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Finished 12" Full-Spectrum MakersLED [54W Mixed + 24W Violets per Cluster]


xerophyte_nyc

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jedimasterben

Always sad to hear.

 

Thanks for the info. I may try to run fanless, but I at least want to be able to dial them down if they are noisy. I'm thinking I'll go ahead with the 18" to give more flexibility down the road for a larger system. I have an infrared thermometer that I use for cooking and other stuff that will let me easily test how warm the heat sink gets.

I would never run an LED system fanless, even if you use a larger heatsink. When LEDs are ran hot, they emit less light and their lifespan starts to decrease significantly.

 

Think of it this way - the heatsink is like a cup, and the heat from the LEDs is water being poured into it. A small cup can only hold some liquid before it overflows. A larger cup will be able to hold more liquid, but without anywhere for that liquid to go, it will still fill up and overflow. A fan is like a hole in the bottom of the cup. As long as you aren't filling the cup too quickly, the cup will never overflow over the top.

 

If the room the tank is in has good airflow already, then you could consider it - but unless it has a dedicated fan, the LEDs will always run hotter.

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shortround92

I would never run an LED system fanless, even if you use a larger heatsink. When LEDs are ran hot, they emit less light and their lifespan starts to decrease significantly.

 

Think of it this way - the heatsink is like a cup, and the heat from the LEDs is water being poured into it. A small cup can only hold some liquid before it overflows. A larger cup will be able to hold more liquid, but without anywhere for that liquid to go, it will still fill up and overflow. A fan is like a hole in the bottom of the cup. As long as you aren't filling the cup too quickly, the cup will never overflow over the top.

 

If the room the tank is in has good airflow already, then you could consider it - but unless it has a dedicated fan, the LEDs will always run hotter.

 

I disagree in a good natured way :) The 12" sink has a greater surface area for convective cooling, so it will theoretically dissipate heat at a sufficiently fast enough rate that it won't build up, or overflow in your analogy. It's like how a 75gal tank will evaporate more than a 20g tank. It's the same principle they use for silent, fanless HTPC cases. Maybe having a big, slow moving fan like a 24cm is another option if noise is a factor. I don't know if it will fit on the Makersled sink though.

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jedimasterben

I disagree in a good natured way :) The 12" sink has a greater surface area for convective cooling, so it will theoretically dissipate heat at a sufficiently fast enough rate that it won't build up, or overflow in your analogy. It's like how a 75gal tank will evaporate more than a 20g tank. It's the same principle they use for silent, fanless HTPC cases. Maybe having a big, slow moving fan like a 24cm is another option if noise is a factor. I don't know if it will fit on the Makersled sink though.

Seeing as the Makers heatsink is like 5.5" wide and the fan would be almost 10... yeah, don't think it would fit lol

 

And if there is minimal airflow (or none), more surface area will only help slightly. It will have some convection, but if there's a lot of watts being pumped into it... you know :)

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Not trying to hijack this thread or anything,but I read you have a problem with your violets staying on once the light shuts off and I have a Rapidled triple pick fixture and my whites do the same thing even when the fixture is unplugged for Few minutes. Even with the pot knobs turned off they flicker about 2-3 times get really dim then turn off. I left them on one night and it took them about 2 hours to finally go out. Any idea why they do this ?

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jedimasterben

It's just the driver letting off what power it has left. At very low dimming numbers the driver is pumping out basically no power into the LEDs, so it takes a long time for the driver to fully dissipate the current.

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