Anyone tried Lumenarc III with the A/C kit?

[arc eye]

I am planning on light my 36x36x18 cube with one large Lumenarc III and a 400W Icecap electronic ballast (undecided on bulb choice for now) and I was wondering if anyone hased tried the Lumenarc III with the optional A/C kit? See link below.

http://www.lumenarclighting.com/proddetail.asp?prod=L3

I am trying to be heat and energy conscious with this set up so I thought about going with a pendant that cooling capability. However, I have been reading that excessive cooling can change the spectrum of your bulb because they need to burn at a certain temp. to achieve their proper spectrum.

So has anyone tried using an A/C cooled Lumenarc? It suppose it could also be passively cooled by attaching a chimney to one of the inlets (I have seen something similar at my LFS).

Any thoughts?

[arc eye]

bump

[hahnmeister]

I have, works like it should... why, what about it? A halide would need some severe overcooling to hinder its output. I use a 50cfm DC fan running at 1/2 voltage (so about 25 cfm most likely). This is plenty of airflow considering how small of an area you are drawing air from (the duct mod allows you to target the heat better from the source, so its not all about the flow). Then I run the ducting outside through the wall. Keeps the tank and the room cool.

[arc eye]

thanks hahnmeister.

I guess I already knew the answer, but it is nice to have it re-affirmed.

I'm thinking this would be the perfect one bulb setup. just out of curiosity, what bulb and ballast are you running with yours?

[hahnmeister]

I change it up... its over a 60 cube FWIW, so my lighting needs arent that important. I have a 250 watt HQI fixture, so I tend to get Ushio 20,000K SE bulbs.

[grandp10]

hahn, do you think they make these fans small enough to fit in one one of the optics on a mini Lumenbright? Even with the halide bulb 14.5" off the water it still raises water temp about 3.5 degrees F in 5 hrs. Thanks

[hahnmeister]

Which 'these fans' are you talking about? We havent really mentioned any fans in particular...

[grandp10]

Whatever dc fan you were talking about when you said '50 cfm dc fan running at 1/2 voltage'. I figured they go in the cooling ducts that are in the Lumenarc reflector. I talked with the people at Lumenarc about this when I had the Lumenarc reflectors they said the fans went in the air ducts. I just wondered if you thought they might fit in the Lumenbrights.

[hahnmeister]

No, the way I have the fans running, the duct comes off the reflector, and then at the end of the duct, just before it goes outside, I have the fan mounted on the wall. So there is no fitting the fan on the reflector... I wouldnt want to. I would imagine putting a fan right on the reflector would cause the reflector to resonate any vibrations from the fan and make noises like a speaker diaphram.

The fans are just regular 12v DC computer fans, which you can get in any size from 40mm to 250mm (some 300mm even)... nothing specific. I run them on a variable voltage 12v AC/DC converter.

The lumenarcs with the ducting modification have a special attachment so the ducting holes still have mirrored facets over the hole, I dont know how easy doing this would be as an aftermarket mod though... esp on a lumenbright with its much smaller facets.

[grandp10]

Ok thanks for the info.

[grandp10]

Oh one other thing please, it's kind off topic but related. Does having the mirrored facets over the hole make much of a difference on the light reflection, par and/or spread vs. not having the a/c kit so it is the original reflector? Thanks

[arc eye]

don't worry grandp10, I was wondering the same thing.

[hahnmeister]

Well, sure... there is a facet which is elevated over, but covers the hole so that light doesnt just go out the duct hole...