Hello again !
here I am with a new article. In this article I want to share with you my experience with some LED products and how I managed it.
I started to import products from China in 2010 and one of the products I bought was the high bay, a product with 100Watts and about 7000lm in 5500k
I installed about 50 units in a warehouse, because the datasheets from suppliers looked very good, they said they use Bridgelux LEDs and a very good driver from a Taiwanese company, 50.000hours liferated, 3 years warranty…..and all this stuff
The thing was that after 2 years the luminaires started to burn out !!
When dismounting the luminaires the LEDs were burned and in others the driver was burned !!
Here some dead LEDs and drivers….
Ok, don’t get nervous and try to find a solution for the customer. Because the customer was nervous !
The first I did was to contact the Chinese supplier Whitelionlighting http://www.whitelionlighting.com/
They said that it was not possible, that they never had problems,….obviously they didn’t want to replace the product or to find a solution, finally they send me some LED chips and some new drivers of the same poor quality as installed in products !
I cannot install the same thing if I know after 2 years it will brake again…
After this and other problems I had from importing products from China I started a fast learn in LEDs and I search the best products of the moment and the best manufacturers and I found Bridgelux and Meanwell as some of the best and I replaced all the chinese LEDs and drivers for this new ones having a very performance and long lifetime product.
Bridgelux original part
Original part from Meanwell
That is true that we are talking about 2010 when the LED technology started to go up fast and still there was not too much knowledge of the technology, the heat management and others.
Then what I’ve been doing was to build my own high bays with very good products and a good heatsink to dissipate the heat of the LED and these products are still running today with no brake one.
What I want to show is that sometimes we think in buying in China because is cheaper or faster, but at the end the good products cost the same here than in China because there is not so much handwork and also there is no stock, no transport, no Minimum Order Quantity,…
and the quality of the products is better from renown manufacturers than from chinese non know manufacturers thats for sure until today and it’s demonstrated with the new regulations like the LM-80 for LEDs
If you want to do some high bays or floodlights here I propose you some details:
– LED
Choose one from Citizen, Seoul Semiconductor, Bridgelux or Cree
don’t buy it in alibaba or aliexpress, they will send you a copy of them, buy it in arrow, farnell or a web like this
the new VERO series from Bridgelux are very good
– Driver
The most important part
you need the best of the best here if you want to have a long lifetime product
choose from Meanwell, TCI Italy, Tridonic, Inventronics, Harvard,…
They will give you real warranty and you can be safe about quality
– Optics
Now you need to focalise you light, don’t buy this crappy reflector in aluminum all the suppliers offer, choose a silicone optics that will have more efficiency and less losses after longtime.
here I recommend you Ledil, carclo, lednlight, …
– And finally there is the heatsink and the mechanical parts
You have to choose a heatsink that keeps your LED at about 65ºC when you are at work temperature
for higher working temperatures like 40ºC-50ºC the heatsik will be larger than for working temperatures of 25ºC
Some of the brands that offer standard heatsinks are Mechatronix. They produce in Asia but have good prices and is a non technological product the heatsink, they also control quite good the quality.
And with all of this you can create your luminaires !! and with a better quality than Chinese products !!
See you soon !
Marc,
LEDs for PRO 