LED Strip Thermal Paste

I saw a post somewhere that someone used a computer Thermal compound. I have a tube of some.. Can i really uae these on my strips?

Yeah, but thermal tape would be my preference. Thermal paste is sticky as hell so it should keep the strips attached, but ideally if you went with paste you'd want to use thermal glue instead. You're gonna need a loooot of thermal paste if you have more than a few strips too.

Thermal tape is like $7 on amazon. It's enough to do quite a few builds. I used 30mm wide for single row samsung F series strips.

Did anyone ever do a comprehensive comparison of heat distribution methods to see if they really work?

I did a quick test with some TCI strips and I didn't see a significant difference between adding thermal paste or just screwing them straight onto the bare aluminium. Apparently the contact patch of a whole led strip is big enough that you don't need to put anything in between to transfer the heat.

Didn't try the tape because I would like to be able to remove the strips from the heat sinks.

wietefras said:

Did anyone ever do a comprehensive comparison of heat distribution methods to see if they really work?

I did a quick test with some TCI strips and I didn't see a significant difference between adding thermal paste or just screwing them straight onto the bare aluminium. Apparently the contact patch of a whole led strip is big enough that you don't need to put anything in between to transfer the heat.

Didn't try the tape because I would like to be able to remove the strips from the heat sinks.

Click to expand...

Yeah I think you got a good point there. It's not like we're cooling a CPU where the actual die is super tiny (like 10mm x 40mm). Having the heat spread out over such a large area would mean it's much less important to futher spread the heat dissipation via a thermal compound.

Computer thermal paste is normally a thermal grease rather than a glue.
I use thermal grease/paste on all my strips. I buy it in bulk as I always need some for building circuits and refreshing the paste in my CPU and graphics card.

skoomd said:

Yeah I think you got a good point there. It's not like we're cooling a CPU where the actual die is super tiny (like 10mm x 40mm). Having the heat spread out over such a large area would mean it's much less important to futher spread the heat dissipation via a thermal compound.

Click to expand...

That was the theory on my last build. I used dirt cheap paste from ebay to mount Bridgelux EB strips to 1/2" square tube, seems to work very well.

I tried a few strips with paste and a few without and with the FLIR camera I really can't tell the difference between the two.

wietefras said:

I tried a few strips with paste and a few without and with the FLIR camera I really can't tell the difference between the two.

Click to expand...

I used the thermal adhesive tape. Don't know if it's really necessary as with most thermal paste the contact is aluminum to aluminum. The coating or mask they use on the strips seems like it would hinder the direct transfer of heat to the sinks unless it's a thermal coating.

The temperature we use the strips at vs the temps it was designed to handle in other installations is worlds apart. It is all good and well if your lights work on a nice cool day. But I want mine to keep ticking even on the ungodly hot days we have here in summer.

ANC said:

The temperature we use the strips at vs the temps it was designed to handle in other installations is worlds apart. It is all good and well if your lights work on a nice cool day. But I want mine to keep ticking even on the ungodly hot days we have here in summer.

Click to expand...

Sure , I never run over 1.2 A to each strip and at full power the strips run around 40 C.

mine run at 2A

The leds run at the same temperature for me. With or without paste. The FLIR measures temperature accurate to tenths of a degree. Not sure how it would matter what the ambient temperature is. Both would simply be warmer by the same amount in both cases too.

ANC said:

The temperature we use the strips at vs the temps it was designed to handle in other installations is worlds apart. It is all good and well if your lights work on a nice cool day. But I want mine to keep ticking even on the ungodly hot days we have here in summer.

Click to expand...

I guess it can differ per application, but did you ever measure a difference between using paste and not using paste?

No, I doubt there is much gain, but properly applied (i.e. super thin) thermal grease will transfer heat better than air.
Back in my PC overclocking days, I would lap the mating surfaces until they were shiny. Makes it really hard to get shit apart due to capillary forces.

Thermal paste makes better conductor than air, removes air gap. Is not to be used as adhesive lol c'mon now (though you might get away with it for awhile.)

Though I think many are finding that running lower currents it might not be great value added to use it vs mounting strips directly.

Thermal grease, paste, tape is not recommended by the producers, because it's simply not needed.
There is a really large contact surface with LED strips and a few micro air gapps really doesn't matter because it's perhaps less than 1/100 of the surface. Even if the LEDs are running at 200mA (1.8A / 3.6A) you would not notice any difference without TIM.
My single row F-Strips run at ~ 500mA and they are only glued on 1" c-channel with cheap e3ay thermal tape.
At the back of the c-channel I measure 33°C(with a small piece of black tape) and frontwise directly on the middle measurement point it is 35°C. A difference of only 2°C means that these strips has a very low thermal resistance.

EB/EBgen.2 Strips should have an even lower thermal resistance because they are slightly wider(18mm vs. 24mm) and come with alu PCB.

CannaBruh said:

Thermal paste makes better conductor than air, removes air gap. Is not to be used as adhesive lol c'mon now (though you might get away with it for awhile.)

Though I think many are finding that running lower currents it might not be great value added to use it vs mounting strips directly.

Click to expand...

I was never recommending to not using a thermal interface between the strips and sinks. Just commenting on the fact that the engineers must have decided that it was not that important for thermal management at their specs. Anyone seen a thermal management spec for the strips themself not just the diodes?

boilingoil said:

I was never recommending to not using a thermal interface between the strips and sinks. Just commenting on the fact that the engineers must have decided that it was not that important for thermal management at their specs. Anyone seen a thermal management spec for the strips themself not just the diodes?

Click to expand...

I have not found anything like that for stripes. But, if it were necessary to pay attention to thermal management there would certainly be a section in the datasheets.

Randomblame said:

Thermal grease, paste, tape is not recommended by the producers, because it's simply not needed.

Click to expand...

Exactly. As I said I tried both with and without paste and it's been my experience that it adds nothing in the way of thermal management.

Was hoping others did some measurements too to get a more definitive answer.

I'm building a new frame with a bit bigger U-channels. Guess I can try another few strips with maybe better paste see if it matters with more cooling.

wietefras said:

Exactly. As I said I tried both with and without paste and it's been my experience that it adds nothing in the way of thermal management.

Was hoping others did some measurements too to get a more definitive answer.

I'm building a new frame with a bit bigger U-channels. Guess I can try another few strips with maybe better paste see if it matters with more cooling.

Click to expand...

Friendly advice, don't eat the paste. Unfortunately for you I might have been way too late.

All of my Panels/ Racks are built with 560mm Gen 1 BXEBs....
Open air nakedness on the 700ma collections.
Aluminum flashing for the 1050ma versions....not even sure that's "needed" anymore....
Have yet to find a total circuit voltage drop, from cold start to full temp(2hrs) of more than .75% on any build....granted I have good air movement always....
Even the 6 strips at 1400ma, on the flashing sheet lost only 1 volt.

I thumb my nose at thermal management for BXEB!