How do I work out which driver I need for my LED lighting?

It’s a common misconception that deciding which LED driver you will require for your LED lighting is a complicated and mathematically complex process. This is not the case. It is actually extremely straight forward to calculate and anyone can do it.

Watch our video on how to select the correct driver for LED lighting

Here is a quick guide to show you how:

The first thing you need to consider when calculating your driver requirements is the wattage of your product. This detail will always be specified on our website and in our brochure under each product.

For example, if you were going to use a length of LED tape – let’s say you decided to use a 9.6w tape, this means that your selected tape’s wattage is 9.6w per metre. If you were going to use 2 metres of the tape, you would need to do this simple calculation:

This then gives you the wattage that your tape will require in power. You must always select a driver that is a higher wattage than this total, so for this example you would purchase a 30w driver or higher.

If you buy a driver that is a lower wattage than the lighting you need to power then the lights will not work. If, for example, your total came out at 30w exactly or slightly under, it is best practice to choose the next size up, just to be on the safe side.

Here’s another example:

Imagine you are going to install a run of spotlights; you need 6 in total for the space you are lighting. The light you have selected is 0.18w. The calculation that you would need to work out is:

Therefore, you could select an 8w driver or higher.

One final example:

If you were going to use a single driver to run multiple lighting products, say: LED tape and spotlights, you would do the same calculation again but add all the final totals together. If you used:

3 metres of 4.8w LED tape that would be:

5 spotlights, each at 2.6w that would be:

Add them both together:

14.40w + 13.00w = 27.40w

So, therefore, you would require a 30w driver or higher.

At TLW, we provide a range of different LED drivers. All of our drivers run 12v LED products and are UNI drivers, meaning that they can be used to power single colour, dual colour and RGB products. They are available in 8w, 15w, 30w, 50w, 100w, 150w and 200w.

We also sell two dimmable LED drivers in 25w and 50w that can be used in conjunction with LED compatible wall dimmer switches.

For more information on our range of drivers, please visit our LED drivers.

You can also view our range of smart LED drivers.

 

Download our PDF guide to calculating wattage for drivers.

Want to read more about LED drivers? Read our blog on how many LED drivers you need.

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