HydraLux: The First Liquid Cooled LED Bulb

The folks over at Eternaleds, Inc. recently announced the debut of their HydraLux-4 LED light bulb, a light bulb that could change the way we live! (okay, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit).

The liquid-cooling technology used in HydraLux-4 LED is the first of its kind. The bulb is surrounded by liquid, making overheating virtually impossible and cool to the touch no matter how long they've been on. LEDs are known to be far more energy efficient than the standard CFL bulbs, which don't provide a full range of light. Fortunately this new invention gives a full 360 degrees of light.

While, the $35 price tag per bulb may cause sticker shock, the life time and efficiency of this bulb almost makes up for it. At 8 hours a day, the HydraLux-4 only costs $1.75 per year to run and uses 4w compared to the common 25w of incandescent bulbs; from there you can do the math. Furthermore, they're rated for over 35,000 of use, that's almost 4 years.

One great thing I like about the HydraLux-4 LED bulb is that it's completely dimmable. If dimming is not enough, you can even choose from two available colors; Warm White and Daylight White and even install these bad boys outside.

If its pushes through, Eternaleds is planning to release 8w, 12w and 16w versions of HydraLux by the end of 2009. Each purchased bulb comes with a 2-yr warranty and 30 day money-back guarantee. Nothing is brighter and more reassuring than that!
http://www.gadgetreview.com/2009/07/hydralux-the-first-liquid-cooled-led-bulb.html

Looks interesting, however I didn't think that 4W LED needed such aggressive heatsinking. Unless they're going for a really small package.

very well....

any 'expert' view on Liquid cooling please?
How does that work? A waterblock and Pump like we use on Overclocked CPUs?

bhvm said:

very well....

any 'expert' view on Liquid cooling please?
How does that work? A waterblock and Pump like we use on Overclocked CPUs?

Click to expand...

I think they are just using it as a passive submerging affect. Using the water as the heatsink?

they still need to cool down the liquid either by active or passive heatsinking. the led will continuously adding heat to the liquid and the liquid has to continuously remove the heat away or it will built up in no time.

oh 25W incandescent is like..... very very small light

Lets see an mc-e version.

Ny0ng1 said:

they still need to cool down the liquid either by active or passive heatsinking. the led will continuously adding heat to the liquid and the liquid has to continuously remove the heat away or it will built up in no time.

oh 25W incandescent is like..... very very small light

Click to expand...

I don't know the numbers or anything look them up as you please but I think if you have enough liquid with a good heat capacitance you will reach a equilibrium between the heat leaving the bulb from the surfaces (the passive heatsinking and the capacitance used.

Edit: It uses Parafin Oil as the liquid.

also another thread about these bulbs is here: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3015581

I did a bit of research on this one....

What they use is Paraffin wax
This thing is normally solid/semi-molten at room temp.

The heat of LED melts it.
Then by the laws of physics (you did attend those lectures, did'nt you?). Convenction starts circulating the now liquid paraffin...

This then trasfers the heat to glass globe...where its finally carried away.


Hope it helps.

But what happens if you overdrive it?

Lots of magic smoke

change in pressure would obviously cause the entire volume of parafin wax to vaporize as soon as the bulb envelope breaks. the vaporized parafin would ignite from the spark, you know, the spark LEDs make when in an environment of parafin, and there'd be a huge fireball!

Well, maybe not... where's the actual emitter?

LEDs have a great future in area lighting but this kind of marketing is not helpful. Deconstructing the hype:

"LEDs are known to be far more energy efficient than the standard CFL bulbs…" The old "everybody knows" fallacy. Truth is, it depends.

"While, the $35 price tag per bulb may cause sticker shock, the life time and efficiency of this bulb almost makes up for it. At 8 hours a day, the HydraLux-4 only costs $1.75 per year to run and uses 4w compared to the common 25w of incandescent bulbs; from there you can do the math. Furthermore, they're rated for over 35,000 of use, that's almost 4 years."
For 35,000 hours that's $56 for this LED versus <$48 for 8W CFLs from Costco (at the same electricity rate and more lumens). So, "almost" is sorta truthful. But they are using $0.150/kWh instead of the US average $0.097/kWh which exaggerates the savings by 55%. They claim 150 to 200 lumens output, or 38L/W to 50L/W. Most CFLs are 55L/W to 70L/W with higher CRI.

"…you can do the math." Apparently Eternaleds can't do the math honestly.

"…liquid-cooling … making overheating virtually impossible…" Really? Ever seen a car overheat?

"…CFL bulbs, which don't provide a full range of light." [???] "Fortunately this new invention gives a full 360 degrees of light." Just, WOW!

"…a light bulb that could change the way we live! (okay, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit)." Ya think?!?

