Fresca sol water cooled grow fixture- anyone try one?

[rr14]

The ad looks pretty catchy and the website looks cool. It is www.bestcoastgrowers.com . I'm curious how hot a 50 gallon res would get and if tossing in a frozen 2 liter per lights on would be a cost effective way to do things.

Is it really better than air cooling?

 

[rr14]

over the weekend I spoke to a couple shops that sell it but they couldn't give me any objective numbers on how well it works or doesn't work. I'lll keep looking and see what people say.

 

[Elephunk]

sweet. I saw the drawings of these back when they were still developing them. The final product looks pretty nice and clean. If these things work as well as they say I might have to invest in a few.

 

[cesartime]

I saw a pic of them in maximum yeild or something but i was wondering how they made sure the water never stopped flowing. What happens if there is a clog/kink somewhere and the water flow stops? wouldnt the water that is trapped around the bulb heat until boiling, and burst the enclosure, and blah blah blah burning down the g-room?

May be some doomsday thinking on my part, but seems to be a fine line mixing water and electronics.

 

[rr14]

I believe that is a flaw of the cheaper ones. I guess the new ones have good enough glass to have the water off and still not crack. I guess the material is similar to what they are using for cool tubes or something like that. During the winter it seems like an awesome idea, but I don't know about the summer. It'd be expensive to cool the resevoir needed for multiple lights.

 

[daggaboy1]

Hi.I have seen a similar product. Marketed by people with connections to a Texas based hydroponics company. I haven't learnt yet to add links in my posts, so I will just say google "lumenlabs". They have extensive FAQ and Setup sections on their product.

I have been cultivating the idea of trying water cooled lamps for a while, and I have also seen reference to a homemade unit on another forum ( Advanced Nutrients?) by a person who is also a member here at IC Mag. I am not sure if I should be mentioning names, but this individual goes by a name like the word "sigh" but with a "y" in it instead of an "i". I am a bit vague about the exact position of the "y". Old age creeping up.

I think that for someone with one or two lamps they would be ideal, you could have the lamps closer to the growth, and in smaller more stealthy setups you could possibly do away with noisy ventilation. All in all, I think water cooled lamps could be the answer to stealth and temperature.

 

[avgjoe]

I have actually seen one in operation and I was impressed.

You can literally hold the tube while the bulb is on and it is just barely luke warm. They have it set up with a 50 gal res circulating room temp water. No 2 liters of ice or a chiller required.
Really quite slick but at $350 a pop it gives one pause. Also they reco 50 gallons per fixture.

Any1 know if the water would block much lumens?

 

[rr14]

did you see it at a trade show or in action? How big of a bulb was hooked up?

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

May be some doomsday thinking on my part, but seems to be a fine line mixing water and electronics.

use GFCI protection

 

[avgjoe]

i saw it running as a demo in a hydro shop. I believe it was a 600w they had in it.


Also, I was told by the mfg that they can be run vertically and also daisy chained together for multiple fixtures.

This would be the cat's pajamas if you had access to a cold stream or lake to circulate through the fixtures. Reminds me of the nuke plants plopping next to the ocean for cooling.

I probably would have picked some up to try out but I don't have space for extra reservoirs and I am not perched over a lake.


peace.

 

[avgjoe]

Yeah the liquid lumens version looks a little cleaner than the fresca sol and being able to fit in a hood is def a bonus.

In the liquid lumens FAQ they -claim- no lumens loss from the water. I find this hard to believe but I guess possible. I want to hear that from an independent source or see the meter with my own eyes. Interesting nonetheless.

peace.

 

[daggaboy1]

Hi all. Yes I would tend to agree with you all. There is going to be lumen loss, but for a grower with with small and compact plants and growing area in mind, this could be the ideal way to have a very close and personal relationship between plant and lamp.

And in addition, I imagine there are cheap and varied means of controlling water flow and temps, if we use the examples illustrated on the lumenlabs website.

And even if you are growing trees, as opposed to smaller plants, light penetration is increased exponentially the closer you can bring the lamp to the plant. Light will get to where it can be used by the plant.

In addition, consider the equipment needed. Ventillation fans and miles of ducting are common sights in grow rooms. But with a water- cooled setup, you could be lucky and do away with a lot of that. I imagine the bigger the setup the more complicated the equipment setup will be. Some might argue that this adds up to more expense, but I would question this. And bear in mind that the guys with multi KW grow ops could afford it, especially if stealth and heat were an issue for them.

Familiarity and an increase in examples of the real life use of water- cooled lamps here on IC mag forums would encourage acceptance in the use of water cooled lamps.

With the articles posted here on IC Mag concerning Closed Enviroment Growing, and the optimal use of CO2 systems, I see these water-cooled lamps as the perfect partner to the use and practice of those principles. Kind of closes the circle, so to speak.

 

[rr14]

I like that you can air and water cool this thing. Air flow is cheap. AC use is not and I'd prefer to limit the use of a chiller as much as possible.

I wonder how much these things are going for? I wouldn't mind using about 4 of them for a tree style 5 gallon bucket grow.

 

[avgjoe]

On a quick search the only place I saw with the liquid lumens wanted 400+. Maybe even 450?

Some expensive plastic right there.

 

[Harry Gypsna]

to me the very idea of water cooled lights is just dangerous....... esoteric sell a maxibright setup called hydrostar wih a watercooled tube refelector and a special swicth unit for the pump and light to turn off if the pump fails.... I just think theyre asking for trouble coz lets face it a lot of can be be pretty mashed working on our growrooms, one cockup with these and u could be dead.

 

[rr14]

man, that's expensive... I was hoping to pay less. I'll stick to cool tubes for now.

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Now Ive had a good look at these units they are a lot better than the one i mentioned above....things must have moved on a bit eh lol...these dont actually look too bad, that liquid lumens especially, although 8 inch cooling hoods arent common over here in uk-but if i did want one it would be for vert anyway so thats a moot point. Got me thinking now.......The old type of water cooled lights had water touching the bulb and thats just scary to me.....

 

[rr14]

that does sound scary. My big question is, which would be more effective power wise:

1. 4 600 watt air cooled lights with plenty of ac
2. 4 600 watt water cooled lights with the ac only running part time but with a chiller running part time too.

Usable light is important annd I'm also curious how much closer if at all you can get a water cooled light to the plants versus a light in a 6" cool tube.

 

[rr14]

something interesting that I saw on their site was that they are working on a heat exchanger that hooks up to your ducting. It's an easy way to cool the water coming out of your lights and reduces the need for a chiller.

 

[ChristianTaylor]

Bump...

So you can use the liquid lumens product vertically and make a vertical chain out of them? or was this a different product?

I have seen people talk a lot of smack about these water cooled lights in other threads. I don't think people should talk about things like this in such a poor light because what is useless and a waste for one persons setup could be the perfect addition or almost necessary in another persons setup.

Later,

-CT