LED Wattage in Programming

[brianc]

I am programming a job right now where most of the loads are LED (as I'm sure is the case for most new construction projects). Other than auto-selecting a dimmer or generating an error message in the RadioRa 2 software, I don't think programming the Wattage of the LED load actually impacts the dimmer performance. There are two theories I have on what I should use for the LED load:

1. The actual load. So for 2 15W led loads, I would just enter in the face value. The problem with this is that I won't be allowed to select the RRD-6CL, and for smaller circuits would have to enter a dummy value over 50W. (I believe that the 6CL can support loads as low as 10W for LED circuits, but must have 50W minimum load for INC Loads). Unfortunately, Lutron doesn't have an option to specify load type like when programming a WPM, its just "LED/CFL/INC." It would be nice to just put the actual wattage to have correct documentation of the system, and perhaps a field to specify the maximum fixture count as on the Dimmer Compatibility Report Card.

2. My second theory of what I can do is to calculate the theoretical wattage of the LED Load. To do this I would just look at the maximum number of fixtures supported on a dimmer compatibility report card, so say 10 fixtures on a 600W dimmer. I would the divide the wattage of the dimmer by the number of fixtures supported to arrive at the theoretical wattage. (In this case, 600W dimmer/10 fixtures=60W per fixture). The fixtures would not actually be 60 Watts (in this case they are only 15W), but this is the input I would use in the software, and the advantage I see is that the software would warn you when overloading a dimmer.

I don't totally understand the electrical engineering but from what I understand is that the reason that wattage of the total number of LED fixtures supported is primarily because of the high current inrush of the LED drivers when the circuit is first turned on.

In any case, I'm just wanting to make sure that the way I'm programming systems is consistent, and conforms to "best practices" Thanks!

[aschaef]

I had the same question while going through programming my first job. Anyone heard anything back on this? I'm running version 10.6 and still see the same issue.

[SDR-Mike]

You can pick either of the ways above, or ignore the wattage completely. I would generally use the estimated wattage, and in theory, it works. There are some occasions where specific LEDs will cause issues. Those are mostly trial and error.

I personally do not enter the wattages. I have that calculated in my head before specifying the dimmer, but have a lot of time in the electrical distribution to draw experience from.

[Lukeetal]

I also totally omit the wattage field. It makes a difference why you design the system but not in the programming. 90% of the time we are using rrd-6NA-WH. The other 10% is rrd-8ans-wh. It’s very rare we need different model numbers so I have found it not only wastes time filling in the wattage but sometimes it will switch the dimmer on you. If all the homework was done in spec’ing the job entering wattages only slows you down.

[Gmgarland46]

I also totally omit the wattage field. It makes a difference why you design the system but not in the programming. 90% of the time we are using rrd-6NA-WH. The other 10% is rrd-8ans-wh. It’s very rare we need different model numbers so I have found it not only wastes time filling in the wattage but sometimes it will switch the dimmer on you. If all the homework was done in spec’ing the job entering wattages only slows you down.

So has it been officially confirmed by an engineer/specialist that it in fact does not matter if the wattage entered in the software is different from real world? Luke I'm just like you where I lay out my jobs with a heavy majority of devices being 6NA's, followed by 8ANS's and some keypads (ever since the phone/tablet app became better and more popular, the demand for physical, hard wired keypads has slowly but consistently been decreasing but that's a whole other topic). So if this has been confirmed I would love to know because I too would just enter the same qualifying wattage for each device to speed up programming. I just always assumed they made a difference in performance.

[SDR-Mike]

So has it been officially confirmed by an engineer/specialist that it in fact does not matter if the wattage entered in the software is different from real world? Luke I'm just like you where I lay out my jobs with a heavy majority of devices being 6NA's, followed by 8ANS's and some keypads (ever since the phone/tablet app became better and more popular, the demand for physical, hard wired keypads has slowly but consistently been decreasing but that's a whole other topic). So if this has been confirmed I would love to know because I too would just enter the same qualifying wattage for each device to speed up programming. I just always assumed they made a difference in performance.

No change in performance, but if you are on the bubble, you might see the device change and give you a bit of trouble during the activation phase.

The device does not have a way to detect the actual wattage being controlled. It has internal devices to watch for over-wattage/amperage/voltage, but that's it. I have that from an engineer that worked on the dimmers themselves, and I used to be the rep for RadioRA2 specifically in the SoCal territory.