Is the attic too hot for a ballast?

[Guest 18340]

It gets pretty hot up in the attic but its such an ideal place for my ballasts. Will the heat damage them in some way? I can have a small fan come on when the ballasts do and blow air over them, would that help at all?

 

[Moldy Dreads]

Yes, a fan is great, they do similar things to servers and other electronics that heat up..

 

[Guest 18340]

Hmmm, I don't want the capactors to be unhappy. Gonna have to come up with something else.
I'm gonna look through some growroom pics here and see if I can come up with some ideas.
Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.

 

[still2big]

My attic gets to 140+ and NO you dont want your ballast running at that temp.

 

[LolaGal]

Yes, it's really hot about 120 degrees in there at times. Finish the walls and floors, and install some AC and go daddy go.

good luck

 

[JohnnyToke]

my old school (non digital) ballast have been sitting in the attic just above my grow room for 2+ years and havent had any issues. they work fine. my attic gets up to 125f at times in the summer. I run 400's and 1000's.

JT

 

[dotblunt]

I'll pipe up here, twas running a MH 1K in a smaller enclosed insulated space that had air being drawn from it via a Carbon filter and 6" vortex. 19/5 schedule and on the 5th hour of the off cycle the ballast was still slightly warm to the touch. Fawk those things get hot, especially in tight spaces. No, ballasts won't like it and you'll be increasing your potential for trouble but it will run as JT says without any issues....until it dies a likely premature death.

Dot

 

[brie]

I have 12 400s in the attic for a couple of years with no problems i keep two box fans running on them 24/7 It has made a huge difference in heat in the grow areas I do not have as large of electric bills as before The central air works much less. summer temps here are 95-100

 

[globel]

I know for t5 ballast ..... they become most efficient at above 95f. also this might help..

The average temperature inside an electronic ballast (this is a very global approach, separate temperature measurments are recommended for crucial components) depends on the external ambient temperature (which can be high as 50°C for industrial HID applications) and the temperature rise which is directly related to the power loss of the ballast. Therefore the efficiency of an electronic ballast for HID lamps (especially at high lamp power range) can be a crucial limitation factor according to the applications.

you can get this here.
http://www.ballastdesign.com/overview.shtml