LED strips are getting more and more popular for home lighting. You’ve probably heard the debate between LEDs, incandescent, or halogen bulbs.
They are more efficient, brighter, last longer, produce less heat, are easier to control and program…the list goes on and on. It comes in a very compact package so that it can be used in various designs, both large and small.
An increasingly popular method is LED strip lighting. Linear (strip) lighting is a very popular and affordable option for both commercial and residential lighting applications. Buying LED strip lights may seem relatively easy, but there are many things to consider to make sure you get the right type of light for your needs. We’ll take a look at the key elements behind bars and the main categories of LED light bars.
Types of LED strips
The LED strip category is a broad category that includes all different types of LED strips. Depending upon how you want to use the LED strips, you may need one or the other type. IP65 LED flex strips, for example, have a waterproof protective cover and are suitable for outdoor and damp locations. Below is a short description of many type of LED strip. Most of these categories have multiple stripe options and are detailed later in this guide.
DC LED Flex Strips – Strips that work directly with low DC voltages, typically 12-24V. These flexible light strips have an adhesive backing for easy installation and can be trimmed every 5cm. They come in a wide range of light outputs and waterproof protection.
AC Plug and Play LED Strip Lights – Flexible strip lights plug directly from a wall outlet. Just plug it, and it’s all ready to use. These strips can run in much longer straight lengths than DC flex strips…up to 150 feet!
LED Light Tubes – Omni-directional LEDs encapsulated in standard light tube packages with very low power for accent lighting and also plugged and play.
High-Power LED Strips – Rigid strip lighting housing medium to high-power LEDs and from top manufacturers. It has a built-in driver designed and manufactured in the USA, so it works with a direct 24V DC input.
LED/length
When purchasing LED strips, it is important to pay attention to the number of LEDs per length. For brighter output and better quality light, look for a light strip with the highest number of LEDs per foot (meter, yard, etc.). If the LEDs are too far apart across the strip, it can produce patchy lighting instead of a clean, consistent line of light. Manufacturers use different measurement units for advertising this, so it cannot be very clear. My recommendation is to stick to a specific measurement and convert all other measurements to see which strip has the highest number of LEDs per set of units of measurement.
LED strip brightness
As LED technology keeps improving, LED strips are brighter than ever before. This does not mean that all strips are very bright… in some cases, you may not want the lights too bright. An example of this is accent lighting inside the shelves.
LED brightness is measured in LUMEN. Depending on how you use your LED strips, you may need a certain level of lumens. You probably don’t want anything brighter than 200 lumens per foot for accent lighting, but there are no hard and fast rules here.
LED strip color
We have LED strips available in a wide range of single and multicolor strips (RGB or RGBW). The simplest LED strips are monochromatic, emitting only a fixed light color. We offer the following:
White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Ultraviolet (UV).
Stripes that change color is called RGB stripes. These LED lights can display red, green, and blue. The color-changing strip uses multicolor LEDs so that you can change the color to your taste. RGB strip lights are the common color-changing lights we carry. These LED lights can display any combination within red, green, and blue colors.
Color temperature
Color temperature is used to distinguish between different white colors that an LED can produce. Temperature indicates how “warm” or “cool” shade the light gives. Temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin, with higher temperatures representing cooler colors (bluish) and lower temperatures representing warmer colors (yellowish than you would expect from an incandescent light bulb). See below for a more visual explanation.
This is sufficient for running LED strip lighting. Buying an LED strip doesn’t have to be difficult as long as you know what to look for. The key to purchasing LED strips is to check your application and area limitations and understand your installation, power requirements, and color options. Please find what you need for your lighting project with our wide range of strips and options.