I work in a bar and we want to install UV lighting with UV LED strips. Currently, we have a simple circuit that consists of a 12V transformer and wires which go all around the bar, with regular white LED strips placed at key locations.
Now, buying another transformer and running another circuit would cost some money and also would be a lot of work, so I was wondering if we could reuse the circuit already in place, since the regular lighting and the UV lighting should never be used together at the same time.
The idea is to add next to each of the existing LED strips a new UV strip, then wire it in parallel with the existing wiring, but in reverse. Then, add a switch next to the transformer that reverses the polarity of the wires coming out of it.
This way, only one set of strips would be active at a time, and they can be easily switched, and the installation would be quite easy and cheap.
Would this work?
Also, if both sets of LED strips are about 60W each, and the transformer is 72W, it would not be overloaded, since the current that flows through the inactive LEDs is next to none, is that correct?
Best Answer
better option is to work with 2 positive rails and shared negative, using a switch to choose which positive rail to turn on.
negative from leds goes directly to power supply, positive goes to switch.
connect the power supply in the middle terminal, one positive going to each led rail on side terminals.
but you can do what you are thinking and reverse the voltage, just use a two or three position switch with double terminal and connect like the image (the motor there will be the leds).
about the supply, it's correct what you said, leds consumes no current in reverse.