Fire hazard?

[Ganjier]

Hi yall. I have my fc4800 running at 75% i am getting about 900 ppfd from 12" of my canopy in the center. 800 on near the walls. I have my "ballast" converter outside of my tent to keep the tent as cool as I can. 79 degrees. Leaf surface temp is 78 degrees.
The converter reads 125 degrees using my infared thermometer. I place my hand on top of it and can only hold it there for maybe 5 seconds before I have to remove it. I have it on the floor so it is in the coolest place possible. It is also on it's own stand so air can run under it. Is it normal for these to run so hot? I am nervouse about possibly starting a fire while not home. Thank you.

Just found this, and 18 minutes in he is reading 128 degrees. Just seems dangerous to me. Any concern I should have?
j

 

[Lesso]

Yeah that's about right by my experience. It shouldn't be dangerous.

 

[joeb631a]

Hi yall. I have my fc4800 running at 75% i am getting about 900 ppfd from 12" of my canopy in the center. 800 on near the walls. I have my "ballast" converter outside of my tent to keep the tent as cool as I can. 79 degrees. Leaf surface temp is 78 degrees.
The converter reads 125 degrees using my infared thermometer. I place my hand on top of it and can only hold it there for maybe 5 seconds before I have to remove it. I have it on the floor so it is in the coolest place possible. It is also on it's own stand so air can run under it. Is it normal for these to run so hot? I am nervouse about possibly starting a fire while not home. Thank you.

Just found this, and 18 minutes in he is reading 128 degrees. Just seems dangerous to me. Any concern I should have?
j

When I thought i was going to have a issue with heat I was thinking of remoting the ballasts .
I wound up finding heat sinks made of aluminum aprox 16" x 6".
They were a 1/2 thick .
I need the heat so i never used them
If your ballasts are on the floor put some thing or little things to raise it up off the floor for circulation.
The heat sinks were I think $15
may want to consider putting a little fan ,I dont .
These are my thoughts as a electrician, your milage may vary though....
edit
IMHO put a bat operated smoke detector close. it is a good idea.
Not so much for the ballasts but for fans burning up.
Most everything in your tent is from China.

 

[oldfogey8]

Hi yall. I have my fc4800 running at 75% i am getting about 900 ppfd from 12" of my canopy in the center. 800 on near the walls. I have my "ballast" converter outside of my tent to keep the tent as cool as I can. 79 degrees. Leaf surface temp is 78 degrees.
The converter reads 125 degrees using my infared thermometer. I place my hand on top of it and can only hold it there for maybe 5 seconds before I have to remove it. I have it on the floor so it is in the coolest place possible. It is also on it's own stand so air can run under it. Is it normal for these to run so hot? I am nervouse about possibly starting a fire while not home. Thank you.

Just found this, and 18 minutes in he is reading 128 degrees. Just seems dangerous to me. Any concern I should have?
j

Seeing your metal art, you probably have scrap metal plates around. I would think putting the converter on a metal plate would help dissipate some of the heat and isolate it from anything flammable(kind of riffing on Joe’s idea). I don’t think 125 deg would start a fire even if you had dense gasoline fumes wafting around(I hope you don’t)but better safe than sorry and peace of mind is invaluable.

 

[joeb631a]

Seeing your metal art, you probably have scrap metal plates around. I would think putting the converter on a metal plate would help dissipate some of the heat and isolate it from anything flammable(kind of riffing on Joe’s idea). I don’t think 125 deg would start a fire even if you had dense gasoline fumes wafting around(I hope you don’t)but better safe than sorry and peace of mind is invaluable.

Dats right ! your a metal guy!

 

[Ganjier]

In a "I don't want to wake up to a fire" state last night I put a small 6" desk fan on the floor aimed at the "ballast" on low, and I got the temp to go from 125 degrees to 85 degrees. Dropped 40 freeking degrees! Geesh! Not sure why I didn't think of that right away, but it worked like a champ. Now, it will be just my luck that having a fan on low aimed at it will somehow hurt the device. There should be no such instance I would hope. If you think it's a better idea to get rid of the fan and run an aluminum plate instead let me know.

Just want to thank everyone for being here. Things like safety/fire hazards would be really bad in my situation. Being discreet is #1 to me.
I hope you all have a great day!

