air cooled 150 watt hps/mh

Do you have a micro grow and need a way to keep it cool inside? This might be just the ticket for your heat problems. My box was 21"x22"x34" tall. I had 2 150 hps and serious heat problems, for a while. I dont use the box anymore but thought some others could benefit from my experience. Please use the pics for reference and ask me about anything you dont understand.
To start you need to gather the materials and other stuff you will need to complete the project.
1. light(s)
2. drill with 1/8", 1/4", 1/2" and 7/8" drill bits and 2 1/8" hole saw (from a door knob installation kit).
3. 2 or 3 long machine screws, 2 1/2" long with nuts (count depends on number of lights.) and one or 2 short one's 1" long with nuts(depends on wheather YOUR light(s) have starter/ignighters or not.
4. Piece of 2"x??" flexable aluminum tubeing. This is for a volkswagon bug heat exchanger/heater system 1964
5. Piece of heavy metal, mine is 6" heavy channel about 8" long, any good sized chunk of metal will work. This will be our new heat sink for the ballast(s)
6. 1 or 2 pieces of car stereo back strap or plumbers tape.(count depends on number of ballasts) 1 per.
7. Small cpu fan from your old computer(we all have 1 laying around dont we?)
8. Misc. screw drivers and wrench to fit the nuts from #3 above.
9. 2 sizes of wire nuts
10. electrical tape and zip ties
11. 2 small wood screws per light (to mount cpu fan)
12. 5 OR 10' OF 14 gauge romex or left over extention cord after cutting off male end for #13
13. short piece, 3' - 10' of the male end of a heavy duty extention cord for your new remote ballast(s)
14. anything else you see me use in this DIY but forgot to mention...



Ok on to the building.

1. find your lights. pic 1

2. get your tools and parts ready. pic 2

3. Get your light out of the box and take it apart but dont disconnect any wires yet. pic 3 and 4. Hmm...notice anything? they are different, come in identical boxs but one has an igniter and the other doesn't, pic 5. No problem they will both work, 150's dont NEED an igniter.

4. Now lets get out our drill and the 2 1/8" hole saw to cut the hole for our duct. You can make this big hole in either end of the light, just make sure it is the end that will be pointed towards the wall you want to vent out of. pic 6

5. while we have the drill handy lets go ahead and drill the intake holes at the other end with the 1/2" drill bit. I made several holes over a large area to make sure that the air is spread out and wont leave any areas inside the houseing with stagnet air and wont restrict our airflow.pic 7

4. And we might as well drill the mounting holes in the heat sink now too. You will have to lay the ballast(s) out how you want to mount them, mark the holes and then drill with 1/8" or 1/4" drill bit depending on what size machine screws you have on hand. Dont forget to drill a hole to mount the igniter(s) if you have one. pic 8

5. And drill a 7/8" hole in the wall of your box to mount the light, if it has not already been mounted before. I am just going to use a piece of plywood to simulate a wall for this demo. pic 9 p.s. dont put the drill away yet you'll need it one more time latter on.

6. Ok now lets start putting it all together. Get a piece of wire to connect the lamp to the ballast. It should be less than 5' long, I think. Ya see the igniters in these little lights is only good for 5', BUT remember I said that 150's dont need an igniter? well, ..so I'm not real sure if 5' is the absolute max length,better safe than sorry, keep it under 5'. First strip the outer insulation off for about 8" and strip about 1/2" of the inner insulation off of the black and white wires. Also find the light mounting piece as in Pic 10.


STAY TUNED FOR PARTS 2 AND 3 coming as soon as I cant get them to upload.


please wait to post your questions untill after the third part of this thread....so they stay together better for the next person.

thanks
puff.

I like #14 of the things needed..you didnt mention the freshly packed bowl.. sounds like a great setup...do you run this paticular light?

7. Now take your wire and stuff it through the mount, stripped end first. It helps if you put a very slight bend at the end of the wire. pic 11

8. Reinstall the mount on the light houseing and tighten the screw, not to tight yet, you will have to aim it when you get it back in your box. pic 12

9. Get your ballast(s) out now and tape the 2 power feed wires together so you dont get them confused with the lamp wires latter. The wires may be marked, On the 2 I have one has mil-spec wires with the word 125v, lamp, and com (for common) and the other has different (cheap) colored wires. after they are taped together for future identification disconnect the wires that attach the light bulb socket to the ballast, save the wire nuts for latter. pic 13 and 14

10. Now twist the wires on the socket to the wires in the light houseing, black to black and white to white. bend the ground wire (bare copper one) so that it is over by one of the screw holes that attach the inner reflector to the houseing, this will protect you if you get a short circuit in the house, like from a pinched wire while re-assembleing it or abrasion latter on. pic 15

11. Re-assemble the light houseing all exept the bulb and lense. here's what you should have now. pic 16

12. Stick the wire from your light thru the grow box wall and mount or re-mount your light houseing in your box with the nut provided with your light. pic 17

