Cooling a DIY lighting enclosure
- Thread starter ttan
- Start date
You may not even need one. I used a small PC fan, with a PC power supply to power it. How much light is it the hood?
I am going to be overdriving normal output flourescents. I will have at least three tubes in the hood with the ballasts. Total watts should be around 85 watts.
I have thought about using an old power supply for it, I've got enough of them somewhere, but I thought if I could it would be better to have it all on one plug.
I have thought about using an old power supply for it, I've got enough of them somewhere, but I thought if I could it would be better to have it all on one plug.
Then you will probably want to get some fans. Try looking at normal PC case fans. They work well for me.
The problem I have with those is noise. I have tried them, but they make more noise then my computer ones.
There are quiet and loud AC and DC fans. But it is generally easier to find quieter DC fans, simply because more people are looking for and there are more recommendations for quiet DC fans than AC ones.
Personally, I run two panaflo 80mm DC fans off of an old 5 volt cell phone charger. Cant hear the fans running.
Personally, I run two panaflo 80mm DC fans off of an old 5 volt cell phone charger. Cant hear the fans running.
Today I went to radioshack and the fans there for ac were expensive like 20+ bu cks, so I bought some button switches so I could turn on individual lights and the fan all separately. Then I went to best buy and bought a led case fan that is dc 12 v. I have an old nicad charger that is 12 v as well so I'll just have two cords in the end. I also had time to buy the wood and cut it, but unfortunately I'll have to finish from there tomorrow after work. I plan on running an f32t8 ballast with two 24" 17 watt tubes in a series. In addition to this my old hood had a 20 watt ballast which I plan on wiring in as well so three tubes total cooled by a pretty big case fan 80mmx80mm i beleive . Takes up a whole side of the enclosure. So...85 watts is projected. I'm going to see if i can get a 6500 k bulb, a 5000k bulb and one of the aquarium and plant bulbs,iirc is 3100k. Can anyone think of something else I should do instead or in addition ? I plan on spray painting the outside black and the inside white. Maybe a gloss on the inside would help. I'm open to any suggestions.
