For all you DIY COB builders, as in
@ttystikk @Airwalker16 @REALSTYLES @Sativied and anybody else doing the DIY COB thing, or even non diy, people if you have some significant insight on cooling, I have a few questions.
I am considering starting to take up the CXB3590 platform, on a medium scale maybe 20-30 chips, versus the idea of a mini split ac system, and Co2, to cool 3 hid lights. As the summer rolls around, I may have no choice but to start using AC if I keep my HID lights running, but I have heard that these chips do produce quite a bit of heat. In fact I have heard from one source, not sure how reliable, of a source, since they weren't speaking of one particular led platform, but led's in general. I think it was in a magazine, like either MY, or Garden culture, and it was saying that watt for watt, led's tend to produce around the same BTU's of heat as HID per watt I believe, which was pretty shocking to read.
First off I want to know if that is true or bull. I suspect the latter.
Second of all, since it its not in the form of IR, and is mainly radiated upwards (assuming your chips are pointed downwards) it should therefore be easier to get rid of before it ever gets near the plants. Not to mention you need a lot less watts of COB than you do HID for the same area.
Ideally I would like to have a sealed room and use CO2. Are there ways of removing this heat without ac, in a sealed room, such as maybe having ducting running from outside the room, above the lights, connected directly to the top of the chips, allowing you to raise and lower the lights, but still remove the heat from the back side of the chips efficiently enough to maintain decent temperatures at night, all summer in a sealed room.
Maybe a better way of asking this question, is if all the heat is removed from the back of the chip, is the rest of the room going to need additional cooling, do the chips put off heat in other/all directions, or would removing it from the back of the chips allow you to maintain whatever ambient temp you have going in the room?
I am trying to make sure I explore all options before making any major purchases, whether it be a mini split to use with current HID, or COB + some kind of cooling, or even COB + ac of a lower btu I would hope. I am open to all types of suggestions, including using a water chiller, and radiator module as the source of cool air to send through the ducting removing the heat from the top of the chips.
Basically I need to be able to maintain 70-75 degrees at night, all summer. with a sealed room and CO2, I suppose 80 could be acceptable, but It would be nice to have more control than that, if its a particularly hot day, when it could be anywhere from 77-85% outside during the day, but not much more than that, and significantly cooler at night, which is when the lights are on. Maybe an occasional day of 90, but not regularly. Night time temps range from low to high 70's, perhaps 80 on a particularly hot day. This isn't CA weather, but its not CO either. There is some heat to deal with, but its a lot less than most places in the country. It is enough however that HID lighting, and non AC, air cooling is not going to work for 3-4 months out of the summer. Even at night.
Energy usage is important, which is why am considering the COB LED route, but it is not a cheap route. It will cost approximately double the cost of a mini split, to get the basic parts for a cob setup, so if extra cooling is a minimal cost and good efficiency, it could pay for itself rather quickly in energy costs.
I have been building electronics since I was a little kid, so diy cob route not an issue, and is the only option I am interested in, due to the high prices of pre made cob fixtures, which would be difficult to add custom cooling to anyways.
I want to hear what you guys do, how you cool your cob's and what kind of energy usage you come up with compared with HID and AC, as well as COB+ AC, water cooling, and anything else that could potentially be a significant factor when making this major decision.
But I particularly want to know about sealed CO2 rooms using COB led, and what it takes to accomplish this. I figure if I'm going through all this, I might as well do co2 at the same time, and design it all together, to work together.
Thanks guys
I'm surprised to be the first to hop in, I'll give it a go..
