Everything you need to know before buying led strip lights
Before buying LED strip lights, we recommend that you first understand the relevant led strip knowledge so that you can use the led light strip in your lighting project to the greatest extent, whether it is an indoor led lighting project or an outdoor waterproof lighting project.
The applications of the LED light strips are various, home lighting, commercial lighting, or building outline lighting, like bedrooms, cabinets, living rooms, TVs, ceilings, stairs, KTVs, bars, restaurants, supermarkets, retail stores, etc. You will always find the right led strip light for your lighting project.
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Everything you need to know before buying led strip lights: #Part 1. What are LED strip lights? #Part 2. Where and how to install LED light strip? #Part 3. How do LED strip lights work? #Part 4. How long can you run an LED strip? #Part 5. How long do LED strip lights last? |
What are led strip lights?
With the popularity of LED lights, LED light strips came into being. LED strip lights are also well-known as led tape lights, led rope lights, or led ribbon lights.
As its name indicates, LED strip light is like a strip. Its component is a print circuit board with surface-mount device LED lights and other electrical parts, and its backing is a 3M adhesive, which is easy to install.
What makes led rope lights unique is that led strips can be cut, and there are many cutting lines along the lighting strips, which surprised people and unbelievable.
*Single color 5050 led strip light
Led strip lights have countless advantages, long lifespan, easy installation, less energy consumption, material environmental protection, safe and various colors and color temperatures.
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• According to the working voltage, the led strip lights can be divided into: Low-voltage led strip lights (5V led strip lights, 12V led strip lights, 24V led strip lights, 36V led strip lights, 48V led strip lights), High-voltage led strip lights (AC110/220V led strip lights). • According to the LED color, the led tape lights can be divided into: Single color led strip lights, Dual white CCT led strip lights, RGB flexible led strip lights, RGBW led strip lights, RGB+CCT led strip lights, Addressable led strip lights. • According to the LED structure, the led rope lights can be divided into: SMD LED, COB LED, Constant current IC, Addressable IC. • According to the luminous way, the led lights strips can be divided into: Side-emitting led strip lights, Top-emitting led strip lights. • According to the waterproof rating, the led strips can be divided into: IP20 led strip lights, IP65 led strip lights, IP67 led strip lights, IP68 led strip lights. • LED light strip accessories: 3M tape, LED connector, LED aluminum channel, LED neon tube |
►Related waterproof IP rating, voltage, and SMD LED knowledge: Top 6 Considerations Before Buying LED Strip Lights
►Related LED color and white light color temperature knowledge:
How to choose the right color for your led strip lights?
The Color Difference Between Warm White 2700K, 3000K, 4000K, 6000K Pure White and 7000K Cool White
What is Kalvin color temperature?
Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Addressable LED Strip
►COB VS LED, COB VS SMD: What is COB led lights?
►Knowledge about LED aluminum profile and LED neon lights:
Ultimate Guide on Aluminum Profile for LED Strip Lighting
Where to install led strip lights?
The most common places to install led strip lights at home are bedroom, ceiling, wall, under cabinet, under counter, stairs, kitchen, and bathroom. These places all can be installed led light strips to be lighting lights or atmosphere lights.
Outdoor waterproof led strip lights are normally used in swimming pool, park, roof, steps, etc. Led rope lights can also be installed in offices, factories, supermarket, even in cars.
The installation place of led strips is numerous. As long as the light strip usage rules are met, it can be used anywhere.
►Related LED strip installation knowledge:
How to install led strip lights?
How to connect led strip lights together?
How to install LED motion sensor stair lights?
How do led strip lights work?
When connecting the led strip to a power supply(also called LED driver, LED transformer), current will through the strip, and make its light emitting diodes to glow. Note that the current should be within the normal use range of the light strip. The current cannot be too high or too small, too high will burn the led strip, and too small the brightness of led lights will get dark.
Led strip light is marked with positive and negative poles, and it represents led strip need to be connected to the positive and negative poles of the power supply to let it work normally.
Generally, led strip lights will tell you what voltage it need. And the voltage is marked in the strip as well. So, if you want to enjoy led rope lights, pay attention to the working voltage. Otherwise, it will be not work.
Wattage power is another important factor to led strips work. If you want to know the wattage of your led lighting strip, it is not marked in the led strip, you have to find led strip specification to see what wattage it use.
*Single color LED strip directly connect to LED driver
*RGB color changing LED lights connect to RGB controller, then connect to LED power supply.
