DIY leds Discussion Thread for all your how tos and doubts and anything related

[Ca++]

The weight to cannabinoid ratio is a difficult topic. First you need a benchmark. From there, if you reduce weight, it tends to get stronger. One study dropped weight 75% and made 30% stronger bud. However, had the plants cannabinoid content not dropped, it would of been 400% stronger. Obviously how the weight is reduced matters. They used low N, and kept the heat and light. Having grown big roots and frames.

Going the other way, light manipulation of gg4 increased weight 50% and the cannabinoid content didn't go down. Shock news, it also went up. Gram for gram, it was about 10% stronger. It is hard to grow a more healthy yield, that's not better. But reducing yield is really easy.
What we are seeing in the figures, is perhaps more about growing ability, than an inverse relationship.

 

[SwS]

Copper tubing, not saying it's a cheaper option just what I have available on hand. I have a couple 1/2" coils probably 80' In total length. Plus I have a couple automotive radiators I could play with. I was thinking of running the cooling loops under the shop, it would be cool to bury it, but to much work.

Hey Jones is those cooling blocks made out of alluminium? If so I see you planning to use copper tubing just a tip from the pc water cooling days, we never mixed copper and alluminium due to the copper causing galvanic corrosion on the alluminium over time. Using a corrosion inhibiting coolant slows this process down. Just thought you might like to know that bit of info.

 

[Aristoned]

Hey Jones is those cooling blocks made out of alluminium? If so I see you planning to use copper tubing just a tip from the pc water cooling days, we never mixed copper and alluminium due to the copper causing galvanic corrosion on the alluminium over time. Using a corrosion inhibiting coolant slows this process down. Just thought you might like to know that bit of info.

The lines should be insulated to prevent condensation. Silicon tubing works well.

An epoxy could be used to increase the rating to IP67.

 

[Ttystikk]

Copper tubing, not saying it's a cheaper option just what I have available on hand. I have a couple 1/2" coils probably 80' In total length. Plus I have a couple automotive radiators I could play with. I was thinking of running the cooling loops under the shop, it would be cool to bury it, but to much work.

Unless you're moving many Tons of heat, that's going to be overkill.

Water cooling is fun though, isn't it?

 

[jonesfam7715]

Hey Jones is those cooling blocks made out of alluminium? If so I see you planning to use copper tubing just a tip from the pc water cooling days, we never mixed copper and alluminium due to the copper causing galvanic corrosion on the alluminium over time. Using a corrosion inhibiting coolant slows this process down. Just thought you might like to know that bit of info.

Yes I did have that issue before, a bunch of white powder formed, and ate away at the aluminum, I was using straight water, won't do that again, they sell a coating you just flow thru the loop, or a coolant of course.

 

[jonesfam7715]

Unless you're moving many Tons of heat, that's going to be overkill.

Water cooling is fun though, isn't it?

For shits and giggles mostly, and dealing with the overwhelming summer heat in oklahoma we get some crazy heat, and I'm in a wooden shop with window units. Could be useful in a green house setup as well.

 

[Ca++]

Don't use coolant. Alloy is already a poor choice as it's near half the thermal conductivity of copper (225 vs 400) and coolant is to stop the water taking on heat. So it will reduce cooling efficiency further still. My 16v mk2 golf/rabbit would just boil without coolant to stop the water getting so hot. It's added to stop pockets of water turning to steam, which has no use in a cooling system. It's not to cool the engine in a matter the layman might think.

A bottle of inhibitor is $10 and found in your central heating system. Fernox perhaps.

 

[Ca++]

As LEDs loose most of their heat to the air, a cool tube would work much better than it does/did for HIDs.

I pretty much do this, by putting polythene between my plants and lights, to extract the air around the lights, to a greater degree than that around my plants. Giving the lights the inlet air, and exhaust tubes. I'm actually doing this to retain moisture around the plants in the early days, but the greenhouse effect isn't that of when I used HID.
In a real hot environment, I might look at doing the polythene, and cooling the plants. There is heat transfer through thin sheet though, increasing as the differences across it get greater. Plus some light loss.
A plumbed in water cooler of 100w consumption, offers about 300w of cooling. With a 40% efficient light of 480w, that 100w cooler would about cancel it.
Nair, it's crap innit. 100w for nothing. Though if you were using the LEDs for heating inlet, that 100w isn't entirely waste. Much of it is heat. But still, it's engineer for engineerings sake.

 

[Aristoned]

Don't use coolant. Alloy is already a poor choice as it's near half the thermal conductivity of copper (225 vs 400) and coolant is to stop the water taking on heat. So it will reduce cooling efficiency further still. My 16v mk2 golf/rabbit would just boil without coolant to stop the water getting so hot. It's added to stop pockets of water turning to steam, which has no use in a cooling system. It's not to cool the engine in a matter the layman might think.

A bottle of inhibitor is $10 and found in your central heating system. Fernox perhaps.

Glycol based coolant increases the thermal capacity of the fluid as well as decreases the freezing point, when pressurized the coolant will expend heat better than being under atmospheric conditions.

I would not use automotive equipment for this.

 

[Aristoned]

As LEDs loose most of their heat to the air, a cool tube would work much better than it does/did for HIDs.

