household electric socket, 110v...anyone ever

i was thinking if some time in future i had dozens of old emitters from doing upgrades, say i had like 30 lux1 and wired them in series connected to a standard plug and plugged it into the wall , has it been done ,figure 110v in the outlet need like 30+ emitters :candle: that will sure light up a room or maybe use it as some display lighting of some sort

I dont consider myself to have enought electrical know-how to safely play around with wall sockets. Besides american sockets are on 60hz AC and I dont know if directly driving LEDs on that is a good idea. What did you mount them on?

The way to do it IMO would be to rectify the output first with 4 diodes -- that would then give you pulsating DC as opposed to AC (which would give you visible flickering). Adding a filter capacitor to make it a true bridge rectifier would give you 110DC -- it's possible to buy single-component bridge rectifiers, and it would effectively double the duty cycle of the LEDs.

However, the problem with running LEDs directly on the line is that a big surge due to an air conditioning motor shutting off or something like that can create enough of a voltage spike to cook the LEDs -- I'd suggest putting a capacitor in series on the AC portion of the circuit (capacitors in series limit AC current).

2xTrinity said:

The way to do it IMO would be to rectify the output first with 4 diodes -- that would then give you pulsating DC as opposed to AC (which would give you visible flickering). Adding a filter capacitor to make it a true bridge rectifier would give you 110DC -- it's possible to buy single-component bridge rectifiers, and it would effectively double the duty cycle of the LEDs.
.

Click to expand...

apprx. 150v dc, not 110vdc.

mzzj said:

apprx. 150v dc, not 110vdc.

Click to expand...

Since it's pulsating that would be the peak voltage, although RMS will still be 110, you raise a good point -- it's the peak voltage at the top of each sine wave that could cook the LEDs. If you use the filter capacitor then it should produce a flatter output closer to 110 DC though, I wouldn't trust that though.

A good way to run single LEDs off the line is using cell-phone chargers. One that I have is really lightweight (solid-state rather than a standard transformer) and produces a nice regulated 400mA current for a single LED. You can pick these up at the dollar store, splice the wires, and have a nice LED driver that way.

It would be much safer to use a step down transformer say 48 volts or similar,
you would need to make sure that the emitter slugs are isolated when mounting.
A bridge rectifier, large value capacitor ans a dropping resistor would be needed as to
dump any excess voltage across is case of spikes.

2xTrinity said:

Since it's pulsating that would be the peak voltage, although RMS will still be 110, you raise a good point -- it's the peak voltage at the top of each sine wave that could cook the LEDs.[B) If you use the filter capacitor then it should produce a flatter output closer to 110 DC though, I wouldn't trust that though.[/b]
.

Click to expand...

Filtering caps charge to peak ac voltage resulting filtered dc voltage ~150v dc (except if you use some sort of current limiting before rectifier bridge, ie capacitor in series would be handy here)

With few exceptions battery powered flashlights do not start fires so you can mod to your hearts content and nobody bothers you.
Household circuits have enough juice to start an electrical fire, so any equipment connected to them has to be approved by the powers that be (different for different jurisdictions).

In Canada it is the law that all mains connected equipment has CSA approval or the equivalent.
In the USA AFAIK it is not a legal requirement but posted in another thread:

walkabout said:

Pardon me, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but I'm having a skeptical moment.

Do any of the screw-in-directly LED bulbs have a valid UL listing?

Insurers can get very grumpy (and downright non-cooperative) if you connect non-listed gear to household circuitry. Especially if it causes a fire.

Click to expand...

Some more info on What is UL listing?
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/electrical-wiring/part1/section-7.html

So far only mzzj has the technical expertise to realise 115 VAC is a RMS value and the peakdc value is much higher. Unless you really know what you are doing I suggest not risking setting your house on fire.

2xTrinity said:

A good way to run single LEDs off the line is using cell-phone chargers. One that I have is really lightweight (solid-state rather than a standard transformer) and produces a nice regulated 400mA current for a single LED. You can pick these up at the dollar store, splice the wires, and have a nice LED driver that way.

Click to expand...

How is that going? Any pictures!
I think this is great idea :rock:

qip said:

i was thinking if some time in future i had dozens of old emitters from doing upgrades, say i had like 30 lux1 and wired them in series connected to a standard plug and plugged it into the wall , has it been done ,figure 110v in the outlet need like 30+ emitters :candle: that will sure light up a room or maybe use it as some display lighting of some sort

Click to expand...

Without current limiting and rectification, 30 Luxeons hooked up to a 115V outlet will get you 30 dead Luxeons and an electrical fire. Not a good thing.

hmmmm not a good plan then eh....my christmas tree running a mr16 at 12v uses a transformer so i would assume a larger version might work

PhantomPhoton said:

What did you mount them on?

Click to expand...

i was thinking a strip of flexible material or maybe a panel to create a real wall of blinding light

A transformer will only reduce the risk of a fire. You'll still get 30 fried Luxeons unless you use rectification and some form of current control.

Get your wife (widow) to post pictures of your burnt down house !!

abvidledUK said:

Get your wife (widow) to post pictures of your burnt down house !!

Click to expand...

when i plug that in i will stand there with a flashlight incase lights go out and a fire extinguisher just incase i will be preprared unless i plug it in and it electrocutes me unconscious then the house and all in it go up

plug it into and extension cord and plug that into a circuit breaking surge protection grounding strip, that what I did when I ran 120vAC through what I think was a dead bulb :shrug:

You've got 15 amps at most standard household outlets and 20 amps in kitchen, bathrooms etc. That's a dangerous amount of current at 120 VAC. As most have said here you'll just likely fry everything. If you want a cheap regulated power supply that could handle quite a few LED's in series and parallel try a power supply out of a computer or buy one cheap on ebay. You'll have several 12 volt and 5 volt highly regulated DC outputs at a very affordable price. And most are at least 200 watt total available so you should be able to run lots of LED's.