Lighthouse Hydro is doing it wrong.
- Thread starter thatsmessedup
- Start date
. Sigh, I can't wait to be a rich cannabis baron and piss away money on shit like that Eraserhead
Well-Known Member
I've tried both with fans blowing in, and blowing out, and the heat sink and LEDs ran cooler when the fans blew in at the heat sink.
The reason being is if the fans have to blow out, they have to draw air through the vent holes at the side of the fixture > then through inside the shell case area > then out of the fan on top of the LED fixture. So there is no direct air contact from the fan to the heat sink, which is vital to keeping the diodes cool so they can perform at optimum conditions.
When the fans blow in at the heat sink, there in much less resistance and a much more direct path between the fan and the heat sink, thus it will run cooler.
Everything will take the path of least resistance, this includes air running through an LED fixture.
Of course, different designs call for different cooling methods, and there are designs that call for a fan blowing out rather than in.
The reason being is if the fans have to blow out, they have to draw air through the vent holes at the side of the fixture > then through inside the shell case area > then out of the fan on top of the LED fixture. So there is no direct air contact from the fan to the heat sink, which is vital to keeping the diodes cool so they can perform at optimum conditions.
When the fans blow in at the heat sink, there in much less resistance and a much more direct path between the fan and the heat sink, thus it will run cooler.
Everything will take the path of least resistance, this includes air running through an LED fixture.
Of course, different designs call for different cooling methods, and there are designs that call for a fan blowing out rather than in.
thatsmessedup
Well-Known Member
^^ your thinking this over too much... the fan will last just as long. The difference in temperature between pulling air in and pushing it out is only a few degrees different.
puffenuff
Well-Known Member
Take notes of the heat management designs from companies like california lightworks, lumigrow, kessil, and apache tech. There's a reason why these guys are able to push their leds to the max or damn near to full capacity. I don't know how they do it, but I'm pretty sure little fans blowing (or sucking) air over heatsinks is not the answer.
Rasser
Active Member
I tell you writing the last line took me 5 minutes, I was totally crack up in tears laughing
and stoned as hell last night -Bill Hicks joke about seeing tiny police people in the rear view mirror
was also on my mind.
I'm thinking about, if you had not removed the front glass and raised the plate, and thereby enabling air
to be sucked in that way, and cooling the plate on all four sides, then the temperature difference would had
been more pronounced -like my test.
The temperature inside the inverters in the unit are also worth keeping an eye on, when changing the direction
of the flow away from the default. -cheap Capacitors quickly dry out in heat, as you may know.
My inverters have vent holes in them, and what effect suck vs. blow has is unknown -there could be huge difference.
That's Me.
Thanks ! I'm home
I'm also looking forward to getting a PAR light meter, besides the obvious tests,
The Sun vs. HPS vs. LED and so on, it would be interesting to see how big a difference
there is in light output between a cold started unit and one that's been running for 30 minutes.
A standart lux meter may work for that test - anyone got one of those?
Rasser
Active Member
So he also ended up doing the fan grill removing mod, on his unit, and some new cool looking white fans.
Personally I'm not going down the road involving the removal of 200+ micro screws, for a thermal pasta upgrade Zzzz
it was great to see the pcb panel disassembled, I thought it was star pcb's on the backside.
To further enhance the cooling on my unit I'm gonna fit more of those small sticky heat sinks I already have used.
and find some way of making a thermal link between the hot plate and the cool chassis. Right now the plate is almost floating freely.
Then I think this cheap LED panel has had all the mods thats reasonable.
Water cooling is the only way to keep the temps down, but that's only worth doing on good high power panels.
Personally I'm not going down the road involving the removal of 200+ micro screws, for a thermal pasta upgrade Zzzz
it was great to see the pcb panel disassembled, I thought it was star pcb's on the backside.
To further enhance the cooling on my unit I'm gonna fit more of those small sticky heat sinks I already have used.
and find some way of making a thermal link between the hot plate and the cool chassis. Right now the plate is almost floating freely.
Then I think this cheap LED panel has had all the mods thats reasonable.