I pretty much do this, by putting polythene between my plants and lights, to extract the air around the lights, to a greater degree than that around my plants. Giving the lights the inlet air, and exhaust tubes. I'm actually doing this to retain moisture around the plants in the early days, but the greenhouse effect isn't that of when I used HID.
In a real hot environment, I might look at doing the polythene, and cooling the plants. There is heat transfer through thin sheet though, increasing as the differences across it get greater. Plus some light loss.
A plumbed in water cooler of 100w consumption, offers about 300w of cooling. With a 40% efficient light of 480w, that 100w cooler would about cancel it.
Nair, it's crap innit. 100w for nothing. Though if you were using the LEDs for heating inlet, that 100w isn't entirely waste. Much of it is heat. But still, it's engineer for engineerings sake.

I’m finding LED’s to be so efficient I have to add heat in order to use the light being emitted. Adding a cool tube would make everything worse for my LED’s.

 

[Ca++]

I’m finding LED’s to be so efficient I have to add heat in order to use the light being emitted. Adding a cool tube would make everything worse for my LED’s.

So glycol also raises boiling point? I will add this to my knowledge base. It was perhaps inevitable, but I hadn't joined the dots.

I did once think of clear tubes, wall to wall of my tent. Actually through the wall, with lights pushed in. So hot air from the lights left the tent, with no exposure to the smell. Today, this might help my inlet temps, though the recycling idea is fresh in my mind still. Perhaps a 1.8 tall tent with clear roof might be an option, to have the light, not even in the tent. The window idea isn't new either. It's always 10% though (the loss of doing almost everything to effect the light course)

 

[Aristoned]

So glycol also raises boiling point? I will add this to my knowledge base. It was perhaps inevitable, but I hadn't joined the dots.

Yes, it says it on the bottle.

Ethylene glycol is also very hazardous.

 

[Neferhotep]

copper causing galvanic corrosion on the alluminium

It also depends on quantities. Lots of aluminium with little copper is no problem.

water cooler of 100w consumption, offers about 300w of cooling. With a 40% efficient light of 480w, that 100w cooler would about cancel it.

You should implement the cooling capacity of the plants as well. It's fun.

The lines should be insulated to prevent condensation.

Condensation on hot tubing?

 

[Rgd]

have the led +solacure uva/b fluro flowering vs hps

veg/early flowering [sativas]far led seems better so far..just hooked up solacures the other day


almost thinking leds better for lanky sativas and hps form hybrids and/indica..

we’ll see..

 

[Aristoned]

It also depends on quantities. Lots of aluminium with little copper is no problem.

You should implement the cooling capacity of the plants as well. It's fun.

Condensation on hot tubing?

I’d assume there is a chiller involved to maintain ~70°F to achieve the 90%+ emission.

Just using a fan on my heatsinks has made a notable increase in power and colour accuracy.

Edit: I had to add reflectors since the PAR is so low on the 97 CRI. It helps, I’m probably going to order another set at a different angle to see if that is any better.

 

[Ttystikk]

I’m finding LED’s to be so efficient I have to add heat in order to use the light being emitted. Adding a cool tube would make everything worse for my LED’s.

This is because you have a small grow. When you scale up, grows with LED lights need active heat management just like the old ones did.

 

[Ttystikk]

Yes, it says it on the bottle.

Ethylene glycol is also very hazardous.

This is correct. If you MUST use glycol around food then use propylene glycol, aka "RV antifreeze" although why it's called that I don't know.

Unless the water circuit is headed outside where it might freeze in winter if the pump shuts off, don't use antifreeze. The corrosion inhibitor is all that's necessary.

 

[Ttystikk]

Condensation on hot tubing?

LOL exactly- I don't think this will be necessary!

I'm this case, the insulation holds the heat IN! I'd call that counterproductive!

 

[Aristoned]

LOL exactly- I don't think this will be necessary!

I'm this case, the insulation holds the heat IN! I'd call that counterproductive!

I’d imagine with the way I’m looking at a setup I wouldn’t want stray heat from the LED to compromise stability while maintaining as close to 99% emission without the risk of condensation running one COB out of a series of COB’s. Perhaps I’m looking at it wrong since I haven’t worked with anything that large. Currently, I have learned how to stabilize temperature and humidity within a degree of margin that is negligible. For what I’m doing I’d like complete control over temperature since I’ve been successfully running the Kush upwards of 86°F. I’ve even built-in a wake/sleep cycle.

 

[Ttystikk]

I’d imagine with the way I’m looking at a setup I wouldn’t want stray heat from the LED to compromise stability while maintaining as close to 99% emission without the risk of condensation running one COB out of a series of COB’s. Perhaps I’m looking at it wrong since I haven’t worked with anything that large. Currently, I have learned how to stabilize temperature and humidity within a degree of margin that is negligible. For what I’m doing I’d like complete control over temperature since I’ve been successfully running the Kush upwards of 86°F. I’ve even built-in a wake/sleep cycle.

Antifreeze is just that; it's there to keep the water from freezing if temperatures drop below 0 C. It does not improve heat transfer and in fact reduces the heat transfer capacity compared to water alone. If your water circuit never goes outside the building, it's an unnecessary complication.