How to choose a suitable LED Power Supply?

2018-12-21 23:07:54

Whether you are building your own LED fixture, fixing and retrofitting existing fixtures, or purchasing new LED lights, you will need to find the correct power source for your LEDs. You will need a LED power supply to make your LEDs work properly. When choosing a suitable power supply for LED lights, you should consider many different factors.

Most LEDs need a current-limiting device in order to prevent LEDs from being over-load. This will make sure the LED lights working safe and maximizing their lifetime. LEDs electrical characteristics change as they heat up. If current is not regulated, LEDs will draw too much current over time. Most finished LED products or LED strip lights already have drivers or resistors built in to regulate the current. Follow this current control, you can find a constant voltage power supply.

A constant voltage power supply can be used to power LED lights that have resistors or contant current drivers already within the system. These types of products will typically call for a constant DC voltage. If you are powering from a battery or happen to have constant DC voltage that is not adequate for your lights; then you will need a power supply to convert your power to a safe DC voltage for your lights.. For example, LED flex strips have on-board current limiting resistors. If you wanted to install this in your car, you wouldn’t need any power supply. Cars batteries give off 12VDC give or take. The 12V supply from the battery would be totally adequate for your lights. But in order to incorporate these strips in homes there is the need for an AC to DC converter that will take the 120VAC standard household voltage and convert it down to 12VDC. Now a constant voltage power supply can help you convert your AC household voltage down to a safe DC voltage.

To get started, find out how many watts your light will consume. If you hope to run more than one light off of one power supply, you must sum the wattages up to find the total watts used. Make sure to have a large enough power supply by giving yourself a 20% cushion over the total wattage you calculate from your LEDs. This can easily be done by multiplying your total wattage by 1.2 and then finding a power supply rated for that wattage.

When building an LED fixture or replacing a bad power supply, it is important to first verify that the output voltage is compatible with the LEDs voltage. LED products with built in current regulators will usually be pretty good about specifying what input voltage should be used. For instance, a 12V power supply would be used with our LED flex strips as that is what they require.

Also, be sure to make sure the power supply you select can handle the input power you have. Line voltage will change depending where you are in the world. Make sure you know whether you have low-line AC power (90-120VAC) or high-line AC power (200-240VAC). A lot of power supplies, such as Mean Well products, will be rated for the full range but it is always helpful to know your AC input and make sure that the power supply you use is suited for this.

An important factor that cannot be overlooked when choosing your power supply is the area and environment that it will be used in. Power supplies operate the most efficiently if they are used within their temperature parameters. Power supply specs should include a safe operating temperature range. It is best to operate within this and make sure not to stick your power supply somewhere where heat can build up and go above this maximum operating temperature. It is generally a bad idea to stick a power supply in a tiny enclosure with no ventilation system. This will allow even the minimal heat produced by the source to build up over time and end up cooking the power source. So make sure the area isn’t too warm or cold and that the heat cannot build up to damaging levels

If you are still confused, we SHENZHEN YSD TECHNOLOGY CO.;LTD can offer suitable solutions for you. Just contact us for best service.

NEWS