 

[joeb631a]

In a "I don't want to wake up to a fire" state last night I put a small 6" desk fan on the floor aimed at the "ballast" on low, and I got the temp to go from 125 degrees to 85 degrees. Dropped 40 freeking degrees! Geesh! Not sure why I didn't think of that right away, but it worked like a champ. Now, it will be just my luck that having a fan on low aimed at it will somehow hurt the device. There should be no such instance I would hope. If you think it's a better idea to get rid of the fan and run an aluminum plate instead let me know.

Just want to thank everyone for being here. Things like safety/fire hazards would be really bad in my situation. Being discreet is #1 to me.
I hope you all have a great day!

" Now, it will be just my luck that having a fan on low aimed at it will somehow hurt the device." that would never happen .
But as a whole ballasts usually get hot

 

[oldfogey8]

In a "I don't want to wake up to a fire" state last night I put a small 6" desk fan on the floor aimed at the "ballast" on low, and I got the temp to go from 125 degrees to 85 degrees. Dropped 40 freeking degrees! Geesh! Not sure why I didn't think of that right away, but it worked like a champ. Now, it will be just my luck that having a fan on low aimed at it will somehow hurt the device. There should be no such instance I would hope. If you think it's a better idea to get rid of the fan and run an aluminum plate instead let me know.

Just want to thank everyone for being here. Things like safety/fire hazards would be really bad in my situation. Being discreet is #1 to me.
I hope you all have a great day!

Another example of American ingenuity at work. Sounds like you found a good solution. Though I don’t think 125 deg is a hazard to be too concerned about(stuff doesn’t spontaneously ignite in Death Valley where the temps are around that frequently), as joe said, most of what we all have in our tents(and our houses for that matter) are made in China(and designed to fail-see the Volkswagen Beetle for more info on building disposable items) and can break down quickly. A metal plate or heat sink are passive coolers where a fan is active until it is not. The cheapo fans I have seem to last less than a year.

 

[RosterMan]

I never worried about fire have you ever felt how hot the old magnetic ballast got compared to the newer digital ones?
The old ones I use to put cement blocks under them to keep it off anything flammable.
The new LED Drivers heat up but never enough to cause a fire unless it shorts out.
LOL
I remember having to keep a window open in the window to keep a whole grow room with Mag ballast cool enough to grow/

 

[Ganjier]

Yeah, my old 400 watt hps ballast use to get really hot. I'm just not fond of any surprises coming my way. I am impressed with the low temps of the led light fixture itself. thr fc4800 fits wall to wall in my 3x3 blasting the ladies with flowa powa.

 

[oldfogey8]

the fc4800 fits wall to wall in my 3x3 blasting the ladies with flowa powa.

That is interesting. I have a 3x3 tent also and saw the fc4800 is for 4x4 tents so I stopped looking at it. Maybe I need to revisit that. Thx.

Edit:Just looked at the FC-E4800. Looks like it will fit perfectly and the PPFD maps look very uniform over a 3x3 footprint. I a 4x4 the intensity drops off in the last half foot on either side of center.

 

[Ganjier]

That is interesting. I have a 3x3 tent also and saw the fc4800 is for 4x4 tents so I stopped looking at it. Maybe I need to revisit that. Thx.

Edit:Just looked at the FC-E4800. Looks like it will fit perfectly and the PPFD maps look very uniform over a 3x3 footprint. I a 4x4 the intensity drops off in the last half foot on either side of center.

Yes, buddy, its wall to wall on a 3x3. I am getting awesome par readings.

Watch the video in the top post!

I do not have the E. I believe the E does not have the Samsung diodes I wanted. I may be mistaken. But yes, that light rocks my 3x3.

 

[oldfogey8]

The ‘no E’ has Bridgelux. I don’t know much about diodes. What is the advantage of the Samsungs if you don’t mind me asking? The Samsung powered light is about $120 more so I assume the Samsung diodes are better.

 

[Ganjier]

The ‘no E’ has Bridgelux. I don’t know much about diodes. What is the advantage of the Samsungs if you don’t mind me asking? The Samsung powered light is about $120 more so I assume the Samsung diodes are better.

It's one of the most efficient LED diodes available. "sun like" spectrum.

 

[Ganjier]

It's one of the most efficient LED diodes available. Samsung LM301B- "sun like" spectrum.