Water cooling is the only way to keep the temps down, but that's only worth doing on good high power panels.
FranJan
Well-Known Member
^^^Yeah I forgot he cut those off, but that's the problem with this place , you tend to forget some things around here .
I've been thinking about the par meter thing too for looking at how even coverage is, what the primary coverage is, (umbra and penumbra I believe it would be called) and occasionally comparing panels. From what I've read you can't put too much stock into what handheld par meters are reading when it comes to LEDs, but I guess that depends on what you're trying to find out. They're a great tool to have regardless and I would think one would help with anyone's grow.
I have some time tomorrow to spend on the grow and will hopefully be able to get to the computer store (it's a BIG one) to see what kind of cooling options they have, plus it's about time to upgrade the grease under the heatsinks of my 5x60's. And yeah water cooling on a BS= tits on a bull. But if anyone wants to try, I'd still love it!
Had a little conversation with Ryan at LED-Star and his argument is ultimately, "do you want to sit in a room with the fan blowing on you or out the window?". I also think that since the tent was actually hotter and the inside of the panel was roughly the same temp, it's better to blow on the fans than to suck heat out. And yes the space between the case and heat-sink helped, but by how much could be negligible since the space is very small and all the vents on the sides above it aren't really conducive to cooling from below. Still if I do take the fan covers off I like the idea of those fans blowing out than sucking stuff in, (I 'm on the messy side). And if I upgrade the fans tomorrow, I'm definitely getting the fans with LEDs in them
.
. I've been thinking about the par meter thing too for looking at how even coverage is, what the primary coverage is, (umbra and penumbra I believe it would be called) and occasionally comparing panels. From what I've read you can't put too much stock into what handheld par meters are reading when it comes to LEDs, but I guess that depends on what you're trying to find out. They're a great tool to have regardless and I would think one would help with anyone's grow.
I have some time tomorrow to spend on the grow and will hopefully be able to get to the computer store (it's a BIG one) to see what kind of cooling options they have, plus it's about time to upgrade the grease under the heatsinks of my 5x60's. And yeah water cooling on a BS= tits on a bull
. But if anyone wants to try, I'd still love it! Had a little conversation with Ryan at LED-Star and his argument is ultimately, "do you want to sit in a room with the fan blowing on you or out the window?". I also think that since the tent was actually hotter and the inside of the panel was roughly the same temp, it's better to blow on the fans than to suck heat out. And yes the space between the case and heat-sink helped, but by how much could be negligible since the space is very small and all the vents on the sides above it aren't really conducive to cooling from below. Still if I do take the fan covers off I like the idea of those fans blowing out than sucking stuff in, (I 'm on the messy side). And if I upgrade the fans tomorrow, I'm definitely getting the fans with LEDs in them
.
TubeAndJar
Well-Known Member
It still ends up sucking stuff in from the vents. I like what Ryan said about "if you were in a room do you want the fan blowing on you or out the window?" Well damnit even if my window was bigger I'd still want that fan blowing on ME. Don't even bother flipping them. If anything, swap em out for faster ones.
Rasser
Active Member
Yes I'm having fun experimenting on all the light sources I have right now,^^^Yeah I forgot he cut those off, but that's the problem with this place , you tend to forget some things around here
I've been thinking about the par meter thing too for looking at how even coverage is, what the primary coverage is, (umbra and penumbra I believe it would be called) and occasionally comparing panels. From what I've read you can't put too much stock into what handheld par meters are reading when it comes to LEDs, but I guess that depends on what you're trying to find out. They're a great tool to have regardless and I would think one would help with anyone's grow.
.
and the grow room light distribution in general, to get a clear feeling of what's what.
Very impressed with the output coming from my white 5 watt LED desk lamp, at around 1" there is over 1000 uMol and no heat
a seedling should do great.
Regarding the fan's, I see on the new panels(2nd. gen. to me) there is no chassis fan grill,
but a rounded steel mesh, and open air vents in the sides, real heat sinks, on/off switch and status indicators.
So they must have learned something