Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights

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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are becoming
increasingly popular for home lighting. Compared
to regular incandescent and halogen lights, LEDs
have a slew of benefits including that they use
very little electricity, have a very long
lifespan, don't produce much heat, and can easily
be controlled and programmed. As LEDs are also
very durable and resistant to shock, they can
also be used in a variety of ways - including as
strip lights. Buying LED strip lights may seem
straight forward, but there are actually many
different factors that buyers need to take into
consideration to ensure they get the right lights
for their needs.
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
Types of LED Light Strips 'LED light strip' is a
generic term used to describe the many different
types of LED lights that come in strips.
Depending on how you plan on using the LEDs, you
may actually need one type of LED light strip
over another. For example, coated LED strip
lights are better suited for areas like bathrooms
because they are generally waterproof. For areas
like walkways though, you may want to opt for
aluminum panel LED light strips. Encased
flexible LED light strips (also called LED
rope) Non-encased flexible LED light strips (also
called LED ribbons) Self-adhesive LED light
strips Aluminum LED light strips Rigid LED light
strips (also called LED light bars)
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
LEDs in the Length of Strip When buying LED strip
lights, a lot of people make the mistake of only
looking at the length of the strip. While this is
obviously important, they also need to look at
the amount of LEDs in the length. Ideally, you
should look for the strip lights that have the
highest amount of LEDs per foot (or meter, yard,
etc). If the LED lights are spaced too far apart,
the strip could produce spot-like lighting
instead of a clean line of light. Figuring out
the number of LEDs per strip can be rather
confusing because there is no standard used by
manufacturers. One brand might advertise 200 LEDs
per reel whereas another advertises 90 LEDs per
meter and yet another advertises 40 LEDs per
foot. You will first have to choose a unit of
measurement (such as feet, yards, or meters) and
then do some basic math to figure out exactly how
many LEDs each strip has per unit.
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
LED Strip Light Color LED strip lights come in a
wide range of colors as well as strips that can
change colors. The most basic LED strip lights
are called non addressable' and will only emit
one fixed color of light. They are cheap to
purchase and generally easier to install. A
second type of LED light is called non
addressable RGB strips'. These LED lights can
display any Red-Green-Blue color. These are
different than addressable RGB' LED strip
lights. The difference is that addressable LED
strip lights have a small controller between each
LED that makes it possible to control each LED on
an individual basis. Addressable LED lights will
be more expensive and are usually not necessary
for most home needs.
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
Installation of the LED Strip Lights Never buy
LED strip lights without first considering how
you will install them. If you are buying a
flexible strip of LED lights with adhesive
backing, then this may be as simple as sticking
the lights where you want them to go and plugging
them in. In other cases though, such as for
complex installations where strips must be cut
and programmed, the installation can get
complicated. In regards to installation, always
be sure to consider the following
factors Required length of the strip/number of
strips needed Power and voltage
requirements Direction of the LEDS on the
strip Flexibility of the LED strip lights Whether
components such as connectors are needed Whether
the strip needs to be programmed
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
Wattage of LED Strip Lights Before buying any LED
strip light, you will need to look at the
wattage. First off, you need to make sure that
your power outlet can handle the energy demands
of the LEDs. This is fairly simple to calculate
by doing some basic math. Find out how much power
your power supply can handle. For example, a
typical power outlet can handle 15 amps before it
will short out. At 120 volts, that comes out to
1800 watts. It is advised that you never surpass
80 percent of the total capacity, so you wouldn't
want to put more than 1440 watts. On the product
specifications of the LED strip lights you want
to buy, you should find the wattage. Note that
wattage is sometimes listed per reel, per unit of
measurement, or per LED. If wattage is listed in
units or per LED, then calculate how many feet or
LEDs will be used in your total project and
multiply that by the wattage. This will let you
know whether your circuit can handle the
LEDs. Another reason to pay attention to LED
wattage is because of energy consumption. Even
though LEDs typically don't use much electricity
(compared to most other types of lights, at
least), the electricity usage can still add up
and take a toll on your electric bill.
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Your Guide to Buying LED Strip Lights
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