[Opinion] The paraffin liquid cooling is an unfortunate complication to make the bulb compatible with screw-in fixtures. For now, it's better to integrate LEDs with heatsinking into the fixture.

bhvm said:

I did a bit of research on this one....

What they use is Paraffin wax
This thing is normally solid/semi-molten at room temp.

The heat of LED melts it.
Then by the laws of physics (you did attend those lectures, did'nt you?). Convenction starts circulating the now liquid paraffin...

This then trasfers the heat to glass globe...where its finally carried away.


Hope it helps.

Click to expand...

There web site says "Not to worry, if you drop/break it - the liquid inside is harmless paraffin oil that has been tested and certified safe to UL and ROHS standards."

Paraffin Oil is not the same thing as Paraffin Wax. Since all paraffin wax I have ever seen is translucent at best when solid, I think this design would have long warm up period and would be very dim until it melted.

LEDs have a bright Future...(pun inteneded)
But they're still not there yet!

CFL rule the roost when it comes to practical Lumens/Watt and so do Lumens/Dollar...They are the king!

Its only time that'll decide.

I first proposed the idea about filling a LED flashlight to the brim with mineral oil or distilled water for heatsinking purposes back in 2006...but some members were concerned with the possibility of a lamp bursting due to vaporization and the idea was largely brushed aside.

I'm surprised someone actually made something of it

Nice one mr.

I've submerged whole Computers in Coconut oil... Its non-toxic...and has great specific heat capacity... Works like a champ for me...

Best thing is...every part gets very even cooling and problems due to differential expansion-contraction are out.

Maybe that idea went to the bin that time...
Try it now... I am with you!


P.S- Distilled water WON'T work.... try baby oil instead.

distilled water would need to be pretty much perfectly clean to work. Oil would be much more suitable, methinks (ahh, needed an excuse to use that word)

Does coconut oil make your computer smell good?

bshanahan14rulz said:

distilled water would need to be pretty much perfectly clean to work. Oil would be much more suitable, methinks (ahh, needed an excuse to use that word)

Does coconut oil make your computer smell good?

Click to expand...

I've already warned against Distilled water... and those words come from experience. If some nice fireworks is what you want... then go ahed

BTW, if you overclock your PC to 7GHZ, you can fry some chips in it.... umm tasty!

oh my god! i just have worlds most sophisticated cooking instrument!! :twothumbs:

BurmaJones said:

LEDs have a great future in area lighting but this kind of marketing is not helpful. Deconstructing the hype:

"LEDs are known to be far more energy efficient than the standard CFL bulbs…" The old "everybody knows" fallacy. Truth is, it depends.

But they are using $0.150/kWh instead of the US average $0.097/kWh which exaggerates the savings by 55%. They claim 150 to 200 lumens output, or 38L/W to 50L/W. Most CFLs are 55L/W to 70L/W with higher CRI.

"…you can do the math." Apparently Eternaleds can't do the math honestly.

.

Click to expand...

Hi BermaJones - A lot of your points are dead on. I am an LED junkie, but if you want quality white light across a broad spectrum (and about 4000+ K for me) then it is REALLY hard to beat out a flourescent bulb, esp. the long tubes for efficiency and output, not to mention cost.

I have no idea what peole do with 200 lumens for general lighting, perhaps they have night vision. I don't buy any general lighting luminaire with less than 1000 lumens, except for decorative bulbs in our rarely used dining room chandelier.

I am mixed on the $ / KW aspect though, and here is why. Our wonderful friends that run CA and the power grid have found creative ways to charge a heck of a lot for electricity out here. While my Dad continues to pay $ 0.05 / KWH in OH, I have this funny tiered structure that starts at $ 0.11 / for having the pleasure of power, but then quickly goes to $ 0.22 / for moderate amounts, then up to $ 0.35 / if you turn on the A/C.

As as a practical matter, I can almost run a home generator at that price, but the important point is that anything I do to cut useage goes against that $ 0.35 / power price, not toward the US average price. I suppose the good side is that it pushed me to hyper-insulate the attic, which has in fact reduced my a/c bills this summer. Unlike lighting and solar energy investments, I am expecting an ROI on the hyper insulation in less than 24 months, maybe even 12.

Coming back to the original product, it sounds like not such a bad idea to liquid cool them, and at 16 watts, it starts to become interesting, even if not ideal.

WOW thats just stupid .... what where they thinking? i mean there is a reason why heatsinks aren't spherical without fins but still those guys at eternaleds think its an good idea the use the almost spherical shape of an regular light bulb as an heat sink :shakehead. i think if we are going to use leds in general lighting we will have to rethink the purpose of the fixture itself and not the bulb. with the insane lifetimes of leds it would make sense to integrate the led in to the fixture or develop a socket that not only transfers current but also heat.