hang ups on led lights

[Gerald Corey]

Do you need to put a C7 light on each string of leds to stop the hangup problem? Problem occurred last year on 7 channel arches. Sometimes it was only on one channel, but not always the same one!

Thanks,

Rosemary C

[Richard Hamilton]

Gerald Corey wrote:

Do you need to put a C7 light on each string of leds to stop the hangup problem? Problem occurred last year on 7 channel arches. Sometimes it was only on one channel, but not always the same one!

Thanks,

Hi Rosemary. Do a quick search for "snubber" and you will see lots of threads that explain this problem and ways to solve it.

[Dennis Cherry]

You can use a snubber resistor instead of a C9 bulb.

Look for post per previous post.

Used snubber resistors last year and worked flawlessly.

[Salts]

One thing I have been unclear on is..... If you use a snubber does it not x out the whole part of using LED's for energy savings due to you putting a load on the circuit with the snubber?

[Steven]

Salts wrote:

If you use a snubber does it not x out the whole part of using LED's for energy savings

A typical snubber resistor is 33kΩ. Ohm's law says this will use less than 1/2 watt at 100%.

[Dennis Cherry]

Salts wrote:

One thing I have been unclear on is..... If you use a snubber does it not x out the whole part of using LED's for energy savings due to you putting a load on the circuit with the snubber?

The answer is NO.

A string of LED lights is around 2.4 watts.

The snubber resistor is less than 1/2 watt added to each channel.

So 16 x .5 = 8 watts but it is much less. that equals 3 LED strings on average per controller.

[-klb-]

An individual incandescent C7 bulb would be 5 watts, so a string of 25 would be 125 watts. A single 100 count string of minis is 40 watts. So using a resistor or bulb to bring the channel up to a half watt, or even 5 watts still allows you to realize an energy savings. Different people may have different experiences, or desired results that impact how much load they feel they have to add.. I've got some 50 count LED strings that draw 4.8 watts, and they seem to work just fine with no extra load. I probably ought to compare how they dim by themselves, vs adding some pure resistive load, but I'm happy as they are...