Bill422
Member
Okay, this may be a dumb question or one thats already been answered somewhere but i have no experience with wiring or electricity, so i thought i might just ask. Now, i learned in school that if you wire bulbs in series the current will be the same on all of them, but the voltage will split up. it is the other way around when you wire parallel (voltage will be equal everywhere but current will split up).
so you might think, okay the current doesn't split up when i wire them in series so it will be higher and that's a brighter bulb right?
wrong, at least according to my physics book. you see, when you wire bulbs in series their total equivalent resistence will be higher then in the parallel wiring (series: R(eq) = R1 + R2 + ...; parallel: 1/R(eq) = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + ... => R(eq in series) > R(eq in parallel) ) and so their total current through the circuit will also be lower.
your total power is:
P = I.V -> so a higher current in the parallel circuit equals a higher power and thus higher light output.
Can someone with knowledge and experience on this please explain to me why we wire LEDs in series? i am a bit confused eventhough there's proabably a very good reason for series wiring. thanks!
so you might think, okay the current doesn't split up when i wire them in series so it will be higher and that's a brighter bulb right?
wrong, at least according to my physics book. you see, when you wire bulbs in series their total equivalent resistence will be higher then in the parallel wiring (series: R(eq) = R1 + R2 + ...; parallel: 1/R(eq) = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + ... => R(eq in series) > R(eq in parallel) ) and so their total current through the circuit will also be lower.
your total power is:
P = I.V -> so a higher current in the parallel circuit equals a higher power and thus higher light output.
Can someone with knowledge and experience on this please explain to me why we wire LEDs in series? i am a bit confused eventhough there's proabably a very good reason for series wiring. thanks!
