Lighting HLG Quantum Board 135 Watt Kit Question

[mcpd_refugee]

Hello all.

Quick question - hopefully with an easy answer. Also please understand that I've never grown anything indoors in my life. I'm just getting things set up for an anticipated grow. I am a complete noob.

I recently got my hands on a 4000K 135 watt QB 288. Its assembled and hanging in my stealthy office cabinet. And good lord, that thing is not just bright, it's BRIGHT!!!

The cabinet measures 1.5 x 2.5 x 4 feet. I have a 3" air intake hole at the bottom of the cabinet with no fan directly attached to it and a 4" exhaust hole at the top of the cabinet with an Active Air fan and carbon filter attached.

When the light is on without the exhaust fan, temperatures get up to 90 F to 92 F. With the exhaust fan running, the temperature hovers around 80 F or 81 F. I would like to be able to not use the exhaust fan unless I absolutely need it.

I'm thinking my only option is dimming the light to reduce heat, but I'm not sure how much to dim it to maintain its efficacy. The driver's built-in dimmer is currently wide open.

Or, is there an easier solution that I'm overlooking?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Refugee

 

[iampepe]

Good day @mcpd_refugee Welcome to AFN!
Here some food for thought
Cannabis loves fresh air, I'd have that fan running more often than not.

I honestly don't know what dimming does to efficiency. ?? I'd guess it makes it worse, but I could be wrong.

 

[mcpd_refugee]

Thank you, @iampepe for the warm welcome and the advice.

I backed off on the dimmer and the cabinet is about 10 F cooler. It doesn't appear that the lights are that much dimmer, but I guess I'll have to grow something in the cabinet to figure that out for sure.

And, you're right. I should just run the fan all the time. It helps with air circulation in the cabinet. And with plants in there , I'm sure I'll need it to keep mold away.

Thank you. Some times I just need a slap upside the head to get me thinkin' straight.

 

[BigSm0]

The softer you run the Board the higher the efficiency. Each watt is equal to 4.31 btu's of heat no matter what the efficiency is. To cut the heat the board produces in half you would use half the wattage. What about a fan speed controller on the fan to minimize the noise and wattage the fan uses. Would take some dialing in but that's probably the easiest solution.

 

[L0wbob2017]

If it rly come down to the point of noise reduction u maybe take some more cash in your hands get some silent fan solution.