How to choose power supply for LED Grow light?
✿ In our earlier blog, we have discussed the lifespan of LED diode which is effecting LED grow light lifetime. And we all know the power supply is also an important factor of LED grow light lifetime. Much like having a bad engine in a car, A bad LED power supply will ruin the whole system and make your investment failing before benefits. It is all grower’s nightmare when power supply stop working at the flowering stage.✿ So how to choose and judge power supply quality is the knowledge we need study.
➊ High Efficiency
Efficiency means savings which limits the loss of power and ensure led grow light will run at Maximum efficacy.
A high efficiency driver will let you get the maximum output from each wattage. For example, the 600W at 60% efficient is the same as 400W at 90% efficiency. Saving 200W leads to much smaller usage of power and lower electrical bill.
In the recently technology, the highest efficiency power supply can reach as high as 96%. As the normal standard, the power supply reaches 75% efficient is high efficiency power supply. We HYPHOTONFLUX request a much higher standard that we only select the power supply which is more than 90% efficient.
➋ High Power Factor
A high-power factor indicates effective utilization of electrical power, whereas low power factor signifies inefficient use of electrical power. The power supply is considered to be very efficient if the power factor is close to 1. If it is too low then cable over heating and power supply overloading will occur. If it is greater than 1 then load will act as capacitor and starts feeding the source and will cause tripping.
➌ High Surge and safety Protection
When working with power supply there is always a chance for large voltage spikes or power surges that could damage the power supply.
A good quality power supply should add safety protection such as short circuit, over current, over voltage and over temperature protections. On top of this they can withstand a 4kV~6kV surge which complies to IEC61000-4-5. This ensures reliability of the driver and makes sure the power supply will not fail due to power surges or over powering.
➍ High Waterproof Rating
IP65 waterproof rate is perfect at wet location which will protect the power supply from environmental influences such as wet, caustic fertilizers etc.
➎ Flicker Free
Some of cheap led grow lights in the market oftentimes display invisible flicker-rapid due to using the flicker power supply. This kind of invisible flicker will effect your plants healthy and reduce the yield.
✿ Even "invisible" flicker is sometimes noticeable. You can observe plants create a distinct flickering or vertical streaking lines when taking photos. Both are signs of a flickering power supply.
✿ A flickering power supply will exhibit rapid fluctuations in its brightness, and it is possible to characterize the magnitude of the fluctuation using a measure called percent flicker.
✿ Percent flicker is the less the better. Normally the Percent flicker of power supply is less than 5% can be called flicker-free.
✿ Above are main factors which effect the quality of power supply. Here we share the main parameters of power supply we selected for HYPHOTONFLUX series grow lights.
| Model No | Supply Supply | Efficiency | Power Factor | Surge Protection | Waterproof | Percent flicker |
| HPF3000 | MEANWELL | 92% | >0.95 | >4KV | IP65 | <2% |
| HPF4000 | MEANWELL | 91% | >0.95 | >4KV | IP65 | <2% |
| PRO-480 | FAHOLD | 92% | >0.95 | >4KV | IP65 | <2% |
| PRO-720 | SOSEN | 95% | >0.95 | >6KV | IP65 | <2% |
| SMART-670 | SOSEN | 95% | >0.95 | >6KV | IP65 | <2% |
