LED drivers questions (1 Viewer)

[Shanereef]

Ok so I have decided to do my own led fixture. But I am at a point and I have a question of my drivers. LED fixture has 108 3w led's, using 9 eln-60-48p drivers. I have been told thet this is to many drivers to run in my house. I am confussed on why I am hearing that from people. Is there something wrong with having so many drivers? These are what came with the kits from rapid led. Anyone can you help me understand what I need to do. Last thing I want to do is spend more money on another type of driver. Thanks Shane

 

[steveb]

I'm not an EE but I believe it has do with the power factor/efficiency or inrush current when they are first powered on.

 

[gabe_j]

you should be able to handle that many. just phase them one 3 at a time so your inrush isn't that bad. if you're really worried about it. but i'm pretty sure most houses are running 20A breakers. so you should be ok.

 

[TiAg]

you should be able to handle that many. just phase them one 3 at a time so your inrush isn't that bad. if you're really worried about it. but i'm pretty sure most houses are running 20A breakers. so you should be ok.

As long as you don't have anything else heavy running on that circuit right? I'm not an EE and don't know the draw on those drivers, but if it's closing on 20A (or even 15) you'll have a tendency to pop breakers. Gabe, you're the guru though, I do defer to you

 

[gabe_j]

http://www.meanwell.com/search/eln-60/ELN-60-spec.pdf

heres the data sheet on the mean wells. your Absolute max inrush can get to 60A and I'm running 3 drivers on the same circuit 2 of them turning on that the same time, with no issues. also on the circuit is my skimmer a NAC6, MP10ES, sicce 5.0, 3.5" pc fan, a 250W heater, 10v dimmer power supply,and a small mixing pump lol i've yet to flip a breaker!

 

[TiAg]

Well unless my math is wrong the 9 of those will only pull 12A when turned on so that's not that bad unless you're drying your hair or nuking lunch on the same circuit

 

[gabe_j]

yea i worry more about the running amperage than the inrush.

 

[reeftopia]

I thought the idea of running leds was to pull less amps

 

[gabe_j]

you pull less watts for the same output. but the drivers need an inrush of power to turn on (most electronic devices are like this) so a max 60A rush of power then it drops down to 1.2A

thats why on bigger builds you're better off using high powered drivers and running parallel strings to divide out the current. like the invetronics drivers can push 48 leds at 700mA on 3 strings of 16. but you need to add fuses, and resistors to keep the draw on each string equal the the next. if not they you'll start pushing higher currents to the weakest chain and when leds start to blow then it ends really bad really fast if you don't run quick blow fuses. some of those high power drivers can push 120w and 2100mA. so fusing and equalizing the strings is extremely important.

 

[Shanereef]

you should be able to handle that many. just phase them one 3 at a time so your inrush isn't that bad. if you're really worried about it. but i'm pretty sure most houses are running 20A breakers. so you should be ok.

So I can turn on 3 drivers at a time? How much delay between turning on next 3? Also can I tie 3 drivers to same power cord?

 

[gabe_j]

you can safely tie 13 drivers on 1 power cord. and use a controller to turn on 3 at a time. the delay doesn't need to be much time a 5-10 seconds is plenty you just don't want to rush all that power at once. if your going to run timers just set 1 channel to come on at sunrise 1 an hour or so later and then your 3rd for a few hours to simulate the full noon sun.

 

[Shanereef]

you can safely tie 13 drivers on 1 power cord. and use a controller to turn on 3 at a time. the delay doesn't need to be much time a 5-10 seconds is plenty you just don't want to rush all that power at once. if your going to run timers just set 1 channel to come on at sunrise 1 an hour or so later and then your 3rd for a few hours to simulate the full noon sun.

Whats the best way to tie them togther?

 

[gabe_j]

terminal block with jumpers

 

[Shanereef]

Thanks Gabe I feel alot better now getting your input.