Hello,
I've been testing several setups of LED panels built with 5050 strips. Raising Wattage when I wasn't satisfied with plant coloration.
At first I used 3 strips with 1cm space between each other, all glued to 2mm aluminium plate. It was barely warm at that time. But then the decision was made to add 2 more strips between them, so I glued the rest leaving no space inbetween. After plugging in whole panel after short period of time the aluminium got really hot. As hot that made me worried. Not having much experience with electricity I can't tell if I can keep it that way or something has to be done asap.
My question is if it's normal for strips to produce that much heat, or was I placing them too close to each other (the amount was not even doubled)? Would 1cm space (just like before) make a difference? If not then what should be done there? Maybe using aluminium was a bad idea and I should use MDF board instead? I just don't want to dismantle whole thing and start over if the result will be the same - aluminium plate as hot as before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.