LED Screen Power Consumption Explained

One of the most asked questions is how to calculate the maximal power consumption of a LED screen. Well first of all, you should know the input current and the voltage of the LEDs on the LED screen. Theoretically, in a labratory environment the greatest input Current of the LEDs on a LED screen is 20mA, and the voltage for the LEDs for the LED screens is 5V. But in reality, the current of the LEDs of a LED screen can't reach 20mA. So the power consumption of a LED Is 20 m x 5V = 0.1W. So it is very simple how to calculate the power consumption of one LED on a LED display.

Pixel Configuration of LED Displays

And secondly, what you should know is the pixel configuration of the LED display and the resolution per square meter of the LED display. When you get this data you will know how many LEDs are available on the LED display. For example, let's take a LED display with a pixel pitch of P16mm, the pixel configuration is 2R1G1B, which means that each pixel consists of 2 red LED's, 1 green LED and 1 blue LED. So this means that every pixel has 4 LED's. And the resolution per square meter Of pitch 16mm LED display is 3906 pixels, which means there are totally 3906 pixels in one square meter. According to the previous data the calculation will be as folows: 4 x 3906 = 15,624 total LED's per square meter for this LED display.

Maximal Power Consumption for LED displays

There are two types of driving methods for LED displays, which is the constant static driving method and the scan driving method. First let's explain how to calculate the maximal power consumption and average power consumption of a pitch 16mm LED display using constant static current driving.

Constant Static Current Driving Method

The maximal power consumption of a pitch 16mm LED display is 15624 x 0.1W = 1.56Kw pero square meter. The average power consumption of a pitch 16mm LED display is 1.56Kw / 2 = 780W. This calculation way is for static constant current driving LED Displays.

Scan Driving Method

For scan driving LED displays, you must notice that it has a 1/4 driving, 1/8 driving or 1/2 driving. Taking a pitch 6mm indoor LED display as an example, the usual driving method is 1/8, so if You calculate according to above way, the maximal power consumption of a pitch 6mm indoor LED display will be extremely high and gives us more than 8Kw per square meter. But in reality it is not correct, the reason is that you need to make the total Calculation result divided by 8 because the driving method is 1 over 8 (1/8), and like that you get a maximal power consumption of 1.1Kw per square meter.