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Nanolux DE chill fixture

M

mountainfarmer1

Member
Looking at setting up a second room and need lighting. Recently came across these fixtures (http://www.nccstech.com/products/lighting/ballast/de_chill/) and after pricing out air AC/DE setups thought this was a great plug and play package. It's well priced, compact and as far as I know comes from a reputable company. Because of my geographic location I am able to take advantage of air cooled reflectors most of the year so I do. Because of this I don't have to purchase or maintain spendy A/C equipment or run it. Currently running 3 AC xxxl reflectors over a 4.5x15 custom built table and plan on building a second one.

My questions are: Has anyone ever heard of these fixtures? They seem pretty new when I googled them. If anyone is running them and would like to chime in that would be a bonus. Does anyone have any good experience with any self contained fixtures like these where the ballast and bulb are confined together? Are there any inherent risks maybe I haven't thought about? Any positive thought or input would be appreciated, regards.
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
To the top.

Considering purchasing 4 of these for an 8x11 room split down the middle. Got ahold of some old digital ballasts and they emit so much Rfi I’m scared to turn them back on lol. They literally wipe out any radio playing in the house. Hear great things about Nanolux in general, have always wanted DE but only have 7.5ft ceilings. I believe if I scrog correctly I’ll be able to fully utilize these bad boys, and being self contained (no wires to act like antennas for rfi), I expect they are nearly silent in terms of rfi.

Looking at 250 for new SE 1k ballast and bulb or 450 for one of these. I’m thinking the extra 200 will pay for itself in the first run. Any opinions?
 
f-e

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
I'm not keen on digital ballasts. I have them, as I like that they can be adjusted. I won't use them 12/12 though. Interference that comes and goes every few months is one thing. Interference that comes and goes every 12 hours is another. Same time, every day, that is something of a clue that anybody can follow.
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
Interesting. What ballasts exactly do you use f-e? You seem to be not so confident about this unit being sufficiently RFi “free”. I’m going to lose my mind getting this squared away. One thing I know: the 1k Cali Ballasts I have are not cutting it.

Options:

1. new digital 1k SE nanolux ballasts (very good rfi shielding), keep 8” raptor hoods, buy new bulbs

2. New magnetic 1k SE ballast, same hood, new bulb.. everything I read says these are best for RFi but the guy at the store says they are the worst... I’m at a loss here)

3. Replace all 1k SE hoods and ballasts with 1k DE Chills

4. Some other option entirely that I haven’t thought of? Suggestions welcome xD

3. Replace everything with 4 Nanolux DE Chills.
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
Went ahead and bit the bullet and got one of these today. Won’t have time to mess with it for a couple days most likely, but will keep informed. Will be a few weeks minimum before it actually goes into real use, but I will be testing for rfi immediately.
 
Lyfespan

Lyfespan

Active member
i have been running nanolux DE fixtures on their NCCS for 4 years now. love the controllability of these lights, dimming, heat sensor, anywhere accessible app. just really nice fixtures
 
C

Complete Noob

Member
PurplePotion said:
Went ahead and bit the bullet and got one of these today. Won’t have time to mess with it for a couple days most likely, but will keep informed. Will be a few weeks minimum before it actually goes into real use, but I will be testing for rfi immediately.
Click to expand...

Thank you I will be interested in your results. I want to know rfi risks when dealing with de systems. Are manufactures being truthful in their claims on low rfi
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
After some rewiring, then more rewiring because I thought I was done then changed my mind after I fired it up the first time, then messed up the wiring and wasn’t getting power, so then I rewired some more. Haha. Actually glad it went this way.. ended up with a very clean result that should be functional for whatever I end up doing.

The new Nanolux DE Chill passed my AM radio test with flying colors. Unless I stick the antenna up to the bulb the radio is just as clear with the light on or off. This is great news. The other equipment I had would literally shut down any AM radio in the house (crazy loud pulsing squelching noise), didn’t even bother to check outside the house once I realized-_-

So far, after a few hours of it running I’m happy with it. I may get one more and run 2 of these and 2 Gavitas... or get 3 more of these. Undecided yet, stupid rfi. Can’t make any claims on yield, but I’m optimistically confident these will be on par with a Gavita. Will likely test a Gavita for rfi in the next few days. I gotta get this squared away ASAP.

I’ll give more updates if I have any. Going to try out nanolux rf filters on the noisy ballasts I have an see what happens. Will hopefully have those in a couple days.

