this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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We have to change the lights in my tabletennis club. We are going to put up around 50 panels in 3 strings Each panel is 40w and 24vdc. I was wondering what the best and most cost-effective way to do this might be.

One of the things I was looking to do was to get a single driver for several panels. Maybe a 200w driver for 5 panels? But would it then be better to do it in series with 120v or in parallel. And should the driver be constant power, or?

I will appreciate any and all help!

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah gotcha. Yeah as an American sparky, we don't see those external drivers much. Most LED lay-ins are dimmable right out of the box.

Outlets themselves are usually less than $1 apiece, but if you wanted to you could just cut the plug off and wire them directly to your hot and neutral.

I don't know what would be most economical for you to be honest.

[–] boojumliussnark 1 points 1 month ago

Ah, outlets are around 15usd for the cheapest here and look like this:

And then we need the box, which is also around 15usd.

So maybe 1.500usd, which is quite a bit of money for us.

The thing is, regulations don't allow us to simply daisy chain mains voltage without one of those outlets for each link - except maybe if the driver had daisy chaining in it, but I can't seem to find one.

This is why I was hoping to maybe find a driver that would at least let us daisy chain 5 or 6 panels, since I'm allowed to do just about anything I want with DC, it is hardly regulated.