (CPUs those days can run above 150W on a small footprint).
For LEDs is useless as cannot concentrate same power on such a small area (except Luminus like monsters).
Also copper next to saltwater - bad choice - will corrode very fast.
For water circuits you need pure water + sealant. Some people even use alcohols into circuit. But running tank water through them and back to tank is really bad choice, as such tubes (aluminium or copper) are not protected on the inside and all those toxic oxides will go into tank.

I would recommend only anodized al above tank if need a long term solution. Such heat-pipes are not corrosion protected. And use copper based cooling system, but probably LEDs mounted on standard Al boards - will make your cooling system very unefficient (need copper boards - so will have a copper to copper contact)

 

[Just2Many]

I'm looking into Lumia 5.2 so high output in small area

 

[iced98lx]

I'm running 5.1's on makers LED heatsinks (12 inches per chip) cools with no problem at all.

 

[kapelan]

The design with coolers is good and it will definitely work well.
But there is a problem - noise.
I have both light: with active heat exchange and passive heat exchange.
Active: 250W fixture without a heatsink using 4 coolers in a living room
Passive: 80W fixture with heatsink with 1 quiet cooler in a bedroom
Both fixtures are working well but cannot imaging 4 coolers in a bedroom

 

[Just2Many]

I mean 120 mm fans are pretty quite

 

[kapelan]

I mean 120 mm fans are pretty quite

4 * quiet = noisy
that depends of the project. Like in my case: I can survive noise of 4 fans from living room but it is not acceptable in a bedroom.
And actually I'm thinking to replace 4 coolers system with a good quality heatsink with 1-2 coolers.

 

[Just2Many]

Ya do you know the temp there getting up too

 

[Gorgok]

4 * quiet = noisy
that depends of the project. Like in my case: I can survive noise of 4 fans from living room but it is not acceptable in a bedroom.
And actually I'm thinking to replace 4 coolers system with a good quality heatsink with 1-2 coolers.

No reason the fans can't turn off at night...