Also worth noting: I wrapped one of the noisy ballasts in aluminum mesh and it made 0 difference. Leaning more toward the Rf filters. Also found a set of torroid rings for grow lights (crude version of nanolux filters). Google ‘grow light ballast rfi kit”. It’s sold by Palomar Engineers or something like that. The science is sound. Would be curious to try those as well. I will probably end up running some sort of filter on whatever lights I’m running after having the issue with the first set of noisy ballasts. I’m just so glad I caught it early. I may as well have had an arrow pointing at me when they were on -_-.
 
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PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
Lyfespan said:
i have been running nanolux DE fixtures on their NCCS for 4 years now. love the controllability of these lights, dimming, heat sensor, anywhere accessible app. just really nice fixtures
Click to expand...

Was curious about the NCCS deal. That kinda stuff scares me. From what I read if the signal drops, everything just shuts down until you manually go restart everything. Which is nice if there’s a real problem, but I could see this happening with a spotty wireless connection, interference, etc. Also wonder about security with these things. Idk.. having everything hooked into a cloud-esque system and opening it up to the infinitie possibilities of the internet scares me as well. Call me old fashioned hehe.

Honestly though, did you have any of these concerns? Any issues with operation, functionality, etc along the way?
 
Lyfespan

Lyfespan

Active member
PurplePotion said:
Was curious about the NCCS deal. That kinda stuff scares me. From what I read if the signal drops, everything just shuts down until you manually go restart everything. Which is nice if there’s a real problem, but I could see this happening with a spotty wireless connection, interference, etc. Also wonder about security with these things. Idk.. having everything hooked into a cloud-esque system and opening it up to the infinitie possibilities of the internet scares me as well. Call me old fashioned hehe.

Honestly though, did you have any of these concerns? Any issues with operation, functionality, etc along the way?
Click to expand...

no issues other than power outages, and nccs resets itself:tiphat:
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
Lyfespan said:
no issues other than power outages, and nccs resets itself:tiphat:
Click to expand...

Gotcha. So if the power goes out, the lights will turn back on if it’s within the scheduled time for “lights on”? Essentially everything goes back to the way it should be when the power comes back on? Maybe I misread, I thought that if the NCCS has any sort of failure the lights turn off and can only be turned back on manually. Is this incorrect? How much roughly was it to get the basic NCCS set up going?:tiphat:
 
Lyfespan

Lyfespan

Active member
PurplePotion said:
Gotcha. So if the power goes out, the lights will turn back on if it’s within the scheduled time for “lights on”? Essentially everything goes back to the way it should be when the power comes back on? Maybe I misread, I thought that if the NCCS has any sort of failure the lights turn off and can only be turned back on manually. Is this incorrect? How much roughly was it to get the basic NCCS set up going?:tiphat:
Click to expand...

nope you read it right and had it right the first time. unit just goes on doing whats its programmed to do.:tiphat:
 
PurplePotion

PurplePotion

Member
Well, slight set back. The DE Chill has some seal issues. Small gaps in weather stripping between glass and hood, and also between the hinged panel and the hood itself. The two hinged brackets that snap into place to secure the panel with glass does not pull the pieces closes enough to create a seal regardless of the gaps in the foam weather stripping. Not the end of the world, I can get it sealed up myself but I hate having to work on brand new stuff. Guy at the store recommended I call Nanolux and see if they’ll do anything for me so now I wait for a return call. He’s been super helpful. Still nothing bad to say about the technology or company, just one of those quirks ya gotta deal with. Knowing my luck, I got the one unit ever made with any seal issues. Just thought I’d update.
 
Lyfespan

Lyfespan

Active member
PurplePotion said:
Well, slight set back. The DE Chill has some seal issues. Small gaps in weather stripping between glass and hood, and also between the hinged panel and the hood itself. The two hinged brackets that snap into place to secure the panel with glass does not pull the pieces closes enough to create a seal regardless of the gaps in the foam weather stripping. Not the end of the world, I can get it sealed up myself but I hate having to work on brand new stuff. Guy at the store recommended I call Nanolux and see if they’ll do anything for me so now I wait for a return call. He’s been super helpful. Still nothing bad to say about the technology or company, just one of those quirks ya gotta deal with. Knowing my luck, I got the one unit ever made with any seal issues. Just thought I’d update.
Click to expand...

calls may take a second to get back but keith and everyone else there are really down to help you succeed, gotta be patient :tiphat:
 
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