Sil led heat sink and reflector for free

It’s an old HD platter

This is a Walmart Great Value 100W equiv. 15W 1600 Lumen, after removing plastic diffuser with some channel locks it's about 2500 Lumen. No drilling required, but you do need to cut some of the plastic so the heatsink is close enough to the base to screw in, or you can use some longer sheet metal screws. You can get a 4 pack for about $14. Just make sure to cover the two pins sticking out because they have about 220 VDC on them, they are isolated from the mains voltage though.

The graphs show cooler is brighter and longer life (of course).

Seems like a lot of work just to increase the efficiency and extend the life of one screw in LED bulb.

anexgrower said:

This is a Walmart Great Value 100W equiv. 15W 1600 Lumen, after removing plastic diffuser with some channel locks it's about 2500 Lumen. No drilling required, but you do need to cut some of the plastic so the heatsink is close enough to the base to screw in, or you can use some longer sheet metal screws. You can get a 4 pack for about $14. Just make sure to cover the two pins sticking out because they have about 220 VDC on them, they are isolated from the mains voltage though.

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What do the screws go into? You run the wires through the hole and re-solder?

The screws go into the aluminum piece that came with the led bulb, they aren’t soldered in just pushed in connector type

this is what it looks like stock, and after the hard disk platter “heat sink” is added, the pins and the screws fit through the 25mm hole in the platter, so easy!

PJ Diaz said:

Seems like a lot of work just to increase the efficiency and extend the life of one screw in LED bulb.

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It’s easier done than said really, and I plan to do it to a bunch of soft white and daylight to use for a whole grow.

This was the first version, talk about too much work

Great heat sink but you need an older drive with a removable motor, not the easiest.

Dont these sill lights usually come mounted on a heatsink. Usually the whole back length/cylinder behind the board is a heatsink is it not. The driver on those is usually miniscule most of the size is heatsink

166 lumen/watt at $.18/watt isn't bad! Plus the cost of sockets and wiring etc. Damn cheap for a 2x2 or something.

Personally, I'd just remove the domes. That alone will improve cooling, plus there should be some airflow from the fan(s).

TheWholeTruth said:

Dont these sill lights usually come mounted on a heatsink. Usually the whole back length/cylinder behind the board is a heatsink is it not. The driver on those is usually miniscule most of the size is heatsink

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Before:

After watching the migro video, he used a light meter and seeing his math the actual increase in brightness from removing the plastic dome is about 1.4x so 1600 lumens gets boosted to 2240, that’s about 150 lumens per watt, without extra cooling.

Decided to take a faster and easier approach to cooling a bunch of bulbs
Safety first, remember the chassis ground:

:
No drilling or soldering involved, and I had all this stuff since I’m a parts hoarder, but the price is still reasonable if you need to buy these parts, pack of 10 sockets for $11 on eBay. Bulbs: 4x 5000k. 4x 2700k $28
90mm 12v fan: $10 (salvaged 12v wall wort to power it, or find a mains powered fan)
Total: $49
120w from the wall
about 150 lumens per watt
About 18000 lumens, you choose the spectrum and can unscrew some bulbs to dim
And save power
For $98 you would have 36000 lumens, 240w from the wall, and have modular replacement (and upgrades when household leds get better)
CMH 315w only have 33000 lumens, and they dim over time and need to be replaced every year.

Not really in the spirit of keeping it simple - but wonder how the lumens/watt could be improved by replacing the power supply and under driving them compared to what the circuit sees as stock.

end_of_the_tunnel said:

Not really in the spirit of keeping it simple - but wonder how the lumens/watt could be improved by replacing the power supply and under driving them compared to what the circuit sees as stock.

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I looked into a different supply, it needs to put out 220vdc, turns out all those leds are in series. You could buy dimmable bulbs and run an in wall dimmer.

Thats a pity. I pulled apart some generic Wilco ones and they were two parallel strings. Can't find where I put them. When I measured they were running at around 19.xxv. I guess its down to manufacturer. Was thinking to see if they would run as low as 14v, then could do 14v+14v+14v and find a 42v meanwell driver or similar.

end_of_the_tunnel said:

Thats a pity. I pulled apart some generic Wilco ones and they were two parallel strings. Can't find where I put them. When I measured they were running at around 19.xxv. I guess its down to manufacturer. Was thinking to see if they would run as low as 14v, then could do 14v+14v+14v and find a 42v meanwell driver or similar.

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I don't think the quality of the LED's used in these bulbs (the great value 15W) could do much better than 150 lumens per watt, and the stock drivers don't get warm to the touch at all so they must be pretty efficient.

Kids don’t try this at home:

Imagine building led lights for ur grow tent and next thing you know ur making them for commercial use maybe not for growing but maybe for photography or either way for something (dont mind me im just high as a kite) but hey might happen tho.