People QB any heat management suggestions?

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
also if you run the kit at 100%, the driver is whats going to put off the most heat. at 100% i cant touch the driver for more than a couple seconds without beginning to burn my hand. I would suggest running it about 75%

Meanwell drivers are 90 to 96% efficient, that means only 4-10% is converted into heat.
QB, COB's and strips are ~60% efficient when driven low, so at least 40% of the power going into the LED's is converted into heat. Simply because the driver feels warmer he's not less efficient.
They are made for a wide AC input range and the higher the input voltage, the more efficient the conversion!
For that reason they run a little hotter with only 110/120vac.Screenshot_20180522-175956.png
 

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
I got the 260 XW 3000k 288v2 kit in today. This thing is lagit.. I won' know how much heat it will add to my tent but I can guess by the looks of this guy it will be substantial. I had a cheap COB set up running at 200watts that brought up temps to 95 and the cobs had fans. Wondering if I should put a fan on it. They sell the AC Infinity AXIAL 1751, Muffin Fan on Amazon for 35 bucks. It lays flat so I'm thinking I can just lay it flat on the driver.

I bought the kit assembled so the driver is mounted in the middle, even if I were to un mount it I could not move it far without running additional wire. Any thoughts?


I have a 4" exhaust fan running to the carbon filter outside. This brought down my temps to 78f with 1 64w QB running.. I cant imagine what a 260 will do! Lol maybe I should get the 6" exhaust fan, or a bigger tent...

260w are 260w no matter if you use a fan to keep the heatsink cool to touch. In the end it's still 260w which heats your tent up. You can use the driver remotely and mount it outside of the tent but this removes only the ~6-10% heat coming from the driver.
With LED the desired temp range is a bit higher as with HPS. You want the temps inside your tent in the lower 80 degree range.(77-86°F/25-30°C)
A 4" duct fan should be sufficient or a 6" one with the ability to dimm it down.
 

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
Meanwell drivers are 90 to 96% efficient, that means only 4-10% is converted into heat.
QB, COB's and strips are ~60% efficient when driven low, so at least 40% of the power going into the LED's is converted into heat. Simply because the driver feels warmer he's not less efficient.
They are made for a wide AC input range and the higher the input voltage, the more efficient the conversion!
For that reason they run a little hotter with only 110/120vac.View attachment 4139751
I understand that but if you're running at 100% and your driver is 110F+ it's going to throw some of that heat out into the tent compared to if it was only 90F
 

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
I understand that but if you're running at 100% and your driver is 110F+ it's going to throw some of that heat out into the tent compared to if it was only 90F
You can see how much heat it actually is from the screeshot in my post. It allows to calculate the amount of heat the driver spreads out at different driver load.
If you dimm to let's say 50% it put's out only 47-48% less heat because the driver will lost some of it's effiency at 50% load.
How hot the driver is, does not matter. It depends on how much heat he gives off altogether.
An example.
An HLG-240 produces about 6% heat at full load (250w), so 15w pure heat. An HLG-480 dimmed down to 250w will produce about 8% heat (20w) just because it lose some efficiency at only 50% load(~3%)!
Nevertheless, the HLG-240 feels hotter at 100%, simply because it's housing is smaller and has only 50% of the cooling surface.
That means, although the HLG-240 runs hotter, there is a total of 5w less heat output against a dimmed HLG-480.

Nevertheless it is useful for some to mount the driver outside of the tent especially for the ones living in hotter area's. I for instance need the heat inside my tent because most of the year it's too cold where I life and I have to fight with a cold root zone.
 

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Mobile galaxy note 8 on Samsung browser
Aha, okay!
Then try chrome browser and make sure you give him at least permissions for storage and camera.(settings>apps>chrome browser>permissions). That should do the trick!

Most Samsung apps are only a big mess. They can make real superior LED's but their developer really lack in coding skills.
 

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
I have cooled 460W induction lights and 1000W Air Cooled HPS with a 4" Fan, you should not be having trouble cooling 200 and whatever watts of led.
But I do see the driver temp concern. Those things get fucking hot. yes Meanwell's. Probably not all but the "diy's" I've played with had me loosing sleep with them mounted to plywood :fire:
That's because of the 110vac input. Do you have access to 220-240vac? The difference is ~25%! Or 6% heat with 230v but ~8% at 110v. Plywood needs +230°C or more to start burning, I don't think the is a reason to worry
 

No1up

Active Member
This 260 an looks so dam high quality. I'm super happy with it! Can't wait to see her in action. Will she really out perform a 315 cmh??
 
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