New set up almost complete! But...

Alright! I received my Samsung strip LED in the mail today! Very happy to have another tent set up!

Two autos flowering are looking great. And I can finally take good pictures under some white light! No more damn blurple!

Well upon setting up the light, I had a lot connected to one power strip and outlet. Unfortunately it constantly kept tripping my switches and cutting out all of the power in my room. But I just moved my 2x2 over a little, then plugged everything into separate outlets. Has not tripped yet so hopefully it was just the problem of having it all in one outlet.

1. It is only running around 200w at the moment. And the light runs a lot hotter than I expected, is this normal?
2. if I crank it up to 300w will it get more hot than it already is? the tent and light? It’s to the point where I can touch the heat sinks for a second or two but it’s pretty hot still lol.
3. It also raised the temp from 75 to 86. Will that hurt my plants that are 4 weeks into flower? Since they were always in cool temps.

I still need to buy a carbon filter kit which will make a difference on the temperature in the tent. Right now I only have a oscillating fan in the middle, all vents open. A small 6” exhaust fan up top rigged until I can actually get a real fan. As well as a big floor fan outside the tent blowing air in through the vents.

On top of all that, I also have a window ac unit running in the room plugged into its own outlet as well. Along with a tv... I’m just hoping it doesn’t trip while I’m at work this week.

When you see massive heatsinks . . .. When tech talk always includes the heatsinks and determining how much is needed . ... Yes heat is an issue and light can be too.

https://www.maximumyield.com/10-mistakes-to-avoid-when-using-led-grow-lights/2/4885

Those with advanced LED use will be along. But air movement is helpful.

There is a terrible misconception that LED runs "cool". They do not. Yes this is normal. The reason they can be desirable to use, is that the necessary level of light needed for proper flower development can be generated with LESS power when compared to traditional lighting sources. To answer the question #2, is Yes, when you crank it up to full balls, its going to get hotter, and brighter...
The exhaust is an absolute must. It will be a balancing act, of enough passive intake, with the blower pushing out to get stable conditions.

Chip Green said:

There is a terrible misconception that LED runs "cool". They do not. Yes this is normal. The reason they can be desirable to use, is that the necessary level of light needed for proper flower development can be generated with LESS power when compared to traditional lighting sources. To answer the question #2, is Yes, when you crank it up to full balls, its going to get hotter, and brighter...
The exhaust is an absolute must. It will be a balancing act, of enough passive intake, with the blower pushing out to get stable conditions.

Click to expand...

The guy down the road bought a good LED because of electric bill shock. Loved it in his open veg area. Then he swaps his 600 watt HPS out of his tent and put the LED in to flower. That did not last. Several attempts to properly exhaust heat were expensive and worked only fair. He just bought an air cooled reflector for his HPS and starting raising and lowering plants. The LED back in the open room.

Yes there will be heat and yes it will get hotter at higher wattage.
Exchanging air is a vital part of growing for heat removal and co2. You need a really good ac to do get round that.
But placing your black thermometer in direct light is a no no. Any devise measuring air temps should not be in direct light.
Air barely changes temp from light, solid objects change temp substantially under light.

I may of posted this for you before but not sure, so please look at the wattage on the chart and it shows you the airflow needed to remain X degrees above ambient.

My quantum boards are hot to the touch. To have the lights cooler you would have to have bigger heat sinks. But even then it doesn't change how much the space heats up. It just removes the heat faster from the lighting.
That's why a vipar with a fan inside might feel cooler, active vs passive cooling.

Free air cooling in tents and boxes can work. The key is to not stir up the air too much. Obviously have intake low and exhaust high. Kind of sucks, but this is what I had to do once. Oscillating fan on when lights out. Your exhaust fan will still provide enough air movement (up) around the plants. Have it come on with the light. You can get away with a little higher temps because of the led, but I wouldn't go past 82.
The difference for me between oscillating fan on and off with lights on was about 15 degrees at the plant. That's another thing, if you are doing free air, your temp readings need to come from the plant not the tent.

Big Perm said:

Free air cooling in tents and boxes can work. The key is to not stir up the air too much. Obviously have intake low and exhaust high. Kind of sucks, but this is what I had to do once. Oscillating fan on when lights out. Your exhaust fan will still provide enough air movement (up) around the plants. Have it come on with the light. You can get away with a little higher temps because of the led, but I wouldn't go past 82.
The difference for me between oscillating fan on and off with lights on was about 15 degrees at the plant. That's another thing, if you are doing free air, your temp readings need to come from the plant not the tent.

Click to expand...

I have an oscillating tower fan on the middle in front of the vent, all 3 vents open at the bottom. And a small 6” fan at one of the ports up top of an exhaust. It stays around 80-82 in the tent which the plants seem just fine. It was at a steady 75 before I got the light. Even when it’s 84-85 in the tent the plants are still good. No “sweating” on the leaves so that’s a good sign I suppose. It pretty much stays at 80-82 though. Im buying a carbon filter kit next weekend so that should help a lot, hopefully bring the temps back down to 75-78.