led floodlight problems

Guest154 · Jan 20, 2013

hi having some problems with led floodlight , firstly had 17 140w led floodlights on one circuit wired with a 10mm single line swa , started with 16 amp mcb and it kept tripping on start up not every time , tested all the cabling and and put the clamp meter on it cuming up with just over 10 amps on start up , so i changed the mcb to a 20 amp still tripping then a 32 still tripping finally a 40 amp mcb and it has stopped tripping , i then used the same floodlights on another 2 jobs 1 with 4 on a circuit and the other with 12 on a circuit and the same thing happened had to keep uppin the mcb , they are not cheap fittings £400 a piece , i did contact the company that make them but the say they have had no issues like this b4 , anyone have any ideas

Guest154 · Jan 20, 2013

the one with 4 lights is a 2.5 swa with 16amp mcb and the one with 12 is a 4mm swa 32 amp mcb these have also stopped tripping but only after i increased the mcb size

Guest154 · Jan 20, 2013

what was it sayin about start up current murdoch

Octopus · Jan 20, 2013

cortez154 said:
what was it sayin about start up current murdoch

That some LED lights have extremely high start up currents.

Edit:

Lamp ............................................ Peak Inrush Current ... Steady Current ... Real Power ... Apparent Power ... Power Factor

50W GU10 Halogen ..................... 2200mA ...................... 222mA ................ 53.4W ........... 53.4W ..................... 1.0
LEDlite 4.9W GU10 LED ................ 416mA ...................... 355mA .................. 5.9W ........... 53W ........................ 0.11
Halolite 1.5W GU10 LED (old) ...... 2100mA ........................ 23.4mA .............. 1.04W ........... 5.7W ...................... 0.18
LEDLite 10.5W LED downlight ........ 420mA ........................ 54.6mA ............ 11.6W ........... 13.2W ...................... 0.87

apologies to the chap who did this but I'm sure he won't mind me plagerising it!

dan86 · Jan 20, 2013

I had a quick search and couldn't find the thread murdoch was talking about, but maybe a soft start circuit would be of benefit here...

dan86 · Jan 20, 2013

Murdoch said:
That some LED lights have extremely high start up currents.

lol! we kind of gathered that!

HandySparks · Jan 20, 2013

cortez154 said:
clamp meter is only showing just over 10 amps on start up

Is this with a peak hold function or are you just catching the max reading visually?

(The investigations into LED start up currents and power factors were mine on another board.)

Somewhat related, I ended up putting three LED drivers for under-cupboard LED strip lights onto a 6A type C MCB as the inrush was sometimes measuring 50A for each driver on startup.

lister101 · Feb 1, 2013

Cortez, how did you get on with your problem? I'm sure we would all like an update.

.....Andy

Guest154 · Feb 3, 2013

hi andy , contacted the company that sell them again but they say they have had no issues like this with these lights , not sure if i believe them but they are holding for now , i can only assume that these guys are right about the start up current being so high , next time i am on the sites i will try the clamp meter on them again using the peak hold function see what it comes up with , cheers