(RGB LED light controller controls RGB color change and LED brightness adjustment, LED transformer supplies power to the RGB controller and the RGB color changing LED strip lighting)
For example, the led strip light above, single color 5050 LED light strip, its working voltage is 12VDC. So that it need a 12VDC power supply. And it requires 90W power supply a roll. Therefore, before putting the LED lighting strip into use, you should prepare an LED power supply whose output voltage is 12VDC and the power sources is 100W.
In addition, when talked about the power of the led power supply, please remember the rule 80%. It means the power of the led transformer is about 1.2 times the power of the led strip. So, the strip light above can choose an LED power supply, which is 12VDC and 100W power sources.
In conclusion, the normal operation of led strip lights is inseparable from the correct working current, voltage and power wattage, and correct wiring.
►Knowledge about led power supply and LED controller:
How to calculate power for led strip lights?
How to choose led strip light power supply?
How to connect led strip to the power supply?
How to choose led strip light controllers?
How long can you run an LED strip?
In general, the length of led rope lights is 5 meters / 16.4 feet a roll. According to the content mentioned above, to make led strips work normally, you must make sure the working current, voltage, wattage and wiring are correct, which are the all important factors. These factors determine how long an led strip you can run.
If your 12V led strip light is 5 meters / 16.4 feet, and your lighting project is 10 meters / 32.8 feet, can you use the 5 meters / 16.4 feet 12V led strip light? The answer is yes. You can use two that led strip with connecting them, and make it a 10 meters / 32.8 feet led strip.
However, as the strip length increases, the power is also increases. If the wattage of strip is 100W, when it becomes 10 meters / 32.8 feet long, the power changes. And it becomes 200W now.
►LED light strip connector: How to choose led strip light connectors?
We have to pay attention to the problem of voltage drop when running super long LED strips. What is voltage drop? Due to the too long length and the insufficient power supply, the light strip will have LED brightness attenuation and white light LED color changes.
The most obvious way to observe whether there is a voltage drop is to turn on the LED lights with white light color. The white light of the light strip gradually turns yellow, and turns to orange and red as the distance increases. This is a typical manifestation of the led voltage drop. Finally, when there is a 100% voltage drop, the LED brightness will disappear.
The solution to solve the LED voltage drop is that to power the led light strip sufficiently. Where the LED white color turns yellow, a seperate power supply should be required when running super long LED strip lights.
Actually, there are ultra-long constant current led strip lights in our product lists to make up the LED voltage drop problem. Constant current means that the LED brightness of the long LED light strip is always the same. So the constant current LED strip can make the LED brightness keep the same and at the same time achieve super long running.
We provide 10m/32.8ft, 15 meters/49.2ft, 20 meters/65.6ft, 30 meters/98.4ft, and 50 meters/164ft LED strip length options. You can choose a right ultra-long constant current led strip light for your super long LED lighting project.
If you don’t want your led strip light to be too long, there are some led strip lights that provide a choice of 1meter/3.28 feet as well, or you can contact us to customize the strip length you want.
►Related led light strip wiring diagram about short length LED strip project and ultra long LED lighting project:
How to wire single color led strip lights?
How to wire tunable white/CCT led strip lights?
How to wire RGB color changing led strip lights?
How to wire RGBCCT led strip lights?
How to wire addressable led strips?
How long do LED strip lights last?
The service life of led strip lights can reach to 50,000 hours, which is 5.7 years.However, there is a difference while the using hours are different per day.
Although led strip lights have a very long life, the incorrect use will still reduce the life of the led light strips. In the process of using the led strip light, please make sure that you use it correctly and will not damage the light strip.
Improper bending will cause the LED strip to break and affect the life of the LED strip. LED strips work under non-standard voltage, current, and power, which will also affect their service life. Generally, precautions are marked on the packaging of the led strip light.
If you have any questions, you can search for answers on the Internet or ask for help from others or contact us. Wish you a perfect chemical reaction between you and your led strip lights.
►More knowledge about LED strip lights you need to know:
Is it worth getting led strip lights?
What are the types of led strip lights? Flexible led strip lights VS rigid led strip lights
SuperLightingLED Limited was established in 2011 and has been in the LED field for 13 years. Now it has developed into a high-tech enterprise that is committed to growing to be a worldwide innovation brand of LED Lighting, providing up to 12,000 kinds of LED Strip Light products, covering almost all home lighting fields. 95% of customers are from the US and EU, and the products are designed and produced by ETL factories and provided to customers all over the world through DHL/UPS Express service, and also provide project customized solutions. At the same time, we are also looking for high-quality agents. All products can be purchased online. You are welcome to contact us at any time!
