this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Designing an efficient LED array (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 7 months ago by Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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LEDs will conduct more current when they get warmer and differences between individual LEDs mean you cannot easily put them in parallel. A constant current DC supply will be good enough for part of the LEDs but will overload some others. To normalize current a series resistor is used with each individual LED.

Now, those resistors waste a bit of power. Are they really necessary? If you put several LEDs in series the individual differences become negligible at some point and a constant current supply will suffice for several strips of series LEDs in parallel.

How many LEDs would this require? Another possibility would be to have the resistor in series with a strip of LEDs.

I got some LED strips off AliExpress that run on 12V and each individual LED has a resistor in series with it. I believe this to be quite wasteful and it would be better to have several LEDs in series with a current regulator instead. The LEDs will end up in an autonomous greenhouse where power efficiency is important.

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[โ€“] WaterWaiver@aussie.zone 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Yes it's possible to run them without resistors if you put them all in series and use a current limited power supply. That's how some LED lighting products do it, just not common LED strips.

Common LED strips are designed for convenience over efficiency. You feed them 12V and you can cut them to any shorter length without worry. You can't do that as easily with series configurations.

and a constant current supply will suffice for several strips of series LEDs in parallel.

Yes and no. I've seen lots of series-parallel products fail with blown LEDs.

For parallel LEDs to work you need three things:

  1. Very well matched LEDs.
  2. Shared heatsinking, so one LED getting hot shares some of its heat with its neighbours.
  3. Reasonable driving level. The more power you put into the LEDs the worse it gets.

These 3 things cost money so they often get skimped.

The LEDs will end up in an autonomous greenhouse where power efficiency is important.

Removing the resistors of a white 12V LED strip will (at best, in theory) increase your efficiency by 25%.

Choosing to use more LEDs and driving them at lower power levels might increase your efficiency even more than this. In 2024 you should be able to get well over 100 lumens per watt, but many LED strips overdrive the LEDs, dramatically lowering their efficiency. LED light output versus power input curves are very nonlinear, you get decreasing returns of light the more power you put in.

autonomous greenhouse

What are you growing? Sounds suspicious. Please don't do anything illegal.

If your greenhouse is anything larger than a small test then please instead proper fire detection and suppression systems. Don't get people hurt.

[โ€“] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago

Thanks. Haha no I fully intend to grow vegetables. I don't even like weed. The last time I smoked it eas 20 years ago, it gave me a panic attack and I never touched it since.