Several things about waterproof led panel lights

What are the waterproof led panel lights?

The waterproof panel light is a type of LED panel light fixture that builds upon the traditional design. It enhances the outer frame by incorporating a waterproof strip and a recessed groove structure on the inside. This ingenious design serves as a protective barrier, preventing potential damage from both sides. Furthermore, all seams prone to leaks are effectively waterproofed, significantly boosting the product’s water-resistant capabilities. This not only ensures the safety of the internal circuitry but also broadens the range of environments in which the product can be used, ultimately extending the lamp’s lifespan.

The components of this fixture include a panel frame, aluminum plate, rear cover aluminum frame, and diffuser plate. The diffuser plate is seamlessly embedded within the panel frame, while the back cover aluminum frame is firmly pressed against the aluminum plate and affixed to the panel frame. Within this assembly, you’ll find a layered arrangement comprising the diffuser plate, light guide plate, and reflective paper. Positioned to align with the light guide plate are an LED light bar and a PCB board.

This comprehensive construction not only ensures the lamp’s durability but also reinforces its resistance to moisture and external factors.

What does “waterproof” mean?

You have to know the things about Ingress protection grade, IP is the abbreviation of Ingress Protection, and the IP level is the protection level against the intrusion of foreign objects by the electrical equipment shell. It is from the International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 60529. In this standard, for the protection of electrical equipment shells against foreign objects, the format of the IP level is IPXX, where XX is two Arabic numerals, the first number means dustproof; the second number means waterproof, and the larger the number means its protection The better the level, the specific protection level can refer to this blog《what is the IP rating for led lighting》.

The standard waterproof led lighting should be IP65 at least, but in markets maybe you always see the IP44 waterproof downlights, IP44 waterproof surface lights etc, many suppliers claimed IP44 waterproof, and IP54 waterproof, these items are not good in commercial lighting or projects.

Application of a waterproof flat panel light

Waterproof flat panel light is mainly used in some relatively humid places such as bathrooms and swimming pools, bathrooms, and kitchens. Because it is easy to encounter water in relatively humid places such as kitchens and bathrooms, it is very likely that those lamps that are not waterproof will cause a short circuit when they encounter water. So now many kitchens use waterproof lamps, especially this waterproof flat panel lamp, which is very popular.

Types of the waterproof led light panel

Backlit waterproof panel lights

Back-lit waterproof panel light is the latest design scheme of panel light, it is mainly composed of an iron chassis, aluminum frame, PS diffuser plate, and light source plate with lens, the latest design of waterproof shell structure is used to realize the waterproofing of the lamp, the protection level can Achieve IP65. It removes the dependence on the light guide plate, reduces the cost of the whole lamp, and avoids the problem of yellowing the ultra-thin panel lamp. All light sources are tiled on the entire chassis, and the heat dissipation performance has been utilized to the maximum. The backlit waterproof led panel light can combine a low price with high quality, and is currently the most popular panel light solution on the market.

Edge-lit slim waterproof led panel lights

The side-emitting waterproof panel light is the first generation of LED waterproof panel light. Its light source is pasted on the side of the panel light frame, and the light is refracted through the light guide plate so that the light will be more uniform. From the appearance point of view, it is ultra-thin and higher-end than the back-lit waterproof panel light, and some large-scale commercial projects will prefer this product. But its price is much more expensive than backlit panel lights.

Important parameters of waterproof led panel

IP Rating

The waterproof level is an important parameter to determine whether the waterproof lamps are qualified. In the market, many LED panel light manufacturers often take advantage of consumers’ lack of knowledge about the waterproof level to cheat. If you want LED lamps to be really waterproof, you must at least achieve IP54 and IP65. However, you will see many products claiming IP44 as waterproof lamps, which is not correct.

Following is IP Rating Table:

LED Driver

LED driver is the core component of an LED lamp, which almost determines the quality and cost of the lamp, and the waterproof panel lamp is no exception. Generally speaking, if you want to achieve the waterproof level, the best solution is to use a waterproof LED driver. Of course, considering that most waterproof panel lights are embedded in the ceiling, some solutions or suppliers often use conventional non-waterproof drivers. Both drive schemes are feasible.

Whether it is a waterproof driver or a non-waterproof power supply, try to use a high-quality solution or a well-known brand to ensure the service life of the waterproof panel light. For common well-known LED driver brands, you can refer to this article <Top 10 best LED driver brands for lighting in China> Regardless of the brand of the LED driver, you need to pay attention to the output voltage of the LED driver to judge whether the power supply is an isolated driver or a non-isolated driver. Generally, the output voltage of a non-isolated driver must be greater than 60VDC, or even 150V DC. For waterproof LED panel lights, which is not safe, so try to use isolated drivers.

