The Ultimate Guide to Street Lights with 0-10V Dimming
Sally Liu
Introduction
Streetlights are an essential part of modern society, providing lighting for roads, sidewalks and other public places. However, traditional streetlights consume a lot of energy, resulting in high electricity bills and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, advances in lighting technology have led to the development of more energy-efficient options, such as streetlights with 0-10V dimming control and dimming LED drivers. Currently, many LED streetlights use 0-10V dimming power supplies, but this function is rarely used. In this article, we introduce the application characteristics of 0-10V combined with microwaves, intelligent control systems and photocell, as well as some application cases of our company.
Benefits of 0-10V Dimming Controls
There are many benefits to using street lights with 0-10V dimming control, and we will focus on two points:
1. Street lights with 0-10V LED drivers can adjust light output actively or passively as needed when used with photocell, microwave and smart control. Generally, lamps are dimmed during low traffic hours or when there is not enough natural light, which reduces energy consumption and costs. In fact, studies have shown that implementing 0-10V dimming control on LED street lights can reduce energy consumption by an additional 30%.
2. Street lights with 0-10V LED drivers usually do not have to work at full power all night when used with photocell, microwave and smart control. In this case, the heat accumulation of the lamp is not as serious as that of ordinary street lights, which is very helpful for extending the life of the lamp. Because research has proven this point of view, the mainstream understanding is that both LED lamp chips and LED drivers have lower light decay/failure rates at relatively low temperatures than at high temperatures. In addition, the extended lamp life can also reduce maintenance/replacement costs.
How to use 0-10V dimming in street lights?
0-10V dimming power supply has many applications in LED street lights. It is generally used with microwaves, light control and controllers to achieve dimming of lamps. Let’s introduce them one by one.
1. Use 0-10V dimming LED driver with microwaves
When using microwave sensing, it detects movement and sends a signal to the power supply, which is usually a 10V voltage signal. At this time, the lamp is 100% bright. When it cannot detect movement (no people or objects under the lamp), it will send a 5V or lower voltage signal to the LED driver. At this time, the lamp outputs 50% light to save energy. This method is particularly useful when there are obvious time periods for activities in the application venue, such as parking lots or outdoor warehouses.
2. Use 0-10V dimming LED driver with Zigbee control system
The basic principle of Zigbee intelligent control system is that users operate through the server, transmit instructions to the single lamp controller via the centralized controller, and then the single lamp controller converts the instructions into 0-10V dimming signals to the power supply to finally achieve dimming of the lamp. During this process, the LED driver receives the 1-10V dimming signal and makes the action of brightening or dimming the lamp. In this case, the single lamp controller will be connected to the 0-10V dimming LED driver through the NEMA socket installed on the lamp housing. This is why many projects use 0-10V power supply and require 5-pin or 7-pin NEMA base to be installed on the top of street lamps. This method is most commonly used in road lighting, and of course it is also used in indoor lighting.
3. Use 0-10V dimming LED driver and photocell together
In indoor lighting, 0-10V dimmers are generally used to dim lamps (with 0-10V dimming power supply), but this method is not suitable for street lamps, because we need very long wires to achieve this function, and this method is obviously not feasible in outdoor lighting. However, dimming photocell can replace 0-10V dimmers in such applications to dim street lamps. The basic principle is to detect the intensity of ambient light through a light sensor (photocell), which will give different voltage signals to the 0-10V power supply according to the intensity of the light to adjust the brightness of the lamp. When the ambient light is sufficient, the brightness of the lamp is reduced or turned off; when the ambient light is insufficient, the brightness of the light is increased to ensure that the lighting can meet the corresponding needs.
Famous Manufacturers of 0-10V Dimmable LED drivers
There are many LED driver manufacturers, including Philips, Mean Well, Inventronics, Tridonic, Sosen, etc. These are all trustworthy brands that have been deeply involved in the LED driver industry for many years or even decades.
Philips: As a well-known lighting solution provider, Philips provides a variety of 0-10V dimming power supply options for different types of lighting applications. For example, Philips Xitanium LP series and Prog series LED driver. Of course, as the industry leader, Philips also produces Dali or D4i LED drivers, the former such as FP series and the latter such as SR series.
Mean Well: Mean Well is a company focusing on power supply solutions. They provide a variety of reliable 1-10V dimming power supply products for outdoor or indoor applications. In outdoor lighting applications, the more common ones are Meanwell’s HLG AB and XLG AB series power supplies.
Inventronics: Inventronics is a Chinese manufacturer focusing on LED drivers, headquartered in Hangzhou. ZGSM, as a manufacturer of LED lamps, is also in Hangzhou, so it has a deep cooperation with Inventronics. They provide a variety of 0-10V dimming power products with high power efficiency and reliability. For example, Inventronics’ EUM DG, EUM MG, EBS DT2 series power supply, in addition, they also have Dali power supply for manufacturers to choose, such as EUM Ex, EUM BG, EBS BT2 LED driver, etc. Many ZGSM outdoor lamps are equipped with these LED drivers. For example, equipped with conventional EUM DG power supply, our lamps support 1-10V dimming. Using EUM BG power supply and equipped with Zhaga makes our lamps support Dali dimming and smart ready.
Case studies of ZGSM 0-10V dimming street lights
Many of ZGSM’s projects use the 0-10V dimming function of street lamps. Below we use two project cases to illustrate, one of which uses microwaves and the other uses intelligent control.
Project 1: This LED street lighting project is located on a mountain road in Norway. The customer chose ZGSM’s K series street lamps equipped with microwave sensors. The main consideration is that the traffic flow of this street lamp is not so high late at night, and the power needs to be reduced to save energy. When residents are under the lamp, the lamp can provide 100% lighting, and when no one passes under the lamp, it can only output 20% to save energy and reduce unnecessary lighting.
Project 2: This LED street lighting project is part of a city road in Vietnam and was completed in 2019. The project also uses ZGSM’s K series street lamps. The entire road is equipped with 55 LED street lamps (Inventronics 1-10V dimmable drivers), and the lamps are equipped with Type IIIM light distribution to evenly illuminate each lane of the road. Equipped with ZIGBEE intelligent control system, the project party can control these lamps through computers or smart phones. When it is not necessary, they will reduce the output of the lamps to save energy. In addition, users can also monitor the latest working status of each lamp through the system. If a fault occurs, they can find it and replace it in the first time.
Conclusion
In summary, street lights with 0-10V dimming control and dimming LED drivers offer many benefits, including energy saving, improved lighting quality and reduced maintenance costs. However, in order to fully realize these benefits, it is necessary to use devices compatible with 0-10V dimming (such as microwaves, light controls, smart controllers, etc.), and of course, choosing a reasonable LED driver supplier is also important. In this article, we also list several major brands of dimming LED driver manufacturers. As lighting technology continues to advance, we can expect to see more energy-saving and more effective public space lighting solutions in the future.
FAQ
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Author
Sally Liu
Sales Engineer
Possessing more than 10 years of experience in LED outdoor lighting solutions. Here you can get professional knowledge regarding LED lighting specification, lighting design, lighting certification and smart lighting control.
