Cooling fans for Aqualina Lights????

[axl]

Hi,
Ive got my Aqualina light mounted under my hood and it seems to get very hot. I no what is going to happen the ballast will burn out and it it will be a pain to replace. Has anyone got any pics of how they have installled cooling fans in there lights to keep them cool. How did they do it, obiviously the lights are meant to be kept under hoods and they are to be hung from the roof or on the top of he fish tank. cheers Axl

[Matt15]

Yeh the timber hood enclosures certainly make the light temps go alot higher. I guess thats why the hang from the roof option is a favourite.

If your a DIY man, i'd suggest buying 2x PC fans and mounting them on either ends of the hood. One end would suck cooler air in and the other would suck the hot air out. To connect these fans to a powerpoint and on/off switch you need to visit somewhere like Powerhouse (DickSmith) or JayCar. They have all the bits and pieces and the job would cost very little.

http://www.interpacbv.com/IMG/Acousti/dustproof_range_250x266.gif

I've done a simular project to a mates home audio setup. He has a Plasma mounted on the wall and a small black box in the corner of the room. This box houses the amp/dvd/payTV/HD tuner. It gets extremely hot so we drilled 10mm holes in each end and put 2x 10mm PC fans over them. One sucking air in, the other out. They also had blue LED"s which makes the entire cabinet look awesome. I used to be an engraver and made a black aluminum cover to each fan in the old star wars imperial logo which looked great.

[axl]

Thanks for the info Matt, I have already got 1 of those fans in 1 end of the hood and sounds like i have to put another in the other end to draw the heat out, which makes sense. My corner unit does the same it gets very hot inside because ive got the ps3, amp, pay tv, etc in there. Would it be best to put 1 fan in each corner at the back of the tv cabinet, so 1 draws air in and other draws heat out. cheers Axl

[axl]

Another question Matt might sound stupid though, do you put the fan that is at the end of the hood in the opposite direction to the other fan so it blows outwards instead of 2 fans blowing inwards.

[Matt15]

Yes, once you spin the fan around it will do the opposite action.

In regards to the entertainment cabinet I helped build, once you closed the glass door at the front it was pretty well sealed. So having one fan IN and the other OUT was very important.
Because a tank hood wouldn't be sealed, I would suggest both fans sucking air OUT. The cool air will get in there via all the gaps around the hood door. And the same idea can be said for your entertainment unit. Its always a good idea to have your amp as high as you can (top shelf) and have both fans fixed near the top half of the cabinet.