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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!
Electrician here.
So are these lay-in lights for drop ceiling I'm guessing?
These days pretty much every light you can buy has the drivers built-in. The real choice is between buying integrated LED lights, or regular fluorescent-style fixtures with LED bulbs retrofitted. In the former the drivers are in the light, the latter, the bulbs.
I wire them in parallel straight off the 120v switch leg as a rule. You only need a constant hot if they're being run off occupancy sensors or something like that, since those act as the switch.
I wouldn't fool with engineering a lighting system using LEDs, personally. They can be finicky and most purpose-built lights work pretty well for a long time.
I don't know how you would call them in English, but they are 60cmx60cm panels, with built in LEDs. They are 60x60 because that is a standard size for ceiling panels here. So you can just take out a ceiling panel and put in one of these LED panels instead. The driver is external - mainly so you can choose different types of dimming (simple or DALI mostly). I am considering using a common driver for several panels, to save money (the club is not for profit, we don't have a lot of money) mainly on lighting sockets. Having to buy and set up 50 sockets instead of 10, can be a good chunk of money. I hope this makes sense. I have no experience with AC, only low power DC.
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.
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.
Here's an image of a panel and default driver:
Hell yeah get some 600mm troffers for grid ceiling, like others said. Just pop into your local electrical wholesaler and see what they can do. An electrician/a trusty mate will need to put a wire up there with 1 plug base for each light, then you just plug in & pop the troffer lights into the grid while on a ladder.