Cheap Chinese ceiling LED lamp teardown

[nctnico]

I'm planning on changing the bathroom and my idea is to put square LED lamps in the ceiling so I hunted down an interesting candidate from Aliexpress and ordered one:


The lamp itself has LEDs pointed inwards into a relfector/diffuser:

A closeup of the LEDs:


At 200mA the forward voltage is around 75V.

This all looks OK so far. Now for the real kicker: the driver. Ofcourse it is complete crap. There is a CE mark on the housing but no safety approvals. Looking at the PCB it is quite clear why: no fuse, no surge protection and no filtering.



I have to give some credit though: there is an overlap between the AC part and the low voltage part to create some capacitance between the primary and secondary part. Obviously I'm not going to use these drivers. I'll probably cook something up myself maybe with some slow turn on feature... maybe a PIR so the light goes on and off automatically. I estimate I'll need 6 to 9 lamps to have a decent amount of light.

[Kjelt]

At 200mA the forward voltage is around 75V.

So you bought the 15W version.
That should in Lumens be equivalent to a 150W lightbulb probably with modern leds 200W lightbulb.

I estimate I'll need 6 to 9 lamps to have a decent amount of light.

That would be very weird, I have one A quality 25W ledlamp in my bathroom and my wife complains that it is too much light.
Unless you have an enormous bathroom, or grow some plants in there  , I smell something very fishy with these fixtures.

This all looks OK so far. Now for the real kicker: the driver. Ofcourse it is complete crap.

That was part of the smell.

[amyk]

Those drivers don't really need to be isolated because this is an enclosed fixture; and I wouldn't consider 75V "low voltage"...

[elecman14]

It appears you have minor dewetting on one of those resistors. A sign of good quality 

[nctnico]

At 200mA the forward voltage is around 75V.

So you bought the 15W version.
That should in Lumens be equivalent to a 150W lightbulb probably with modern leds 200W lightbulb.

I estimate I'll need 6 to 9 lamps to have a decent amount of light.

That would be very weird, I have one A quality 25W ledlamp in my bathroom and my wife complains that it is too much light.
Unless you have an enormous bathroom, or grow some plants in there  , I smell something very fishy with these fixtures.

I did get the 24W version but I didn't run it at full power (using a lab power supply). I just wanted to get a ball park figure on the forward voltage. The beam isn't very wide so I probably need several to get an even light distibution.

[mmagin]

Gotta love how those electrolytics are flapping in the breeze.

[TJ232]

Gotta love how those electrolytics are flapping in the breeze.

Improved cooling system. They act as a 125C ones. It's a feature, not a bug!

[Kjelt]

The beam isn't very wide so I probably need several to get an even light distibution.

Or buy one decent one 
Looking at this thing I guess the price is probably the only thing going for it.

[nctnico]

The beam isn't very wide so I probably need several to get an even light distibution.

Or buy one decent one 

From where? I'd probably get a crappier lamp with a safety rated driver for 3 times the price if I go to a local shop.

This looks awfully familiar:
https://www.ledsrefresh.nl/nl/led-downlight-vierkant/platte-led-downlighter-vierkant-25w

[Kjelt]

The problem I see is that most of these 60x60cm standard tile led luminaires are NOT suited for bathroom environments, they are mostly IP20, are these chinese versions approved for in the bathroom, I highly doubt that.

Some examples for IP20 luminaires suited for office use:
https://www.rexel.nl/nln/Rexel/Verlichting/Armaturen/Plafond--wandarmatuur/Plafond--wandarmatuur/Philips-Armaturen-RC125B-LED-MODULE%2C-LICHTSTROOM-SYSTEEM-3400-LM-VOEDINGSUNIT/p/2850070344?prevPageNumber=3
https://www.rexel.nl/nln/merken/LEDVANCE/Ledvance-PANEL-LED-600-30W-3000K-230V/p/2850105761

There are better and more expensive versions that are mains switch or DALI dimmable.
The ones above are pretty affordable and decent quality, built to last 20+ years in an office environment.

[Ice-Tea]

Am I missing something? 75V? That's well above SELV, no? Don't think you can use that in the bathroom?

[nctnico]

Am I missing something? 75V? That's well above SELV, no? Don't think you can use that in the bathroom?

That depends on the local rules on mounting location and height but it is definitely something to consider.

[Iwanushka]

It's not hermetic I wouldn't poke it with a stick, at least IP54 if it's very far away from the shower else IP67.