Solution Finder Get Tech Support

Solar driven led

Posted by: indygreg on

Not sure if anyone here would know this but I am exploring how to efficiently power led grow lights with solar power. The traditional approach would be to take the dc power out of a solar panel into a charge controller which would creat constant voltage with current tracking solar collection. The charge controller would charge batteries which would in turn power an inverter which would generat 110vac which could then power a power supply for an led light which of course converts back to dc. If the goal is to simply capture solr energy and immediately use that power to drive an led array, how little would be needed. It is ok of the sun goes behind a cloud and the led dims or even goes out. Could I just get a charge controller which generates 60vdc with variable current and directly power an array of leds in series?  What if one simply connected the dc output of the solar panels directly to the led array maybe with a voltage limiter?  

 

Led array that seems to be designed for 60vdc (it uses a mean well 60v driver typically). https://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/buy-sp-3000-best-led-grow-lights-for-indoor-plants-sunlike-spectrum-with-ir-uv-for-2x4-mars-hydro-mar…

Example of a charge controller https://www.midnitesolar.com/productPhoto.php?product_ID=256&productCatName=Charge%20Controllers%20-%20Classics&productCat_ID=21&sortOrder=1&ac…

Comments

Submitted by PI-Bombadil on 11/30/2021

Hello Indygreg,

Yes, as long as the charge controller can operate in constant-current mode and that this current can be handled by the LEDs. Unfortunately, Power Integrations does not have an available solution/reference design for such solar charge controller.