Which LED driver and how many?

HappyHippyDad · Mar 16, 2019

I have a customer who wishes to have LED tape under the wall cabinets. I always fit 230V strip lights rather than tape as there is less to go wrong as no LED drivers involved. he would actually be ok with strip lights but has specified 2700K and I can only find tape in this rather than 230V strip lights. Anyone know where I can get some and therefore avoid the following...

I have not fitted tape before. I will be using a constant voltage LED driver as the lights will be in parallel. In total there will be perhaps 100w of tape. The diagram shows only 3 tapes, but in reality it will will cut into 6 or 7 bits from one strip.

My question is, is either of the following acceptable and which is best?
Is this just the same as if you were fitting MR16's downlights where each would usually have there own transformer? I would have thought it better to fit individual LED drivers as you will have a long run of cable which the 24V driver will have to deal with and VD may come into play, whereas with individual drivers they will be much closer to the light. Plus if the 100w driver fails all lights fail instead of just one. But, is this ok with each section of cut strip or do they have to have the same power supply?

[ElectriciansForums.net] Which LED driver and how many?

Richard Burns · Mar 16, 2019

Either way will work OK.
Large wattage drivers tend to be very costly or open frame, which then need a ventilated enclosure, so I would tend to go for multiple fully enclosed drivers. The volt drop is only a problem if you join strip end to end; in your diagram you only have shorter runs of strip fed directly from the driver, wiring that way each strip only sees the volt drop for that strip.
You would only need to have the same power supply if the power supply were also a controller for colour changing, etc.
Work out where your driver will be and where you can run the cables and place junction boxes and make the strip to wire connections.

HappyHippyDad · Mar 16, 2019

Richard Burns said:
Either way will work OK.
Large wattage drivers tend to be very costly or open frame, which then need a ventilated enclosure, so I would tend to go for multiple fully enclosed drivers. The volt drop is only a problem if you join strip end to end; in your diagram you only have shorter runs of strip fed directly from the driver, wiring that way each strip only sees the volt drop for that strip.
You would only need to have the same power supply if the power supply were also a controller for colour changing, etc.
Work out where your driver will be and where you can run the cables and place junction boxes and make the strip to wire connections.

Thanks for the detailed reply Richard

davesparks · Mar 16, 2019

Either method is OK, but when using a single large driver you should consider whether you need to add a fuse for each strip fed from it.

Wilko · Mar 17, 2019

happyhippydad said:
I have a customer who wishes to have LED tape under the wall cabinets. I always fit 230V strip lights rather than tape as there is less to go wrong as no LED drivers involved. he would actually be ok with strip lights but has specified 2700K and I can only find tape in this rather than 230V strip lights. Anyone know where I can get some and therefore avoid ...

Hi - I'm guessing Customer wont accept 3000K ? They're quite close and easy to get, so perhaps worth an on site suitability check.

LED Linkable Striplights - https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Kitchen_Lighting/Ultra_Slim_KBU/index.html#Ultra_Slim_KBU_WW