Outdoor LED lighting should strengthen lightning/anti-surge protection design

As mentioned earlier, for indoor LED lighting, it is quite sufficient to adopt basic over-voltage, overload, short-circuit, and high-temperature power-off/load-off designs under a relatively simple use environment and relatively stable supply voltage/current. On the contrary, LED street lights, landscaping lights, garden lights, etc. installed outdoors, only the above-mentioned basic drive power safety protection is still insufficient. The biggest power challenge for outdoor lamps is still the unstable power supply and the rain and thunder weather. The unstable supply voltage will make the driving circuit easy to cause component aging. This part of the problem can be improved by advanced components with high environmental tolerance to improve the life of the driving power supply. , And the problem of thunder falling must be improved and resolved in a targeted manner.

For areas prone to thunderstorms and rainy days, outdoor lamps should be designed with lightning surge protection (SPD). The so-called lightning surge protection is used when lightning strikes street lamps or landscaping lamps (more open areas). High lamp holders usually form the best lightning path for lightning strikes). The SPD protection design can introduce instantaneous high surge waves into the lamp housing or into the power line to produce corresponding protection. SPD components can not only prevent lightning strikes. In addition to the protective effect of wave phenomena, Electrostatic Discharge; ESD can also achieve protective effects.

The cost of setting up lamps is high. If the lightning surge protection design is not used to save costs, it is actually quite unwise. When the lighting facilities are affected by lightning surges and cause drive circuit failures, only the street lamps cannot be used if the lighting facilities are small. Influencing the safety of surrounding people and vehicles, the harm caused is not as simple as equipment damage. In addition, the increase in street lamp damage rate will also increase the maintenance cost after the installation is completed. In order to avoid electrical hazards such as lightning strikes and power circuit surges in the later period, outdoor LED lighting should be higher than relevant regulations and safety standards to enhance the safety of the drive circuit design.