Anyone replace LED drivers?

electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Has anyone delved into replacing LED drivers when they go bad? I'm thinking larger light fixtures such as say high bays, canopy or parking lot lights, that sort of thing. I have always just replaced the entire fixture, which seems so wasteful and I hate it - but I have Always assumed (granted without ever really even looking into it) the finding the proper replacement driver would be a hassle. Is there any standardized voltage on these sort of things or is it all over the place? Are people matching up and sourcing replacement drivers or just replacing the whole fixture?
 
electrofelon said:
Has anyone delved into replacing LED drivers when they go bad? I'm thinking larger light fixtures such as say high bays, canopy or parking lot lights, that sort of thing. I have always just replaced the entire fixture, which seems so wasteful and I hate it - but I have Always assumed (granted without ever really even looking into it) the finding the proper replacement driver would be a hassle. Is there any standardized voltage on these sort of things or is it all over the place? Are people matching up and sourcing replacement drivers or just replacing the whole fixture?
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FWIW we just discard our bulbs and that was in the old days when we had tungsten units. In our present house I replaced all ours six years ago. So far we have had just one replacement and that was on one of the cooker hoods. On that basis we just discarded it and got a new one.
 
If it’s a parking lot light, I will generally quote replacing the whole fixture. In the old days of HID’s, it was relatively easy to spot a burnt out lamp, or ballast. With LED’s, if you must have both the driver and LED assembly with you because the cost of renting a boom lift twice if you don’t have the right part, can get expensive. And if I bought both, the customer will be billed for both. Usually cheaper to just change the guts out of a new one, or just swap the head.
 
I have replaced drivers in 1 LED wallpack and 3 pole heads. The wallpack (Rab) failed outside of the 5 year warranty and took less than a week to get. It was easy to diagnose, 120 volts on input and no DC on the output wires. It wasn't expensive, I think it was less than $110 where the complete wallpack was over $300.
The 3 pole heads were damaged due to a near lightning strike. One head was half out and the other 2 had half led array out. The pole heads are 1st gen 360-watt Atlas with 2 drivers in the arm. They have 2 Philips 180 watt led drivers. It was easier to get them from Atlas.
I also had another 270-watt head where the array started failing at 4 years into the warranty. Atlas did warranty it but with a smaller size unit as that series was no longer available (22 inch with a 16 inch model). It's on a single-headed pole away from other poles so it isn't noticeable.
 
delaware74b said:
I have replaced drivers in 1 LED wallpack and 3 pole heads. The wallpack (Rab) failed outside of the 5 year warranty and took less than a week to get. It was easy to diagnose, 120 volts on input and no DC on the output wires. It wasn't expensive, I think it was less than $110 where the complete wallpack was over $300.
The 3 pole heads were damaged due to a near lightning strike. One head was half out and the other 2 had half led array out. The pole heads are 1st gen 360-watt Atlas with 2 drivers in the arm. They have 2 Philips 180 watt led drivers. It was easier to get them from Atlas.
I also had another 270-watt head where the array started failing at 4 years into the warranty. Atlas did warranty it but with a smaller size unit as that series was no longer available (22 inch with a 16 inch model). It's on a single-headed pole away from other poles so it isn't noticeable.
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But unless you own the boom lift, you have rental and delivery twice. First to troubleshoot the head, then to return. Cheaper to have both parts on hand or fixture, rent the boom lift once. That being said, if you are a lighting company that specializes in parking lots, you will probably have the parts on the truck.
 
electrofelon said:
I have never looked, but do driver output voltages vary widely? Or are there just several different voltages typically?
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In UK residential it is just just 230V 50Hz. My field is industrial power electronics and the small stuff is 110Vac including LEDs.
 
electrofelon said:
I have never looked, but do driver output voltages vary widely? Or are there just several different voltages typically?
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The LED drivers used for typical tape light, puck lights and similar field assembled systems are constant voltage. Usually 12V or 24V.

Self contained fixtures use constant current drivers. The voltages do vary and can be high. Constant current drivers typically get programed by the manufacture to match the LED array. This makes replacing drivers in the field difficult unless the fixture manufactures provides the replacement because you would need to know the exact voltage/current requirements and be able to program the driver.
 
electrofelon said:
Yes most of the rest of the world is much simpler with just 230/400. But I was talking about the output voltage of an LED driver.
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We had a project on a cement works in 1993. The power system was around 250kW. We did i win the project but there were a few of adjustment our customer requested. Our 110Vsc bulbs were regular units but our customer requesters LED units. We stayed that.
 
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