13. Now lets assemble your new remote ballast setup. Get all of the ballast parts, back starp or plumbers tape,screws, wire nuts and chunk-o-steel. any ol'chunk can work for this, about 5 pounds is plenty. You could also use aluminum if you have some, 2 or 3 pounds would do nicely. What we want here is something big enough to absorb and disapate the heat from the coils. I could pick mine up even after 12 hours on and it wouldn't be to hot to hold, thats what your looking for. It serves 2 purposes, 1. kepps the coil from melting down and shorting out. 2. kepps them from getting in direct contact with flamable stuff like wooden shelves, carpet and such. I am pretty sure you COULD skip this and just set them on a concrete floor or block and it would be ok, but I wouldn't chance it. dont need any of those big red trucks tearing up my driveway and getting everything all wet. Sometimes they bring their buddies in blue along for some fun too, no thank you ma'm.pic 18

14. You have to do some figureing here, set the ballast(s) on your chunk and figure out were you want to mount them, then take your back starps and set them on top to show you were to drill the holes I told you to drill way back in step 4 of part 1...oops sorry, (pic's 19 and 8). and insert the 2 or 3 long machine screws thru the chunk,beside the ballast, thru the backstrap and put the nuts on and tighten them down good and snug to hold it all together. pic 20



Stay tuned, Part 3 coming up next.

and again if you have any questions please wait and post them after part 3 so the parts stay together.

Thanks

puff

Yeh I was just thinking I will need a part 4 for the expendables consumed during the construction....gotta go pick up one of my kids. Ill get parts 3 and 4 up in an hour or 2
puff



ps...crapski's we messed up the thread already....oops.
seeya
puff

15. Now we will connect the power plug. Get a short or long extention cord, whatever you have hanging around. You need the male end. Maybe like me you have one that has been cut or is scraped up and taped up? use that one. It would be best to use one with a 3 prong connector so you can ground the ballast, it could save your life. I used a 2 prong, who wants to live forever? Now look at the 2 wires that we taped together on each ballast in part 2 chapter 9. If they are black and white it's easy, if not it still will be easy. One of my ballasts had black and white the other was labled 125v and com(for common). Strip both wires (you may have 2 already together if your light has an igniter makeing 3 wires) and twist them together. get your extention cord ready by stripping back the outer layer of insulation if it has one, about 2 inches will do. Then strip the individual wires back about 1/2" too. If you are going to use a 3 wire extention cord you will have to figure out which wire is the ground. You can use a multi-meter, ohm meter, or the ol' spark test to figure it out. I dont recomend the "spark" test but yo can try it if you feel you need to use a 3 wire plug. If you dont have a meter and dont know what I meen by "spark" test you should use a 2 wire extention cord for your ballasts. With a 2 wire cord it doesn't matter what wire goes to what other wire, just twist one from the cord to one from the ballast and then wire nut them together. Do you same with the other wires from cord and ballasts. You should have something like pic 21.

16. Now we connect the wires from the light in your box to the wires from the ballasts. The wires coming from your ballast should be labeled lamp and com or be black and white or blue and white. White always goes with white or com. Black always goes with black or 125v , 120v, line, lamp or load. Sometimes a manufacturer runs out of wire and uses whatever he can find and you will get some different color but its usually easy to figure out. Hint: if you get lost there is almost always a wireing diagrahm on the label on the ballast. The wires from the light socket will be black and white if you used romex, if you used a piece of the extention cord you cut up instead just make sure you have the black wire from the socket connected to the black,lamp,line,load wire from the ballast. Next connect the white or com witre from each. and you have pic 22

17. Ok get your drill and the 2 1/8" hole saw out and drill a hole in the outside wall of your box near the BIG hole we drilled in the light hoseing earlier as in pic 23

18. cut a piece of the flexable aluminum volkswagon heater duct that is long enough to reach from hole to hole plus a 1/2 inch or so. It expands like an accordian. pic 24

19. stick it thru the holes like pic 25

20. push the duct into the light first then stretch it and stuff it thru the hole in the wall so it sticks out just a hair. bend the edges of the duct out and flattened against the surface. find your fan, drill with smallest bit, 2 wood screws and a pencil. pic 26

21. Hold the fan centered over the hole with the duct sticking thru and mark the holes on opposit sides. pic 27

22. the hole will be almost to big around to drill holes for screws so drill them at a slight angle like in pic 28

23. Install the fan with the 2 wood screws. pic 29

24. Connect the fan wires to a wall wart for power and plug it in to check to see what dirrection the air blows, we want it to pull air from the light and box. If it blows the wrong way just switch the fan wires and it will be correct. pic 30

