would i be able to use this bad boy for led's?

[hellssephiroth]

I've had this thing tucked away forever and after noticing a lot of people's diy led builds ive been seeing they are using 24v psu's. Its from an old peltier cooling build i had on one of my old computers and it just popped in my head that it was 24v, but a higher amp. would this just mean that if i decided to go ahead and try this i could use this for a lot of led's? i ask because it would be over a 120 if i decide to do it. But heres the pics.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Am I reading correctly that it's 20 amps at 24v? If so it's one beast of a supply.

It would work fine for powering LED drivers that need DC supply (i.e. buckpucks). The fact that it's got more current capacity than you'll likely need isn't a bad thing, it'll only deliver what the circuit demands (the 20A rating is a max.)

I'm guessing it's a switching supply (as opposed to linear) since a linear supply with that current capability would be HUGE.

 

[hellssephiroth]

ya its switching, ya it is a beast lol i've been itching to put it to good use for a long time Do you think i could power enough led's with it to take care of my 120?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

20A minus a 20-30% cushion leaves you with ~17A. If you run 700mA buckpucks (which probably pull 750mA or so) you can power 22 of them. 22 buckpucks at 24v is 132 LEDs.

If you use the right LEDs, 132 is probably overkill for a 120g tank.

Keep in mind though that the power supply is pretty much the cheapest part of the build. Most people designing this system from scratch would go to mpja.com or a similar vendor and get three or four of their 6.2 or 8.3A supplies, which are around $15 - $20 each. So this behemoth is saving you $60 plus or minus (ironically it would probably cost more than that to buy).

The one disadvantage is that you can't use a regular plug-in timer to turn "chunks" of your array on and off at different times if you're using a single power supply. You'd have to use something (relays driven by timers or a microcontroller) that could switch between the DC supply and your buckpucks, or use the dimming circuit on the buckpucks to turn each string on and off.

 

[hellssephiroth]

nice lol ya i dont think i could even afford to use that many led's ne ways if i do decide to try lol. But if i did it would be one bright tank lol