What is the difference between isolated and unisolated LED driver?
What is the difference between isolated led driver and non-isolated led driver?
How can we distinguish them fastly?
Bottom side circuit
You can distinguish isolated and non-isolated by seeing the bottom side circuit at a glance! For isolated led drivers,there is no circuit below transformers on the bottom side, because the input side and output side is isolated. You can check following pictures.
Dimensions
Generally speaking,when the power is same, isolated led driver always have bigger size and more components, because isolated led driver circuit is more complicated than non-isolated models.
Output Current
Non-isolated led drivers always with low output current(<300mA）.While isolated led drivers always with higher >300mA, they can be 600mA,2000mA or even higher.
Certificates
Generally speaking,isolated design is easier to pass LVD than non-isolated design. Some of non-isolated can pass EMC,but if they want to apply CE or UL,they must be tested and applied certificates in assembled complete light.
Output voltage range
Non-isolated led drivers always with wider output voltage,for example: A 20W T8 driver output voltage can be 27-80V,but isolated can only be 54-80V or narrower.
Price
Same power,isolated models always with higher price.
