Environmental chamber for thermal testing

Hello

where can we get a cheap environmental chamber for testing electronics for outdoor led lighting products.

We only need one the size of a standard microwave oven

You could wire 120VAC incandescent bulbs inside an unplugged microwave oven. It would be confined.

The temperature could be raised or lowered by changing what wattage bulb you put in.

However it would not be easy to perform test your projects in dark conditions.

Our company rents environmental chambers - https://www.atecorp.com/Categories/Environmental.asp

Do you have a standard or a test spec you are teting too?

-40degc to 80degc

product is 20cm high 15cm wide/deep

no need humidity

This is a popular compact temp only chamber:

https://www.atecorp.com/equipment/tenney/tjr.asp

If you have any more questions feel free to shoot me an e-mail at work. I have more resources at my fingertips there and answer much faster.

bberg AT atecorp DOT com

We need to do hot and cold testing on our led lights.

we can either buy a climatic chamber for $12000...........

https://sciquip.co.uk/Products/Test_Chambers.html

...or we can buy a domestic cooking oven for $100............

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/essentials-cbconx10-electric-oven-stainless-steel-04998089-pdt.html

so do you know why we should not just buy the cooking oven?...we only need to go up to 80 degC.

Also, for the cold test , we need to go down to -30degC, so surely i am thinking a househoild freezer will be allright for that................unfortunatly i can find one with a window, which is a shame because it would be nice to see if the lights are still on whilst its in their.

Also, domestic ovens dont have port entrances where we can feed in the thermocoupled and electrical supply wires.


It just seems a shame that we'll be spending 12000 dollars for an "ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER" ...that is basically going to be used as an oven.

Do you know of suitable ovens and freezers for our use?

ie with glass windows and entrance holes

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We need to do hot and cold testing on our led lights.

we can either buy a climatic chamber for $12000...........

http://sciquip.co.uk/Products/Test_Chambers.html

...or we can buy a domestic cooking oven for $100............

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/essentials-cbconx10-electric-oven-stainless-steel-04998089-pdt.html

so do you know why we should not just buy the cooking oven?...we only need to go up to 80 degC.

Also, for the cold test , we need to go down to -30degC, so surely i am thinking a househoild freezer will be allright for that................unfortunatly i can find one with a window, which is a shame because it would be nice to see if the lights are still on whilst its in their.

Also, domestic ovens dont have port entrances where we can feed in the thermocoupled and electrical supply wires.


It just seems a shame that we'll be spending 12000 dollars for an "ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER" ...that is basically going to be used as an oven.

Do you know of suitable ovens and freezers for our use?

ie with glass windows and entrance holes

Well, of course the saying "You get what you pay for" applies. But I guess more importantly is what you are trying to accomplish with your testing. If you just want to prove to yourself the LED's work in warm and cold climate than a freezer and an oven would work fine. Temperature chambers ($12000 ones especially) have programmability and consistency. If the thermostat says -35C then it is -35 in the top right corner as well as the bottom left corner, regular freezers and ovens don't tend to be that consistent. Off the top of my head, for a chamber size you need, you are probably looking more at $7K for a chamber. Smaller chambers over $10K probably have humidity capability.

I don't imagine LED's have too many components in them and in the event of a fail you can probably break them open and figure out what happened relatively easy. One of my customers was testing his equipment (computer speakers) and was finding them failing during a freeze cycle (using a temp chamber). I can't remember the exact numbers but the temperature was higher than the UL requirement to certify the board. So once he determined the temperature and time it took to fail... a couple weeks, he was able to increase insulation in the necessary areas and pass his pre-compliance check. This proved to be much more cost effective then sending it for certification and having them send you back a failure report.

The window is also another reason for a price increase...

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Oops forgot to answer one part regarding plugging the LED's in. If you look at the picture of the temp chamber from the link above. You will see a circle cap on the side of the unit, this allows you to run power to your equipment under test.