LED FANs

[OldMedMan]

Hi Everyone.
I think that I have messed up. I have built two small grow cabs and I used anything I had laying around to save money. I have used computer fans in both cabs. Without thinking I installed 2 90mm and 1 120mm fans that have small Blue LEDs on the blades in one. In the second cab I did the same with 2 90mm fans and 2 120mm fans.
My question is will these fans mess up the flowering cycle?
They are installed vented and really permanently installed and it will be messy to rework. Opinions?

 

[b0110ck5]

If you can identify the power wires running to the LEDs themselves, you could clip/break one of those wires to disable the LED. Alternatively, if the LEDs were in the housing, not blades, you could've drilled out the LEDs to get rid of them. (Drilling the fan blades risks unbalancing them and making the fan a noisy, vibrating mess...rendering the fan effectively useless.) The issue of fan blade balance also makes putting tape over the LEDs problematic as well.

If you can identify the wires running to the LEDs in the blades but can't cut/break them without killing the fan, if you can expose the conductors of the LED wires, you could connect the + terminal of a 9V battery on one wire and the - terminal on the other wire. This should cause current to run through the LED with no current-limiting resistors in place, which should immediately burn up the LED and disable it. Repeat this process for each LED. (NOTE: This assumes 9V-rated LEDs are used in the fans. If they don't fry, you could hook up two 9V batteries in series [negative on Battery 1 hooks to positive on Battery 2, Battery 2 negative hooks to LED Wire 2, LED Wire 1 connects to Battery 1 positive] to produce 18V, but I have doubts this would be necessary...9V should do it.)

If you can get the fans away from your plants, you could evenly paint the fan blade part to cover up the LEDs. As long as you paint it evenly, you shouldn't unbalance the fan blades.

Finally, most decorative LEDs in fans/cases are high-output LEDs, so you'll be getting a lot of light out of them (compared with standard LEDs.) Luckily, LEDs tend to have a very tight focus in which they project the majority of their luminous intensity. They beam primarily out the tip of the LED, but since that LED tip is angled and spinning several thousand times per minute, you will get projection of light into the box.

Personally, I'd try to disable or obscure the LEDs using the aforementioned ideas. I'd hate for all the daily effort I put into my plants be negatively impacted by a fixable, known issue like this one.

 

[Tead]

fingernail polish... small dot right over the light.

Cheers!

 

[OldMedMan]

Thanks! b0110ck5 and tead

I already took out the fans in the smaller cab. I have seeds germing and put in a black fan for the 120mm. Then I replaced the other two also.
So I'm good to go on that one.

I used to teach and I found that when students asked a question, they alreaady knew the answer. I think I did it too.

No hurry on the other one. Damn harware store cut me a door for that one and they gave me a warped piece of plywood. I didn't notice until I had painted and mounted it. So it goes. You can tell it's my first grow.

Will replace the other fans in there two.

I do thank you so much for your help. I am going to start a journal soon.

 

[tronix]

I doubt the lights would have a negative effect on the plants, I doubt, two little LED's pack enough lumens to effectively cause an issue.,if anything it'd give you a neat, "night light" to work on your crop at night. lol

The complaint I've seen about the LED grow lights is that that lack the overall output to sustain a full grow..and those contain hundreds of LED, intended to be placed close to the plants, the fans will be at the top of the cabinet I presume, and as far away from the tops as you can get.

But if in doubt, Tead's fingernail polish idea is a good one.

 

[Tead]

^^^^ Yea... those lights are far from high powered. Seems safe.


Cheers

 

[Tead]

Not really a point anymore since you changed them... tronix and I just like to hijack threads and take them for a ride. ;-)

 

[OldMedMan]

tead and tronix thanks for the info.
You can ride this thread if you want to, I'll tag along too.

I think I will leave the other cab alone. Thoses fans were a bitch to get out and redo. When I build anything I want it to last. Your going to laugh when you see what I've built.

tronix...I am going to try a UFO 90 watt LED. It was used. (cheap)

 

[tronix]

Nice, can't wait to see what you put together.

 

[Tead]

uh oh... OldMedMan said the magic word... "LED"!

It's funny, LED's are such a hot topic around here. Folks love to badmouth them, and perhaps rightly so. There really appears to be very little in the way actual data regarding LED's effectiveness. There are quite a few grows running LEDs, but they all seem to have issues (including my own attempted hydro grows).

Of course, I use LEDs in my veg cabinet. Heat is the issue for me and the LEDs run much cooler than HID.

Cheers.. and thanks for donating the thread! ;-)