Hi all,
I stopped growing a few years ago, but now I'm looking to get back into it with a somewhat stealthy 2 small plant grow in a 36"w x 42"h x 18"d metal cabinet in my garage. After reading the LED threads here, I'm sold on LED and want to build a combo veg and flower light.
I'm planning to do 3 Vero 29 3k at 500 - 1.050 ma for flower, and 2 Vero 18 5000k at 500 ma for veg on a single heatsink. The veg LEDs would max at 28 watts, flower LEDs would range between 53 to 114 depending on how hard I drive them. They should run pretty efficient too, at the lower ma. I'd run veg and flower LEDs separate, so the max watts at one time would be 114.
I'm leaning toward the Heatsink USA 5.88" at 28" length, mounted at the top of the cabinet, with a 92mm fan mounted to the cabinet ceiling centered above the heat sink blowing out of the cabinet. By pressing the sink fins up to the fan, it should pull cabinet air across the fins and out of the cabinet, so the fan will act as an exhaust as well as for cooling of the sink.
I did have an idea today based on a couple comments about using aluminum tubes in this thread. I know Steves LED sells aluminum tubing as a heat sink, but it looks too small for Vero 29s. Would something like this work?
http://www.zoro.com/value-brand-square-tube-al-2-34-in-inside-sq-3-ft-6aln9/i/G1834892/
It comes in 3' sections, and would fit perfectly across the top of my 36" cabinet. I could mount the cobs along the bottom of it, and then mount one of
Steves pressurizing fan at the center point, blowing cabinet air into the aluminum tube and venting it out the ends of the tube through holes cut in each side of the cabinet where it meets the tube.
I think the tubing would have enough surface area to dissipate some heat in the event of a fan failure, enough to keep the Veros from burning up. One negative is that the tube walls are kinda thin at 1/8" so they may not transfer the heat as well. It would cost about 1/2 the price as HeatsinkUSA ($37 vs $74 including shipping), which is why I'm considering it. I'd love to have feedback from the guru's in this thread.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the fantastic LED science project that's happening here!