Mounting drivers outside tent

[6thsense]

I want to mount my drivers for my 2 mars tsw2000 outside the tent . I was planning on mounting onto plywood. Using F.R.P. Between the drivers and the wood and maybe some rubber o-rings to keep the drivers off the F.RP. . Does anyone have experience with this and does this seem safe ? I have electrical experience Ive just never used it for this application.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You'll be fine. Mount them with standoffs, not o- rings. The lowest ignition temperature for plywood that I have ever read was 256°F, 12 to 16 hours per day, in "as little as" 623 days. But, to be safe, you should ensure that the plywood does not reach 170°F, because:

Elevated exposure temperatures,
typically above 170ºF, but below
the published short-term ignition
temperatures of wood, act to ther-
mally deteriorate or “cook” the wood.
“Cooking wood” is heating the wood
sufficiently to cause physical and
chemical changes without initially
causing ignition. After a period of
cooking time, the wood becomes
more reactive to the oxygen in the
atmosphere, creating conditions
favorable for self-heating to occur
at low exposure temperatures.

The physical deterioration of the
wood due to heat causes it to
split and crack. Oxygen from the
atmosphere can then more readily
penetrate into the center of the
wood where it reacts readily with
the thermally deteriorated and
chemically changed wood in an
oxidation reaction. The oxidation
reaction generates heat, which
becomes trapped by and subse-
quently accumulates within the
surrounding wood, driving the
internal temperature of the wood
up until a thermal runaway reaction
occurs initiating smoldering ignition.

At the point just before smoldering
ignition begins, the actual internal
surface temperatures of the wood
are within the range of published
ignition temperature data for wood,
and much higher than the exposure
temperatures that initially cooked
the wood and then drove the
self-heating reaction. As noted by
Cuzillo9 and demonstrated in the
case studies of this paper, metallic
fasteners in the wood can facilitate
heat transfer from a heat source
into the center of the wood and
subsequently enhance the process.

Again, use standoffs when mounting the power supplies to ensure a good air gap. That, especially in conjuction with the installation of a heat shield, will prevent the plywood from "cooking" over time and ending up with a significantly lower than normal ignition temperature. I suppose the truly paranoid might do the installation in such a way that there is an air gap both between the power supplies and the heat shield, and the heat shield and the plywood (and with two separate sets of fasteners instead of one long set that would, of course, be pretty good at transferring heat into the plywood). And... paranoia is far cheaper than a house. . . .

 

[VetSmoke85]

There's me with my driver sat on the carpet floor next to my tent. Although it's a DIY light and run soft so it barely gets warm.

 

[6thsense]

You'll be fine. Mount them with standoffs, not o- rings. The lowest ignition temperature for plywood that I have ever read was 256°F, 12 to 16 hours per day, in "as little as" 623 days. But, to be safe, you should ensure that the plywood does not reach 170°F, because:



Again, use standoffs when mounting the power supplies to ensure a good air gap. That, especially in conjuction with the installation of a heat shield, will prevent the plywood from "cooking" over time and ending up with a significantly lower than normal ignition temperature. I suppose the truly paranoid might do the installation in such a way that there is an air gap both between the power supplies and the heat shield, and the heat shield and the plywood (and with two separate sets of fasteners instead of one long set that would, of course, be pretty good at transferring heat into the plywood). And... paranoia is far cheaper than a house. . . .

Very interesting thank you . Im paranoid about burning my house down .Theres no fire dept here if your house catches fire its a wrap . One of the first things I thought about was how can i fasten them and not transfer the heat from the drivers to the fasteners then to the plywood

 

[6thsense]

There's me with my driver sat on the carpet floor next to my tent. Although it's a DIY light and run soft so it barely gets warm.

Lol Im probably taking it too far I admit that

 

[VetSmoke85]

Lol Im probably taking it too far I admit that

Best to be safe. Think my Xbox power supply gets hotter when my son plays all day

 

[TorturedSoul]

Eh... you're not talking about shooting a corpse five or six extra times. And I wouldn't want my house to catch on fire even if it was beside a fire station with a fire hydrant in the front yard by the road . You'll never know if you're being overly cautious. But you - or your next of kin - will certainly know if you end up not being cautious enough. Besides, they make those power supplies as cheaply as possible to aim for only a certain (non-zero!) percentage of failures under warranty. And, sometimes, when an electrical device develops a problem, additional heat production is a symptom.

 

[Slicknick909]

I have the driver for my 500w panel mounted on the wall, I used a 2”x6”x2’ piece of scrap wood and spaced the driver off the wood 1” with aluminum spacers I found at the local hardware store, the exhaust air from my tent is also pointed right at it to passively cool. My driver will reach upwards of 180F when at full 500w output but the wood never gets over 100F with the airflow between itself and the wood.

 

[Spitz]

you Could always cover your plywood with sheet rock or cement board. As mentioned, stand off for an air gap.

 

[6thsense]

So far with the lights at 75% my temps are maxing at 82 . Not great but not horrible either. Lux meter reads 75,000 so I doubt ill ever go higher.
thanks everyone for the ideas . I think in the summer ill definitely need to get the drivers out of the tent . I like the idea of plywood with frp or maybe cement board and a stand off to keep it safe