need a little advice

[giggywatts]

i have to grow very low key and flower in a 2'x2'x5' box. i have a rw75 and like it but i believe i need more light to tighten up my buds. i started trying to learn about leds and what little i do know was from what i have read here and help from churchaze and mr flux. what i was looking at in my notes was 2 - vero 18's, 2 - lpc-60-1400 drivers, 2- arctic alpine 11 plus coolers and 5 watt wall warts for the fans. i'm not sure on wattage as that is something i'm still trying to figure out. if i used a passive cooler with these mounted next to my rw would the air movement from that fan be enough for the two vero's? i know these are newbie questions and with this stuff i am a newbie. thanks in advance.

 

[Will Thayer]

Hello Giggywatts,
Is it safe to assume your have a good exhaust fan in you grow box? My first foray into building a LED fixture was with 10 x CXA2530s driven @500ma and intel CPU coolers. I changed my mind on them and went passive soon after. I have this fixture in a small tent with good exhaust. I also have a smaller fan in the tent to circulate the air and this blows over the passive heatsinks to some extent. Provided you acquire the appropriate passive heatsink for your vero 18s a good exhaust will generate negative pressure and remove hot moist air from your grow box. I think passive heatsink will always benefit from a little breeze over the pins/fins.
I have no experience with the Area 51 RW75 but looking at some pictures on the web they appear to have a fan blowing in from the top and venting from the sides.
The air that is venting from the RW75 will be warm most likely. If it were myself I would probably arrange a small circulating fan to tickle the passive heatsinks. It certainly would not hurt.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Cheers,
Will

 

[giggywatts]

thanks will, i think i'll stick to the arctic alpines then. i run a small fan on the plants and have a 6" inline split between two boxes. the air coming off the rw is room temp, i like the way it runs cool.

 

[Will Thayer]

thanks will, i think i'll stick to the arctic alpines then. i run a small fan on the plants and have a 6" inline split between two boxes. the air coming off the rw is room temp, i like the way it runs cool.

Cool giggywatts,
Sounds like you have your air flow sorted. I am by no means an expert on any subject I just can not abide a question going unanswered on the forum. Makes me have the sad face.
I switched from the CPU coolers to passive because I had 10 cobs on crappy intel coolers that would not cool the COBs if a fan failed. The arctic have more mass to them. I think you will notice if a fan fails before you run into any trouble. I look forward to seeing some photos if you are comfortable in posting them. I hope your new additions to your lighting regime reward you with fat tasty specimens.

Cheers,
Will

 

[Kevin the Great]

You have similar size constraints as I do. I currently have 3 cabinets, 1 is 4.8 square feet and 2 are almost identically sized at 3 square feet. What are you trying to achieve by the additional COBs? I'd be glad to help figure outhat a good system for your cabinet.

 

[giggywatts]

i'm adding the vero's for better penetration and extra coverage so i can tighten the buds up a bit. was gonna build two 29's but decided i didn't have enough headroom and was worried i would bleach my plants.

 

[Kevin the Great]

I put in 8 Vero 18s at 300ma or 350ma, I can't recall exactly, around the perimeter of a vero 29 and a pair of 3590s run at 1400 and that really made for a bright even canopy. The 18s happened to stack nicely with the drivers I had. I can send pics if you'd like me to take some.