With the enhancement of energy saving and environmental protection awareness, people are increasingly concerned about the energy consuming effects on the environment. According to statistics, among all electricity consumptions, around 20%-22% electricity was consumed by lighting applications. Improving energy efficiency of lighting products can contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, energy-efficient lighting is becoming a focal point.
From the view of application field, lighting includes multiple areas, house lighting, road lighting, residential lighting, industrial lighting, etc.. Sorted by power, LED lighting applications can be divided into low-powered indoor lighting applications and high-powered LED area lighting applications, such like LED wall wash lights, LED tunnel lights, LED street lights, LED parking lights, LED flood lights, etc..
High-powered LED area lighting applications have many challenges: lighting fixtures are not easily accessible, risks brought about by the fault of light sources, harsh outdoor climates and so on. Existing light sources used in high-powered area lighting applications are metal halide, high pressure sodium lamps (HPS), linear fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps. There are a lot of limitations. For example, the CRI of HPS is very low (only 22). Objects under such light will completely loss their original color, which we also called color distortion. Traditional metal halide lamps have high energy loss (about 40%). Furthermore, the run-up time (from start to full brightness) is as long as 10 minute. Linear fluorescent lights have very weak cold temperature performances. Compact fluorescent lamps also have a long start time.
On the other hand, with the constant improvement of high-brightness white-ray LEDs in performance and cost, this kind of G24 LED chips have been widely used in high-powered LED area lighting applications and provide advantages that traditional technologies do not have. For example, consuming less power per lumen light, which is also known as luminous efficiency; better direction control; better color and quality, environmental protection, intelligent control on switching on/off, automatically adjust brightness according to the ambient light. In addition, LEDs are more reliable, reducing product cost and maintenance cost.
The main function of LED drivers is limiting the current flow in a variety of conditions, keeping LEDs away from current surges and other fault conditions. LED drivers also provide a certain level of protection, avoiding fire caused by electrical or mechanical shocks. For area lighting applications, the harsh climate brings temperature controlling difficulties to LED drivers. Also, drivers used in area lighting applications need to withstand 277VAC, 347VAC or even 480VAC in some conditions.