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Re: JBJ cooling fans

Roxanne Bittman asked about turning of the cooling fans on her JBJ
lights

> I have tried tightening everything, moving the little wires around to
> make sure they are not vibrating, etc.  Nothing improves the noises. 
> I
> want to just turn them off.  Has anyone used the JBJ lights without
> the
> fans on for say a year or so?  Was there any ill effect except that
> the
> water heated up a few degrees

While I haven't used JBJ lights I can offer you this info:

If flourescents are too cool, they aren't as efficient as they could be
(if cold, they are dim -- you can see this if you turn on flourescent
overhead lights in an unheated room (garage?) in winter.  They must be
very cool to be visibly dimmer.  If they are too hot, they burn out
faster.  The threshold varies by bulb because it depends on several
design factors, but generally, somewhere around 120 -150 degrees F is 
optimum for life and brightness.  So one risk you run without fans is
early bulb failure.  But you probably are changing the bulbs more
frequently than full life span anyhow, right?  So this is probably not
an issue.  It would definitely be an issue if you were severly
overdriving NO (normal output) lamps -- without fans they might last
only a few weeks instead of a few months.

The other issue would be tank temps, which are affected by so many
things, its hard to predict what just one factor will do.  So, I
suggest that it's worth trying for a few days just to see what the
affect is -- the test is when you have highest ambient summer temps all
night and day.

Hope that helps at least a little,
Scott H.

PS, re the buzz, is there anything you can touch or press [besides the
off/on swtich :-)   ] that kills or damps the buzz?  If so, the buzz
can be damped without turning off the fans.

PPS:  what size are the fans?  Would you consider replacements that
might be quieter?

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