Pushing meanwell drivers past their rated wattage

7CardBud said:

I looked at the data sheet and it does say you might be able to run it at 120% voltage before safe mode kicks in
I think this is pretty much a troll thread anywho.....for like $10 more you can buy a 180W driver and run it at 140W.
What's the point of pushing a 120W? I personally don't like sniffing fishy exploded capacitors...but to each their own.

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I purchased a new Veg light. What arrived didn't match the images/description, I reached out to the manufacturer and I was told it was OK to run it at a higher wattage. That didn't seem correct to me, but I know nothing about LED drivers. So here we are.

Either way they are sending another light as a replacement to remedy the issue.

its normally no problem practically to overdrive them an bit
its just not the best thing to do if youre on 115V,in a hot climate and want a long lifespan.
if your driver gets too warm to your feeling and have a dimmer, just dim a bit and you will be fine too.
if the price was right, simply use your light and be happy.

cobshopgrow said:

its normally no problem practically to overdrive them an bit
its just not the best thing to do if youre on 115V,in a hot climate and want a long lifespan.
if your driver gets too warm to your feeling and have a dimmer, just dim a bit and you will be fine too.
if the price was right, simply use your light and be happy.

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It was a fairly substantial difference imo. It should have had a 200 watt driver, per the pictures on the site, turned down to 150 watts. Not a 120 watt driver over driven.once I get home I'll see just how far it is over driven, the kill a watt showed up today.

excessive numbers.

It is pulling 155.6 watts from the wall. This is the driver.

New Veg light and quantum board arrived. This one came with a 200 watt driver and it is currently turned down to 138 watts and looking great.

Yeah, since I’m OCD about things, I also would not have ran that at 150+ with a driver rated at 120.

Much rather have a 200 dimmed down, like the one you just got. Good on them, and good for you for taking care of it.

1dude1seed said:

Yeah, since I’m OCD about things, I also would not have ran that at 150+ with a driver rated at 120.

Much rather have a 200 dimmed down, like the one you just got. Good on them, and good for you for taking care of it.

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Phenomenal customer service from HLG. This thread wasn't meant to rag on them, I was genuinely curious because I didn't know. Their website image for the Patriot 150 showed a 200 watt driver, which was why I purchased that model. When I reached out to their support they immediately offered to make it right despite the photo being incorrect. I was sent a 648+ Quantum Board, 200 watt driver and heat sink. In the end this will work better because the 648+ has more blue than the original setup and it's for a 3x3 Veg tent.

Yeah that would annoy tf out of me I'd have changed it to, nice one!

? These posts don't make sense. Whatever they are able to output is what they are capable of... However they rate that is dependent on whatever rating standard they use. Whatever your diode array can handle, you need to match it. If your lights are wired for 240v give them 240v.

Meanwells are more efficient at 277 than 120. Did you mean volts? Don't go over 277volts.

GrodanLightfoot said:

? These posts don't make sense. Whatever they are able to output is what they are capable of... However they rate that is dependent on whatever rating standard they use. Whatever your diode array can handle, you need to match it.

Meanwells are more efficient at 277 than 120. Did you mean volts? Don't go over 277volts.

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Nope definitely meant wattage.....

Oh I get it, you're the completely insane poster, no wonder you didn't understand.

Just curious..

What's the highest any of you guys ever pushed any of those meanwell drivers? Have you ever smoked one trying to find the limits?

What could one expect, if they were to maybe add and or upgrade to bigger heat syncs on some of the components, and completely submerge the driver in a tank of mineral oil? Also have a radiator cooling the tank. How much higher could you over drive it with direct oil cooling?

Slightly off topic but interesting ......

Moflow said:

Investigation of The Lifetime & Reliability of Power Supply -MEAN WELL Switching Power Supply Manufacturer

MEAN WELL is one of the world's few standard power supply mainly professional manufacturers, covering 0.5 to 25,600W products are widely used in industrial control, medical and other fields, in line with international safety certification, short delivery of spot inventory.

www.meanwell.com

Slightly off topic but interesting ......

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Thanks for that

I measured my hlg-600h-42a once, 700W on the DC side and 730W on the AC side. Good times