Keeping florescents cooler

Here is a thought for those of you using a rack system with tanks above lights.

To avoid excess heat on the bottoms of the tanks from the lights under the shelves below, remove the ballasts from the shop lights and mount them at a remote location, like on the sides, back or a special compartment.

Most of the heat in the standard floros comes from the black box inside the center cover. It is very easy to remove. Simply squeez the center metal cover and pop it out of the slots into which it is spring loaded. This will allow you access to the ballasts.

The ballast usually has one slot and one screw holding it is. Very simple to remove.

The hard part is where you have to wax creative with the wiring. There are 4 wires leading to both ends of the light. If you don't move the ballast too far they will not need cut, just covered and protected somehow. If you move them a distance, say to the very top of the shelving unit; then you would need to splice into the wiring.

I live in the SE and heat is big problem here, so I hope this can help someone with similar issues.

Larry

[Dendro Dave]

a fan on one or each side of a rack blowing steadily might keep the surrounding area from heating up to much