LGP (light guide plate)

The back-emitting panel light does not contain any light guide plate, so the light guide plate is only for the side-emitting ultra-thin waterproof panel light. LGP is especially important when selecting ultra-thin IP65 panel lights. According to so many years of experience, many quality problems of side-emitting panel lights are caused by LGP, and the main problem is the yellowing of the panel lights. For the analysis of yellowing, you can refer to this blog”why the led light turns yellow“.

There are mainly two types of LGP used in panel lights in the market, one is PS structural plate LGP, this kind of LGP has poor heat resistance and low light transmittance, but the price is low, so many unscrupulous manufacturers will use this low-priced material to attract customers. The other is PMMA LGP, which has stable quality and is the best choice for high-quality waterproof panel lights.

CRI

Color rendering index (CRI) refers to the ability of the light source to restore the visual perception of objects under sunlight. The higher the color rendering, the closer the color rendering index value is to 100, the stronger the ability to restore the color of the object, and the easier it is for the human eye to distinguish the color of the object.
CRI is a method of measuring the color recognition of a light source compared with a standard light source (such as sunlight). CRI is a generally recognized metric and the only way to evaluate and report the color rendering of a light source.

Just try to choose the waterproof led panel lights with higher CRI when you buy them.

Color temperature

Color temperature is the most common indicator of the spectral quality of a light source. Generally expressed by Tc. The color temperature is defined by an absolute black body. When the radiation of a light source in the visible region is exactly the same as that of an absolute black body, the temperature of the black body at this time is called the color temperature of the light source. The characteristic of a low color temperature light source is that in the energy distribution, there is relatively more red radiation, which is usually called “warm light”; when the color temperature increases, the energy distribution is concentrated, and the proportion of blue radiation increases, which is usually called “cold light”. The color temperature of some commonly used light sources is: standard candlelight is 1930K (Kelvin temperature unit); tungsten lamp is 2760-2900K; fluorescent lamp is 3000K;

Generally speaking, according to the different application areas of waterproof ceiling panel lights, different color temperatures of lamps and lanterns are selected. you can know the details from this article “How to choose the color temperature of LED lights“.

How to do install the waterproof ip65 panel led light?

The installation guide of waterproof panel led lights is same as common led panel lights.

Totally 4 different installation ways-suspended installation, recessed installation, surface mounted installation, and clip installation for led ceiling panel light, you can check the step drawing or download the guide PDF file.

Common problems waterproof led panel lights

Bad waterproof performance

There are many fake suppliers treated IP44 as a waterproof level. Maybe there will be a serious affects when you use the IP44 panel lights for moisture environments or chemical plant,etc. Once damp water vapor or corrosive water stains enter the lamp body, the lamp beads may burn out, or cause the light guide plate to turn yellow.

Yellow changing

Yellowing generally occurs in side-emitting waterproof panel lights. Because the inferior light guide plate cannot withstand high temperature, the light guide plate will mutate. At this time, the central part of the panel light will turn yellow, which will cause the light color of the whole lamp to be different.

Not working

There are mainly 2 reasons for led waterproof panel lights not working.

• Led driver broken. The bad quality led driver will be easy to be burn or broken after work for more than 1-2years, these driver were only with low quality components. Just need to change it with a top brand led driver.
• Led chips burnt. If some of the chips are not working, it may be that the led chips are damaged, and in this case, the chips need to be replaced. You can carefully observe the surface of the led chip. If there are black spots, it means that it is burnt out. Some led chips are first connected in series and then in parallel, so the damage of one of the led chips will cause the entire LED light to be off.

IP65 waterproof led panel lights Price

Now we are making a list for cost of 600×600 IP65 waterproof led panel lights on the top quality level for your reference.

Type	Backlit waterproof panel light	Edgelit IP65 led panel light
Dimension	595*595*30mm (2x2ft)	595*595*9mm(2ftx2ft)
Wattage	40Watt	40Watt
Waterproof LED driver	USD3.00	USD3.00
LED module(LEDs, PCB)	USD3.00	USD3.00
PMMA LGP	USD0.00	USD6.00
Al frame+PS diffuser plate+bottom	USD7.00	USD8.00
Others ( labor cost, cable cost etc and profits)	USD4.8	USD5.8
Total	USD$17.8	USD$25.8

You can inquiry us please if you need to know quote for other size or wattages, such as 4×1 led panel light 40W, 2x1ft 24W, or 4×2 IP65 waterproof panel lights etc.