Question about improving LED efficiency.

So I am newer to growing with leds, but from what I understand, some of the power that should be emitting from my diodes is escaping as heat through my heatsink. Does this mean with a larger heatsink or bigger fans they will actually be brighter? I'm not exactly electrically inclined and have been using HPS and MH for the last 12 years or so, thanks in advance folks.

u got a driver or transformer that take ya house current 110/240 volts ac down to 30-50v dc..?

slip them thru the led wires into them diodes/led lights and back again

slipping thru the diode makes a lot of heat

the fans and heatsink just take care of ...remove that heat

no lights/led won't get brighter

good luck

vostok said:

u got a driver or transformer that take ya house current 110/240 volts ac down to 30-50v dc..?

slip them thru the led wires into them diodes/led lights and back again

slipping thru the diode makes a lot of heat

the fans and heatsink just take care of ...remove that heat

no lights/led won't get brighter

good luck

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Thank you that's exactly what I needed to hear. Cheers!

Jeremy Pivens said:

So I am newer to growing with leds, but from what I understand, some of the power that should be emitting from my diodes is escaping as heat through my heatsink. Does this mean with a larger heatsink or bigger fans they will actually be brighter? I'm not exactly electrically inclined and have been using HPS and MH for the last 12 years or so, thanks in advance folks.

Click to expand...

easiest way to improve efficiency is to add more diodes and run the same total wattage over more diodes

Larger sinks will keep the chips cooler and they will emit more light. If you look at the emitter datasheet you will see a chart that describes luminosity -vs- temp and it can be worthwhile to keep the temps lower.

But like Cobkits says, more chips/boards at lower current will provide better thermal performance than higher current with larger sinks. Whatever chip/current combo you go with you will need to figure out how much cooling surface is required for the job. SMD strips and boards at low current can get by without sinks. Cobs will need sinks and a general rule of thumb for getting good temps is 120sq/cm of surface area per watt of heat. Pin fin sinks will usually be advertised with ratings. I've found it's good to "oversize" them, just meaning to stay well within the ratings. 150mm is good for 70-75 watts, 130-133mm is good for 45-50 watts. Spending a little extra to oversize for something that can potentially outlast all the electrical equipment is worth doing.

CobKits said:

easiest way to improve efficiency is to add more diodes and run the same total wattage over more diodes

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So if I took out the 50 3 watt diodes and replaced them with 150 1 watts it would be brighter? Or do you mean run 3 watt diodes but less power going to them? I have heard the 1 watt diodes don't really penetrate very well.

Thanks again everyone.

which light do you have? "3W diodes" is usually used to describe ancient inefficient technology

CobKits said:

which light do you have? "3W diodes" is usually used to describe ancient inefficient technology

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They are exactly that, they are unbranded chinese junk I bought hastily from eBay before I really begun my research, I was basically trying to see if there is any way to make them worth while. My girlfriend had a brain injury which resulted in us moving into a smaller house with alot less space to be closer to hospitals, so now I have to run leds instead of my old HPS setup in a small 2'x4'x5' dresser. I spent around 30 bucks for everything since all of our money goes to medical bills or treatments.(unbranded chinese driver, unbranded heatsink, shitty 3 watt leds).

can you open it up and look at the drivers?

ill send you better chips for free

CobKits said:

can you open it up and look at the drivers?

ill send you better chips for free

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It doesn't say anything on either side.. Supposed to be a 200 watt driver but it's so generic there is nothing written on it at all.

Wait I found some numbers, 100-277ac 50/60hz

thats just input. do you have a voltmeter?

No I don't. I found the data sheet this is what it said, apparently it isn't 200 watts. :
100w LED Driver

AC Power Driver

Non-Waterproof with Heat Sink

Input Voltage: AC85V-265V

Frequency Range: 50-60HZ

Efficiency:> 90%

Output Voltage: 30V ~ 36V

Current: 3.0A +/- 5%

Rated Power: 100W

Operating Temperature: -20 ~ 80 degrees Celsius

The input numbers are different from the data sheet though so I don't know what to think

thats a tough one, would require cobs in parallel and its unknown how accurate the "36V" ceiling is

CobKits said:

thats a tough one, would require cobs in parallel and its unknown how accurate the "36V" ceiling is

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Could you reccomend a 200 watt driver I could get for around 40 dollars? I have about that much to spend.

the hlg-185s i have on my site are ~$50 and ~220W max if filled

what do the heatsinks look like on that light

If I were to redo this I would use a big piece of aluminum scrap that I have as a heat sink, it is 1 and a half inch thick, 7 inches wide and 3 feet long, I could hack an end off if I wanted it smaller. This is what it looks like, about 4 inches by 4 inches

This is what the current heatsink looks like