Thats it folks, just Plug the wall wart and ballast into your timer, plant your seeds and call me when there done. Hope this helps someone solve their heat problems. In my box I had one of these fans on each of the lights and 2 of the 3" computer case fans as just exhaust fans near the top of the box with 4 3" passive intake holes near the bottom of the back wall and my temps were great.

puff

List of iteams not previously included in parts 1,2 and 3.

please refer to pic below


1. green bic lighter. died about the middle of part 1
2. 4 bags of lipton tea
3. 2 sets of rechargable batteries. (not really expendable but I recharged them both a couple times, camera eats 'em up)
4. 2 ham sandwiches. (not pictured, you really dont want to see them now)
5. Approx. 1 gram White Russian X (didnt weigh it, but it was about this much)

puff

I would be happy to do these modifications to anyones box and lights for free. Just send them to me with all of the parts and I'll get it back to you in about 4 months, all tested and everything. hehehe
puff

ps. you have to send seeds, soil, and ferts along with the box.

lol nice step by step but like me or any other stoner out ther that looks like way too much work

Where does the ballast go? And what do you use for a cover on it? I like the idea.

hehehe....yeh....It only took me about 2 1/2 or 3 hours to do both lights and ballasts, the first time. Taking them apart, taking pics, putting them back together and writing it up? about 5 hours. lolol.

Tater, put the ballast anywhere OUTSIDE of your box. My box had little 5 or 6" legs on it so I just stuck it underneath the box. You just want it's heat ANYWHERE outside of the box. Just dont set it directly on carpet, it may get hot enough to damage the carpet. If your floor IS carpeted, set the ballast on a brick or cement block or block of wood and it will be fine. You dont want to cover it, you want it to have free air around it for cooling.
puff

puffnstuff said:

I would be happy to do these modifications to anyones box and lights for free. Just send them to me with all of the parts and I'll get it back to you in about 4 months, all tested and everything. hehehe
puff

ps. you have to send seeds, soil, and ferts along with the box.

Click to expand...

hey that looks great puff..and I hope you are kidding about the hook up..that is against rules...

uh well yeh it was a joke. You think I would be dumb enough to hook up with one of you cops? hehehe
puff

aaahhahaa hahaha hehehe hoo...man I'm still laughin. yeh send it to
me at

puff
c/o #### county sheriff
662 Main St.
######, Oregon 97###

hahahahaaa you gotta be kiddin' buddy..hahaha...hehehe...###t

puff....puff....puff....

puffnstuff said:

uh well yeh it was a joke. You think I would be dumb enough to hook up with one of you cops? hehehe
puff

Click to expand...

:cop: ...:rofl: ....

puffnstuff said:

aaahhahaa hahaha hehehe hoo...man I'm still laughin. yeh send it to
me at

puff
c/o #### county sheriff
662 Main St.
######, Oregon 97###

hahahahaaa you gotta be kiddin' buddy..hahaha...hehehe...###t

puff....puff....puff....

Click to expand...

I thaught that was 420 Main St..

no no no man, 420 main is the city police station. I get my mail forwarded to the sheriff's office, That way I'm sure I will get it, dang city cops are always diggin' thru my mail when it goes thru them, theifs, always a little of the stash missing, can't trust them city cops. hehehe....My neighbor is a city cop. how much do you think they get paid? I dont know either but, he has spent over 100k in the last year. New garage with loft, new cummins pickup, new 35' toy hauler, 2 new dirt bikes, new dune buggy, new car for the wife and who knows what else, I think the bribe's are coming in hot and heavy this year..
puff

I'm working on building a micro PC grow, just because I can, I will most likely end up giving it to a friend. I'm going to mount the ballast inside the old power supply case as it come with two high powered fans that will provide more than sufficient cooling, its a 500watt PSU that crapped out on me, if the fans can cool that thing they can cool 100-150 watt ballast I'm going to jam in there . The light will be mounted beside the PSU then a glass bottom will be put in with two more fans cooling the light. I'm going to run a hydro most likely nft/sprayer set up. Kind of like an aerorail and going to have space for two plants. Their will be two more fans providing ventilation in the plant area as well. I'm looking for a suitable resivour at the moment and may just purchase an old liquid cooling set up and adapt it to hydro. Should be fun I'll post the results. This is all dependent on time, I have so much stuff to do.

and your gonna' cram ALL of that stuff in a computer case? I gotta see it when your done. sounds mighty tight. My 34" tall box was tooooooo small.
puff

Where would be a good place to acquire the mounting nut for a similar light. I have a Regent flood light just like this except that it has a built in ballast, and I am unsure how to hang it.

is just a electrical conduit nut. You can get one for about 50 cents at any hardware store, lowes, home depot, true value, etc. If you take the light in they will help you find the right size for your light. I think my lights were 3/4"
puff

edit: these lights had the ballast inside, I show you how to make them remote, outside ballast's in this DIY. If you have any questions about HOW to do it, just ask me.