Heat from the AH Supply Bright Kit #30552 ??

Hi .... Last week I purchased a 2x55w Bright Kit #30552 to retrofit my
standard 48" single bulb light strip. I finally had a chance to wire it up
today. I also bought two 55w 6700K bulbs. I just came into the room to
shut it off for the night (one complaint - no on/off switch - have to unplug
it) and I noticed that it was really hot.

The ballast was almost too hot to touch, and the general heat coming through
the plastic on the light strip seemed extensive.

Never having had this much light in my aquarium before, I'm not sure whether
the heat being generated is normal or not. The wiring seemed pretty
straight forward and I don't think I made a mistake there.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone with experience with this. I'm a little
afraid to leave the light on unsupervised next week as we go away on
vacation. I was planning on plugging it into a timer so it would come on
and turn off on it's own while we're away, so all my plants don't die !

Thanks -- Shawn

if the hood is plastic, you may need to look into heat shielding material,
used for motorcycles, or sometimes other applications... It's a foil like
material, sticky on one side, you can cover what you want to keep cool, like
the area around your ballast, and you'll never know it was there.

Adversely, the heat from the light kits CAN melt plastic, and YMMV on that
one, but my DIY project was to build a canopy and not try to retrofit
anything that hot into a plastic strip....

--
RedForeman ©®
Guess who I've just made friends with....

Thank you for your cooperation!

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"Shawn P. Good" wrote in message
...
Hi .... Last week I purchased a 2x55w Bright Kit #30552 to retrofit my
standard 48" single bulb light strip. I finally had a chance to wire it
up
today. I also bought two 55w 6700K bulbs. I just came into the room to
shut it off for the night (one complaint - no on/off switch - have to
unplug
it) and I noticed that it was really hot.

The ballast was almost too hot to touch, and the general heat coming
through
the plastic on the light strip seemed extensive.

Never having had this much light in my aquarium before, I'm not sure
whether
the heat being generated is normal or not. The wiring seemed pretty
straight forward and I don't think I made a mistake there.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone with experience with this. I'm a
little
afraid to leave the light on unsupervised next week as we go away on
vacation. I was planning on plugging it into a timer so it would come on
and turn off on it's own while we're away, so all my plants don't die !

Thanks -- Shawn

"Shawn P. Good" wrote:

Hi .... Last week I purchased a 2x55w Bright Kit #30552 to retrofit my
standard 48" single bulb light strip. I finally had a chance to wire it up
today. I also bought two 55w 6700K bulbs. I just came into the room to
shut it off for the night (one complaint - no on/off switch - have to unplug
it) and I noticed that it was really hot.

The ballast was almost too hot to touch, and the general heat coming through
the plastic on the light strip seemed extensive.

You are currently dissipating 110+ watts of power under a hood that was formerly
dissipating 40+ watts, and you have observed that the temperature has risen.
This is to be expected.

A couple of ideas:

1. Ventillation. Consider adding vent holes & slots on the sides and top of the
hood. This will allow a lot of heat to escape. Try to plan a large path with
minimal blockage for cooling air: straight in the back and out the top is good.

2. Some people mount the ballast outside the hood. Others add insulation between
it and the hood. Others add lots of air flow around it. Consider using plastic
spacers to separate the ballast from the hood by about 1/4 inch, then add
ventillation around it.

Hey Dave .... thanks for the tips. My ballast is mounted on the outside of
the hood. The plastic light hood that I retrofitted alread has 2 vents in
the top about 4 inches long. The retrofit kit came with 2 one-inch diameter
vents to install if my old hood didn't have vents. But since it already had
the vents, I didn't install them (I also do not have a 1-inch drill bit) but
now seeing the heat this baby is throwing, I might buy one and put them in.
I also might try the foil insulation material as suggested by Red Foreman.

So far so good though. The plastic seems to be holding up after 3 days,
with the lights on 12 to 14 hours per day. I plug it in when I get up (7:30
am and turn it off when I go to bed around 10 or 11). And my tank has never
looked brighter. I hope my swords come back. Their leaves are looking a
little translucent and brown .....

Shawn



"Dave Millman" wrote in message
...
"Shawn P. Good" wrote:

Hi .... Last week I purchased a 2x55w Bright Kit #30552 to retrofit my
standard 48" single bulb light strip. I finally had a chance to wire it
up
today. I also bought two 55w 6700K bulbs. I just came into the room to
shut it off for the night (one complaint - no on/off switch - have to
unplug
it) and I noticed that it was really hot.

The ballast was almost too hot to touch, and the general heat coming
through
the plastic on the light strip seemed extensive.

You are currently dissipating 110+ watts of power under a hood that was
formerly
dissipating 40+ watts, and you have observed that the temperature has
risen.
This is to be expected.

A couple of ideas:

1. Ventillation. Consider adding vent holes & slots on the sides and top
of the
hood. This will allow a lot of heat to escape. Try to plan a large path
with
minimal blockage for cooling air: straight in the back and out the top is
good.

2. Some people mount the ballast outside the hood. Others add insulation
between
it and the hood. Others add lots of air flow around it. Consider using
plastic
spacers to separate the ballast from the hood by about 1/4 inch, then add
ventillation around it.

I have ahsupply lighting on 2 of my tanks. On both of them, I installed
a 3" fan to help with the cooling, in addition to placing the ballast on
the outside.
Daniel
"Shawn P. Good" wrote in
:

Hey Dave .... thanks for the tips. My ballast is mounted on the
outside of the hood. The plastic light hood that I retrofitted alread
has 2 vents in the top about 4 inches long. The retrofit kit came
with 2 one-inch diameter vents to install if my old hood didn't have
vents. But since it already had the vents, I didn't install them (I
also do not have a 1-inch drill bit) but now seeing the heat this baby
is throwing, I might buy one and put them in. I also might try the
foil insulation material as suggested by Red Foreman.

So far so good though. The plastic seems to be holding up after 3
days, with the lights on 12 to 14 hours per day. I plug it in when I
get up (7:30 am and turn it off when I go to bed around 10 or 11).
And my tank has never looked brighter. I hope my swords come back.
Their leaves are looking a little translucent and brown .....

Shawn

Buy a good timer and it will run the lights just fine and you will not have
to remember to turn them on and off.

"Shawn P. Good" wrote in message
...
Hi .... Last week I purchased a 2x55w Bright Kit #30552 to retrofit my
standard 48" single bulb light strip. I finally had a chance to wire it
up
today. I also bought two 55w 6700K bulbs. I just came into the room to
shut it off for the night (one complaint - no on/off switch - have to
unplug
it) and I noticed that it was really hot.

The ballast was almost too hot to touch, and the general heat coming
through
the plastic on the light strip seemed extensive.

Never having had this much light in my aquarium before, I'm not sure
whether
the heat being generated is normal or not. The wiring seemed pretty
straight forward and I don't think I made a mistake there.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone with experience with this. I'm a
little
afraid to leave the light on unsupervised next week as we go away on
vacation. I was planning on plugging it into a timer so it would come on
and turn off on it's own while we're away, so all my plants don't die !

Thanks -- Shawn