LED strip lights are great fixtures for DIY stair handrail lighting and step lighting. Compared to other stair lighting fixtures, LED strip lights have more advantages due to their cuttable, even lumens, and adhesive backing.
Using LED light strips to retrofit or upgrade your staircase lighting is a nice idea and has a strong DIY aspect. You can choose from different types of strip lights with different control methods to complete your final staircase effect.
What Kind of Stair Lighting Can LED Strip Lights Achieve?
Turning stair lights on and off by motion sensing is very popular these days, and it usually includes two modes, one is to light up step-by-step, and the other is all lights on, and then the stairlights are turned off automatically.
You will find that most motion sensor stair lights use LED strips as the light source. Whether it’s motion-activated stair tread lighting or simple staircase lighting, LED strip lights are a great DIY tool.
And because of the diversity of LED strip light color, the color of the stair light is not limited to 2700K/3000K warm white and 6000K daylight, red, green, blue, yellow, pink, purple, RGB, and addressable RGB can be applied to add fun and dynamic color to your stairs. Need unique LED stair lighting, click to see our indoor stair lighting kits.
Why Choose LED Strip Lights For Staircase?
Do you mind seeing dark areas on your lighting in stairway? Some stairway fixtures don’t light up the whole stairwell, which is why linear LED strip lights were chosen. Each LED strip illuminates a step, and with the strip lighting on the handrail, it is much safer to go up and down the stairs.
Sometimes you will also see dark areas on the LED strip lighting, which is due to the characteristics of surface mount diodes. COB strip light for stairs can be a good solution to this problem.
Most users choose COB LED strips due to their linearity and lack of light spots, and they are more energy efficient. Even if the bare board COB strips are installed directly under the stair treads, they have a long life.
Can I Need to Protect My LED Stair Strip Lights?
We also worry about exposed strips being affected by dust and moisture in the air, and it’s hard not to suspect that LED profiles were born from this. Made from low-profile aluminum alloy, the stair profile encases light strip inside it, and a plastic cover further diffuses the LED light to achieve soft strip lighting.
But not all LED profiles can eliminate dot lights. It is closely related to the height of the profile and the density of the strip light. There are even LED profiles specifically designed for stairs, which will have a special anti-slip design to prevent slipping.
How to Install LED Light Strips on Stairs?
LED light strips support cutting. Cut to the right length according to the width of your staircase. For easy installation, you can attach a quick connector to one end of the strip so that you can use an extension cord to extend the distance. If you can solder, solder the power cable directly to each stair light strip.
Tear off the protective layer of the strip backing and attach the strip to the steps. Staircase profile light is fixed using mounting clips and screws.
Generally speaking, connecting multiple LED strips is not recommended in series, too much current loss will lead to a voltage drop (color and brightness change). Please choose constant current LED strip lights for staircase or long LED strips without voltage drop if you must connect them in series, which can be powered on one side. If using addressable LED strips (signal is transmitted in S-shape), additional power needs to be injected where there is a voltage drop.
How to Wire LED Stair Strip Lights?
Power each stair tread strip light, and choose a suitable DC power supply. In the case of motion sensor stair lights, connect all the stair light strips to the controller, and then power the controller and the light strips.
All low-voltage LED strip lighting projects can not be plugged directly into an AC outlet, you need to access a transformer with appropriate wattage capacity to convert AC110V/220V to DC12/24V and then to provide energy for the LED strip.
Wiring a stairway handrail light strip is even simpler. Generally, the stair rail requires a strip light that is not too long, so you can use an adapter to power it.
