The Utilizing of Flexible LED Strip Lights

The Utilizing of Flexible LED Strip Lights


This content will talk about the points that need to be taken care of when adopting of flexible LED ribbons.Nowadays, flexible LED strips have been broadly utilized in many lighting applications especially in decorating lighting and have been proved to be a very sufficient decorative lighting solution. Yet, still, many consumers are not educated about this new product and have not much concept of how to use it. For that reason, in this piece of content we are going to talk about the points that need to be attended to when utilizing of flexible LED strip lights.

In the following paragraphs, issues like the current, the voltage, the power consumption, the length and the controller etc would be covered.

The constant current of LED tapes is typically to be 20mA, for this reason the current supplied by the power is not allowed to be higher than 20mA. Some people would pay attention to the input voltage of the power supply but seldom take notice of the working current. But bear in mind,it will lead to the risk of burning of the LEDs when the working current is higher than the LED's rated current.

The typical programs of SMD LED strip lights is for decoration lighting. Usually, the installation jobs will be carried out by the enginerring or installation compaines. However, due to the lack of complete understanding of SMD LED strip lights, a lot of consumers would miss some facts when calculating the cost, due to this fact, it increases the cost of it, some of them are unnecessary costs . Below is an example for demonstrating how to calculate the cost of engineering and installation flexible SMD LED strips.

The length of LED tapes: Normally, the quantity of LEDs per meter of a flexible strip light should be 30, and 60. But, 48, 120 and 240 LEDs/m can also be found. Typically, flexible LED tapes can be cut by every 3 LEDs. For a 60 LEDs/m LED strip, the length of every cuttable group is 50mm; for a 30 LEDs/m ribbon, then the length of every cuttable group would be 10mm. Please note that here we just take the 12V strips for instance, if for a 24V version, the number of LEDs per cuttable group and the length of every cuttable group would be doubled. Based on this knowledge, the quantity of LEDs to be used for a certain project will be calculated practically.

Power supply for flexible LED strip lights: Different types of LED strips have different power consumptions, it is very important to choose the correct power supply for a strip. For instance:

3528 LED tape, 12V, 60 LEDs/m, 4.8W per meter, current: <0.4A per meter
5050 LED tape, 12V, 30 LEDs/m, 7.2W per meter, current: <0.6A per meter
5050 LED tape, 12V, 60 LEDs/m, 14.4W per meter, current: <1.2A per meter

For a 5050 LED ribbon (30 LEDs/m), say the power supply is 12V, 4A (rated power consumption will be: 12 x 4 = 48W), then such a power supply can only drive no greater than 6 meters of 5050 LED strips. Because the power consumption of this strip is 7.2W, therefore the total power consumption for 6m is 43.2W. If the working power consumption is higher than rated power of the power supply, it will reduce the working lifespan of the power supply.Therefore it is recommended that the working power consumption should be under 90% of the rated power consumption.

Controller for flexible LED tapes: RGB (also referred to as 'full colour' or 'colour changing') LED tapes, need a controller to perform its colour changing functionality. Normally, one signle controller can be used to control 5m to 30m of LED ribbons, depending on the rated power of the controller and the working power of the tapes. However, amplifiers can be used with a purpose to extend the length of the RGB strip to be controlled.

More articles about LED lights can be read on Sielement LED Lighting's website.