Being a canuck, I've been working on an idea for a high yield indoor garden & ordered myself a bunch of 50W LED grow lights for about 2.30$ a pop. I didn't want to spend on overpriced aluminum extrusion heat sinks & noisy fans so I figured I'd try a DIY water cooled fixture since I could use the heat to warm up the nutrient water. All the materials are leftovers I had laying around.
I used a copper sheet as mounting plates & made 2 manifolds our of 1/4" & 3/4" pipe, copper is a joke to solder but the next one will be aluminum.
https://files.catbox.moe/k9pac1.jpgI made bus bars out of brass & 1/2" teflon to simplify the wiring. LEDs are 120v & .41 amps each.
https://files.catbox.moe/wj0dzt.jpgThen I mounted all that on an aluminum channel & a 1×2 tubing cut in 4 pieces. The fixture is roughly 20" x 94" with 16 LEDs.
https://files.catbox.moe/2wtl71.jpghttps://files.catbox.moe/i75i9d.jpghttps://files.catbox.moe/5vum9g.jpghttps://files.catbox.moe/juw53x.jpgLet me tell you, this thing is fucking bright! Rough math makes it equivalent to 3300-4000W of incandescent grow lights. I figure it'll be good for at least a 3x8 area.
For now I'm using an aquarium pump in a bucket, I have to gauge how many fixtures I can run on a certain volume of water at a given flow while having good nutrient temps. The next fixtures will be smaller, I just had fun with this one.
Noctis_Labyrinthus 0 points 1.6 years ago
I think you might have been looking at the wrong LED's. There are several different types of Cree's within the same familiy line. The XLamp series are the expensive ones. I'm using 96 of the JR5050 series which are also very bright. They should be no more than .72 USD per LED. if you buy them in bulk they should get down to .60 USD
The Cree XLamp XP series is sparingly used in the LED arrays. For example if I were to add them to m y current build. I would probably only use 4 to 6 XP leds with the rest being the JR5050's
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Cree-LED/JR5050BWT-K-U40EK0000-N0000001?qs=QNEnbhJQKvbAuvkGkgMwZA%3D%3D
Don't let the price scare you off.. You really are getting a superior LED that is worth the money in light output but also guaranteed run time.