LED lights are great. They last around 20 times longer and consume up to 90% less energy when compared to halogen or incandescent lighting, which helps you save money on your energy bills. While still maintaining similar levels of light quality, and they also come in a wide variety of unique colors, meaning you can achieve a great look to your applications.
What did you know most LED lights require an LED driver in order to operate many retrofit LED light, such as LED Flood Lights have drivers built into them to help make your transition from traditional lighting to LED lighting much easier.
All the types of LED lights such as LED strip lights require an external LED driver in order to operate.
Why?
Because unlike traditional Lighting’s such as incandescent or halogen lights, LED lights operates on lower more precise voltages, such as 12 volts or 24 volts, they also operate on DC which stands for direct current rather than AC, which stands for alternating current.
There are two main types of LED driver.
One, constant voltage LED drivers, which convert the incoming mains voltage of 230 volts AC into a lower DC voltage, such as 12 volts or 24 volts constant voltage. LED drivers are ideal for powering LED tape and other low powered LED lighting setups.
The output voltage from this type of driver always remains the same and doesn’t fluctuate the other type of LED driver is constant current bios. These types of LED drivers also convert 230 volts AC into lower DC voltages. They also maintain a constant current output, this ensures that the sensitive LED chip achieves full brightness, whilst also preventing it from being overpowered which would damage the chip.
Electrical current is measured in milliamps and amps common milliamp ratings for constant current. LED drivers include 350 milliamps and 700 milliamps, whilst less common milliamp ratings are 500 milliamps, 1050 milliamps and 1500 in Killian constant current. LED drivers are usually required for more high performance LED lighting setups, such as brown lights and decking lights. Most of the integrated LED downlights are fitted with a constant current 700 milliamp driver. This driver is part of the fitting and is non-replaceable, meaning that in the very unlikely. Event of the LED driver fails, you have to replace the entire fitting, so how do you know what LED driver you need?
Here are four golden rules to follow when choosing your LED driver.
1 Â First and foremost
You need to know if your LED lights require at constant voltage or constant current supplied. If your lights need to be wired in a series like some LED ground lights, then you will need a constant current LED driver. If your LED lights need to be wide in a parallel circuit like LED Street Light, they will need a constant voltage LED driver.
2 Â Secondly
Make sure the milliamp rating on your LED light matches your LED driver, although there are many different milliamp ratings. The most common ratings are 350 milliamps and 700 milliamps. If you’ve already established, that you require a constant voltage LED driver. You can skip this step and move on to step 3.
3 Â Thirdly
Make sure the wattage of the LED driver is higher than the total number of lights. This means if you require for 3 watt LED ground lights, the LED driver you will require will be 12 watts or higher, because 4 times 3 Watts equals 12 watts, if you’re specifying an LED driver for LED tape you need to multiply the wattage per meter of the LED tape, and the length of your rod or room. So if the LED tape is 14 point 4 watts per meter and you have 3 meters you would require an LED driver rated that’s over 40 three-on-two watts, which could be a 60 watt LED driver, such as the Meanwell l PV 60 12 or LP v 6 to 24 depending on the voltage of the LED tape.
4 Â Finally
Make sure the output voltage of your LED driver is compatible with the input voltage of your LED lights. Some constant current LED drivers have a very wide output voltage of 6 to 26 volts. Meaning they’re more Universal and compatible with more LED lights. However, there are many constant current LED drivers that output a very specific voltage, which may not be compatible with your LED lights, and if the incorrect voltage is used, it can cause irreparable damage. It’s very important and you check if you remember.
These four golden rules on choosing your LED drivers you’ll have no problem installing the designed LED lighting in your home and other places. We’ve also detailed a few of the most commonly asked questions whenever to help you see how other customers are using.
