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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 drivers and non-isolated drivers.
So what are the differences between 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 drivers, will AGC use an 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, the secondary coil only bears the output low AC voltage, and the primary and secondary coils are not directly connected, it is called an isolated driver.
What is a non-isolated driver?
Non-isolated driver refers to an 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 drivers and non-isolated drivers in the market is nearly the same. So, safety and cost are what are mostly considered.
Isolated driver is safer than non-isolated driver
First, isolated and non-isolated drivers refer to 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 a non-isolated driver under two conditions. The 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 the voltage of aluminum substrates, usually up to 3 KV.
Isolated driver costs more than non-isolated driver with lower efficacy
Secondly, isolated and non-isolated drivers 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, the non-isolated driver’s efficiency is higher than the isolated driver, which is the reason why the light efficacy of the non-isolated is higher.
All in all, the isolated driver is safer but costs a little bit more, while the non-isolated driver is less safe and competitive, with higher efficiency.
By the way, now it is acceptable for the market to use non-isolated drivers, as the production technology of non-isolated power supply is becoming more and more mature.
Will AGC use non-isolated drivers in manufacturing?
Actually yes. We have many lamps with isolated drivers and also have non-isolated driver solutions, such as HB44 as image below. Kindly click the picture in 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 needs an isolated driver, we can provide a customized lighting solution according to the actual situation.
