Controlling an Outdoor Electrical Outlet

[elcano]

Probably OK for a relay module but I would think a dimmer module would have trouble staying cool if it was packed with grease.

Interesting. I was assuming just the opposite. <_<

Grease is used to get a better thermal tranfer from chips to heatsinks (like in CPUs). I would assume most viscous substances would be better head conductors than air. But well, I'm not mechanical or materials engineer, so I might be wrong.

 

[upstatemike]

I was thinkinking scuba divers use grease to keep warm so it must be a thermal insulator... but I also am not knowledgable in this area.

Maybe there is a grease monkey out there who can chime in and set us straight...?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I'm no expert either but remember elcano, the general rule for using heat sink grease is to use a thin layer between the CPU and heatsink. This fills voids in the heat sink and creates a better conductive surface by doing so, but you can actually hurt the heat transfer if to much is used (insulates instead).

Plus there are a lot of different types of grease so who knows, maybe everyone is correct and it all depends on the type you use.

For instance, I thought (I looked this up a looong time ago) from my anandtech.com days, that grease such as Artic Silver was actually conductive! I just can't remember (that age thing again creeping up on me!) <_<

EDIT: Hmm, I'm thinking now that it is the metalic fillers that make certain brands of heat sink grease conductive.

 

[elcano]

Only dielectric grease is considered non-conductive (electricity). As always, this is relative to your operating voltage. I read about a PC building experiment were they inmersed all components of a PC (except hard disks) in vegetable oil to better dissipate heat and do major overclocking. I think that it worked fine for dissipating heat but as vegetable oil is not dielectric the system became unstable very fast (or something like that). They should have choosen an oil with extremely low electric conductivity (near air or better) and high heat conductivity.

Nice heads up, guys. I'll be a little more careful with my can of dielectric grease. <_<