LED power supply unit with active cooling

[PerpetualLeakingRoof]

I've put together a small LED lighting set up with 5 * 2.5m strips of LED ribbon powered from a 12V 10A power supply (like this) with a total draw from the LED strips of <7.5A. The power supply and all the wiring are inside a 200x120x75mm project box (like this).

Obviously the power supply gets warm in use so I drilled 5mm ventilation holes in one side of the box and fitted a 40mm fan on the other. The set up has been in regular and prolonged use for about a year and it's working fine but the fan has started to make a noise. I could just replace the fan but it's not silent even when working perfectly. I'm wondering if it's actually necessary to actively cool the power supply or if good ventilation is all that's needed? When I first built the box I ran it at maximum load for two hours with thermocouples placed at strategic locations and saw a maximum rise of 10 degrees above ambient with active cooling so there's clearly significant headroom.

Looking around I've found passive enclosures for small power supplies, this for example. My set up would be better ventilated than that. Cheers.

 

[delmel]

never a good idea to box any power supply, sounds a very dubious set up to me and loads seem odd also. Not sure where you are using them or what led type you have but guess you have very low light performance or you loads are not correct.

 

[JohnW2]

... and loads seem odd also. Not sure where you are using them or what led type you have but guess you have very low light performance or you loads are not correct.

LED strips are typically 5W-6W or so per metre, so the OP's 12.5m would be around 60-75W. He says that the strips are drawing less than 7.5A (i.e. less than 90W), which does not sound all that far off, does it?

Whether or not he needs that much light is a different question; even 60W's worth of LEDs is quite a lot.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

never a good idea to box any power supply

Not putting a PSU like that in an enclosure is absolutely not an option.

 

[delmel]

LED strips are typically 5W-6W or so per metre, so the OP's 12.5m would be around 60-75W. He says that the strips are drawing less than 7.5A (i.e. less than 90W), which does not sound all that far off, does it?

Whether or not he needs that much light is a different question; even 60W's worth of LEDs is quite a lot.

Kind Regards, John

All depends on the type of LED and they variant is a lot.