Well when you say series rather than parrallel then your drawing 1.2 amps but at 165 volts
which isn't that bad if you get/build a hv supply than with regular diodes and a few caps that can handle the voltage you can power them all nicely right from the mains ac(once rectified and filtered it comes out to 167ish volts), althouth I don't know how the results would be in series with those strips since there already in series/parrallel
This would help as I doubt you have 8 or 6 gauge wire in those strips to handle that 40 amps