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The driver is an important part of industrial lighting fixtures, which greatly affects the lifespan and quality of the fixtures. In the field of LED commercial and industrial lighting, there are mainly two forms of drivers: isolated driver and non-isolated driver.
So what are the differences among those two drivers? For buyers, how to choose them? When purchasing industrial lights, which driver should be chosen? Faced with the current market perception of these two driver, will AGC use isolated driver and what lamps will it be used on?
What is an isolated driver?
In simple terms, an isolated driver is an electrical device that uses a transformer to reduce a high voltage to a low one, and then rectifies it into a DC output. Because the primary coil of the transformer bears high voltage voltage, the secondary coil only bears the output low AC voltage, and the primary and secondary coils are not directly connected, so it is called an isolated driver.
What is a non-isolated driver?
Non-isolated driver refers to a electrical device that directly connects the load terminal and the input one, without the help of a transformer to reduce the voltage, and the device introduces the high voltage of the AC driver to the load terminal.
What are the differences among those two drivers?
At present, the driving efficiency of isolated driver and non-isolated driver in the market is nearly the same. So, safety and cost are what mostly considered.
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Isolated driver is safer than non-isolated driver
First, isolated and non-isolated drivers refer the risk of electric shock. The high voltage at the input of the isolated driver and the low voltage at the work area are separated, so there is no risk of electric shock; While the high voltage of the input terminal of the non-isolated voltage is directly transmitted to the working area terminal, and there is no transformer to convert to low voltage. Therefore, the risk of electric shock for the latter one is higher than the isolated one. However, it will be safe to utilize non-isolated driver under two conditions. First is to connect the earth line of classⅠlamps well with that of the power supply system. The second way is to enhance the ability to withstand voltage of aluminum substrates, usually up to 3 KV.
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Isolated driver costs more than non-isolated driver with lower efficacy
Secondly, isolated and non-isolated driver cost differently. The circuit structure used by the isolated driver is an AC/DC flyback circuit scheme, which can realize multiple outputs, more complicated and the cost is higher; however, the non-isolated type basically uses a DC/DC boost or step-down buck circuit, which is relatively simple, and thus the cost is lower.
What’s more, non-isolated driver’s efficiency is higher than isolated driver, that is the reason why the light efficacy of non-isolated is higher.
All in all, the isolated driver is safer but cost a little bit more, while non-isolated driver is less safe and competitive, higher efficiency.
By the way, now it is acceptable for the market to use non-isolated driver, as the production technology of non-isolated power supply is becoming more and more mature.
Will AGC use non-isolated driver into manufacturing?
Actually yes. We have many lamps with isolated driver, and also have non-isolated driver solutions, such as HB44 as image below. Kindly click the picture into the product link for more details.
Moreover, it is AGC’s cutting-edge merit to make customization. If a customer likes one of our products, but the customer needs an isolated driver, we can provide a customized lighting solution according to the actual situation, and in turn, we can also customize a non-isolated solution.
