Using 12V LED lights on a 24V circuit

[rmaddy]

Just a sanity check. For my upcoming cargo trailer conversion (picking up the trailer Saturday) I will have a 24V battery bank. I'm planning to have some fairly standard 12V puck lights in the ceiling. Let's say I wanted 6 of the 12V puck lights on a single switch. Is it correct to wire them as 2S3P (giving me three 24V pairs)?

Something like this:

 __ __ ____   -
O  O  O
|  |  |
O__O__O____   +

I know that when batteries are wired as 2SxP it is better to pull the positive and negative from opposite ends of the chain. Is that also a good idea in this case with the LED lights? I may be over thinking this but would the farther lights be slightly dimmer if wired like in my diagram above?

 

[nosys70]

you can serial led (2x 12v=24V, but you can probably not serial pucks.
24V led is not so difficult to find.

 

[rmaddy]

you can serial led (2x 12v=24V, but you can probably not serial pucks.

Can you clarify why a pair of 12V LED puck lights probably can't be wired in serial?

 

[nosys70]

because usually you cannot put 2 resistors in serial if these resistors are not resistors (like a device or a bulb).
you will always have one device that will be unbalanced with the other, so probably working out of spec.

 

[Craig]

I do not know the answer but I will try an experiment and report back

 

[Craig]

Yup I just did it plugged 2 12V Led Lights in series to my 24 Volt system and They worked just fine both appear to be giving equal light.

 

[JoeHam]

Yup I just did it plugged 2 12V Led Lights in series to my 24 Volt system and They worked just fine both appear to be giving equal light.

What? No smoke??

 

[nosys70]

probably not, because a puck is usually very large in the input range voltage (because a puck work by limiting current , not volt) , so even if the balance is wrong, it can probably compensate.
it does not mean because it works that it is good.
if the puck has a voltage range (for example 10-36V) you do not even need to put them in serial, just in parallel.

 

[Craig]

probably not, because a puck is usually very large in the input range voltage (because a puck work by limiting current , not volt) , so even if the balance is wrong, it can probably compensate.
it does not mean because it works that it is good.
if the puck has a voltage range (for example 10-36V) you do not even need to put them in serial, just in parallel.

The light clearly states 12v DC of course that does not mean it does not have a range. And it is possible we are talking about different lights.

But I have had them running all afternoon

 

[rmaddy]

Thanks for the comments and thank you very much Craig for the experiment. That's encouraging. The lights I was planning to buy are https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TC7QCBX which claim an operating voltage of 12-18VDC. I also plan to put these on a dimmer which these lights support.

 

[nosys70]

the same type of puck exists in 24V also, but if you are happy with serial , no problem.

 

[rmaddy]

the same type of puck exists in 24V also, but if you are happy with serial , no problem.

If you have a link to one I'd like to see it. I did a bunch of searching and couldn't find a similar puck supporting 24V. I found plenty that support 24V but none that were dimmable, waterproof, and with similar color temp and lumens.

 

[Craig]

If you have a link to one I'd like to see it. I did a bunch of searching and couldn't find a similar puck supporting 24V. I found plenty that support 24V but none that were dimmable, waterproof, and with similar color temp and lumens.

It will go ok to dim the whole bunch at once. However dimming only one may cause Issues if you have them in series. I really have no problem using what you have. Why pay more if it already works. I am actually gonna run 3 12v lights in series with 24 volts to create a dimmer as mine are too bright with full 12v each

 

[rmaddy]

I plan to have a single dimmer controlling the whole 2S3P group.