What you need to know about LED drivers

An LED driver is a self contained power supply and regulator for either one or a string of LEDs. There are a wide range of LED drivers and it is essential to know which one is suitable for your needs.

The driver is an essential component in a lighting system therefore it is important to choose the right driver or else it will seriously affect the lifetime of your lights and how efficient they are.  

Correct Power Supply

Matching the right power supply is extremely important because this could damage your product and can also be a serious fire hazard. In addition, one of the most common problems is overloading the driver as people connect too many strings in a series. This can result in the voltage being too low for the last strings in the series.  

Environment

Another key area to check is the environmental rating as it is important to know what the temperature and climate the driver can be used for. A lot of drivers are only suitable for dry locations, however there are damp location drivers available for signs and wet location drivers for outdoors are usually are in a sealed enclosure such as our waterproof constant voltage driver.

There are also typically two main types of drivers used:

Constant current drivers – These are typically used for light engines that run off a constant current. The drivers are ideal for higher voltage light engines such as our LED panels and downlights generally for luminaires with a 36v output.

Although they vary between all our products, they are typically between 100 – 280v  meaning that the device can maintain a constant electric current. This means that if there is an alteration in the voltage, the current will not change and more control over the LED applications as there will not be any variation on the brightness.

Constant voltage drivers – In contrast to the current drivers, constant voltage drivers are used for LEDs that require a constant voltage, such as our LED strips used for signage, modules and underwater lights, which need a certain amount of watts to power them.

 If the wrong voltage driver is used then the led lights may not light up or they can operate at a higher current than they supposed to. This is why it is important to check the voltage rating of the LED load compared to the rated output voltage of the driver. Otherwise this can lead to a shorter life of the module.

Dimming

Drivers can also have the option of dimming specifically for constant current driver. Here at Sedna we have available 1 – 10v analogue dimming and DALI dimming.

Here are some of the basic factors you need to consider when getting an LED driver. If you would like to contact us for more information Please contact us here.