That's pretty decent! But only enough to safely power 1 - 6" fan.
Fans in light fixture?
- Thread starter svreef
- Start date
That's pretty decent! But only enough to safely power 1 - 6" fan.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Well a fan isn't going to draw that much power at all, also why I asked about how they're wired, if you hook one directly to a 12V fan you'll have a very fast fan until it dies very quickly I suspect
But as John said he uses something to step the voltage down to 12V which makes it perfectly feasible then.I am going to use this bad boy soon: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-El...=universal+car+fan+slim&qid=1590789938&sr=8-9
I have a fan controller and one laying around at work.
I have a fan controller and one laying around at work.
Building a hovercraft? That’s a substantial fan lol
I installed one of these 52 cfm fans on my light fixture today. The fixture is 14” above the surface and the airflow is barely detectable. I’m hoping that the three fans together will do the job, but, yes, it’s not very strong flow
I do plan on lowering the fixture once I get the PAR meter.
I do plan on lowering the fixture once I get the PAR meter.
I’ve tried computer case fans as aquarium fans several times over the years. The only uses they’ve ever been satisfactory for have been blowing in or out of an enclosed space for temp/humidity control, like out of a closed canopy or sump cabinet.
In my opinion they aren’t very effective for blowing air across any kind of distance, like for surface evaporation. By the time you add enough fans to work ok they are loud. I’ve tried several, including supposedly powerful and quiet ones.
That’s why I have the much more powerful fan I used for topside on my display. Not pretty but it absolutely gets the cooling job done and since it’s variable speed I can set it at a lower power so that it is very quiet.
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I like that a lot!
Hard to quantify in any meaningful way. My tank overall is quiet- everything I’ve bought is with that in mind. When the cooling fan turns on, I can notice it if I’m in the same room, since I’m sensitive to the sounds of my tank, but it is very quiet. I don’t think most people would even notice it. My wife hasn’t ever complained about it, and she does about other relatively quiet nosies like when the Trident is running inside the cabinet. The biggest benefit of an over-powered adjustable speed DC fan is that you can turn it way down (which I do) and get good airflow, which makes it much quieter and longer-lived. On max speed it would be too noisy for my taste.
RandyC
Supporting Member
try downloading a decibel meter app for your phone.
this is the one I use on iOS
Decibel X:dB Sound Level Meter
"Decibel X" is one of very few noise meter apps on the market that has highly reliable, pre-calibrated measurements and supports dBA, dBC. It turns your iOS device into a professional sound level meter, precisely measures the sound pressure level (SPL) all around you. This extremely useful and...
apps.apple.com
I’ve used that and others before for objective sound level measurements at standardized distances from the source, both at work and at home. They don’t help in a casual conversation like this though. That’s what I meant by “meaningful way”.try downloading a decibel meter app for your phone.
this is the one I use on iOS
Decibel X:dB Sound Level Meter
"Decibel X" is one of very few noise meter apps on the market that has highly reliable, pre-calibrated measurements and supports dBA, dBC. It turns your iOS device into a professional sound level meter, precisely measures the sound pressure level (SPL) all around you. This extremely useful and...apps.apple.com
So since Randy suggested it and it’s easy, I did measure just now with a dB app.
Measurements taken 1 meter from the back of the tank where the fan is, which puts the measurement spot 14” in front of the tank, just above the top of the glass level with the fan.
With the fan off but everything else in the tank on:
With the fan on:
Measurements taken 1 meter from the back of the tank where the fan is, which puts the measurement spot 14” in front of the tank, just above the top of the glass level with the fan.
With the fan off but everything else in the tank on:
With the fan on:
dB are log base 10, so 2 dB difference as in this super-scientific case would mean 58% more sound energy being detected by the mic and app when the fan is on vs off. On the face of it, that’s a lot more sound, and more than I would expect sitting next to my tank listening to both situations. Though I would point out again that my tank is quiet overall so the difference is noticeable more noticeable than it would be if the tank were louder, and I was pointing the mic directly at the fan 1 m away for both measurements, not somewhere else in the room where it would be less prominent against the background.
The other more interesting thing is, the reason we use dB for sound is because our cognitive sensation of loudness is not linear, it is more of a logarithmic scale, but with lots of special cases to which we are more or less sensitive. So something that is 2 dB louder doesn’t sound anywhere near 58% louder even though there is 58% more sound energy hitting your eardrum, it is closer to linear relative to the dB scale, so in this case more like 5% louder (2/42). To my sensation it’s more than a 5% difference, but hard to really judge perception.
Edit- I noticed I used the current value above rather than the average which would have been better, and would be 3 dB difference. 3 dB is 100% more sound energy and 7.3% louder linearly.
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