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Voltage input range for LED lamps

4K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  steveparrott 
#1 ·
What determines the voltage input range for drop ins? The following voltage ranges were obtained from each manufacturers respective website: Alliance 12-24, Illumicare 9-15, Brilliance 8-18, Unique 10-18.
 
#7 ·
I disagree. It is still an LED lamp. retrofit simply describes one application for the lamps. We never called a halogen lamp a "drop in" or a "retrofit" so why do so with LED Lamps? When I designed my LED lamps I did so that they would work as a primary light source for new installations as well as satisfying the needs of those who wanted to install them into existing systems.
 
#8 ·
James, I'm not sure I completely agree with this one. Most companies have and still are going integrated because it is the best way to sink the LED's. I can't speak for you personally because I don't read minds, but I can tell you that the mass majority of companies making LED's in MR16, Par20, Par30 and so on are looking at the big picture. Some smart entrepreneur saw that there were millions of existing fixtures already installed around the world and that energy restrictions are only getting tighter. They knew that they could fill an enormous need by creating a lamp that would "fit" right into the existing housing of these fixtures that were created for halogen or incandescent lamps. I find it difficult to believe that all of these "retro-fit" lamps were created just for the tiny sliver margin of "new fixtures" being released to market. That would be very short sighted.

Now, I was speaking in generalities regarding the broad spectrum of the LED marketplace to include interior lighting also. In the realm of "landscape lighting", I will go along with you in the fact that there really is not an acceptable integrated LED on the market with the tight binning tolerances and consistent and high CRI for the landscape lighting industry. (All you kichler guys, just sit back down , take a deep breath and count to 3, it will be alright; I promise). I too use the Illumicare lamps in standard fixtures that were meant for halogen lamps- What choice do I have at this point in time, but you have to admit; Illumicare saw the bigger picture of taking a circuit board and squeezing it down to fit in a traditional "halogen" style housing so it could be used to replace the millions of existing fixtures already out there in the field- Yes? That is called "retro-fitting"
 
#9 ·
Your points are valid and largely correct Tim. I cannot speak for any other manufacturer of LED lamps, and yes the market for retro-fitting LED lamps into incandescent fixtures is massive, but in the case of the LED lamps that I developed (now branded as Illumicare) I can absolutely tell you that the initial idea was to produce a LED lamp that would replace incandescent and operate properly inside traditional incandescent fixtures. From the beginning I saw serious challenges ahead for those heading down the integrated LED fixture route and that is why I saw the LED lamp as a better solution. (We are talking about 5 years ago now... almost ancient times in terms of LED applications) So although the retrofit market is huge, I cannot support calling LED lamps LED Retrofits, because that is only one application that they are suitable for. Besides, LED Lamps is 9 keystrokes and LED Retrofits is 13 Keystrokes... so that is just inefficient! :)
 
#11 ·
This is a very good question. There are multiple ways to provide constant or near-constant lumen output over a range of input voltages. There are very cheap ways and very sophisticated ways. Poorly designed voltage regulators will likely result in diminished component life (including the LED chips thermselves) at higher voltages in their ranges.

While I can't be specific about CAST's approach, I can tell you there are over 100 electronic components in a CAST driver - many of them dedicated to handling voltage variations. Compare that to the lamps you mentioned - take them apart - you can count the components on one hand.

In fact, CAST LED driver components are specified to handle up to 40 volts continuous input (over 40 volts - the circuit shuts off). And occaisional spikes of several thousand volts.
 
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