How to choose the right LED strip for your home: types and technical parameters

Thanks to advances in technology, more and more economical appliances are coming to our homes. For example, miniature LED strips. They are economical and are not inferior to incandescent lamps in terms of glow power. Before choosing an LED strip, you should first understand the history of their invention and their applications.

Revolutionary technology

LEDs have been known to mankind since the beginning of the twentieth century.. Despite this, they did not immediately receive wide distribution, since they were expensive. It took almost a hundred years of progress for a Japanese company in 2003 to be the first in the world to produce what today lies at the heart of any LED strip - an LED module made using the technology Chip-On-Board. In 2014, the development team even won the Nobel Prize for her invention.

Since then, these miniature lamps have been used everywhere. There were monitors and TVs using LED backlight matrices, thanks to which more advanced technologies for displaying images on the screen became possible.

The range of application of LEDs is constantly expanding and is practically limited only by the human imagination. For example, in addition to the above examples, they are used:

• In optocouplers, which are installed in measuring instruments - utility meters, for example.
• In street advertisements such as "creeping line".
• In street lighting, industrial and commercial areas, residential premises.
• As a replacement for conventional baseband light bulbs used in remote controls.
• In traffic lights and road signs.
• In a variety of souvenirs, USB devices, toys and more.
• In New Year's decorations, with the advent of LED strips, they received a huge variety.

Household use

Except single spot bulbsto, bright spotlights and traditional luminaires, with the advent of LEDs, it became possible to compact placement of miniature lamps on flexible strips. This made it possible to create striking illumination of rooms, art objects and other things with complete concealment of the light source. There are two types of tapes on sale today:

1. SMD strips - the LEDs in them burn in one of the colors of the "red-blue-green" system, minus the first one, as it is recognized as a slightly unfortunate solution for everyday lighting. The place of red was taken by white, which also has its own subspecies - cold and warm. White lamps are by far the most common type of strip LED.
2. RGB tapes. A system of different mixing proportions of red, green and blue allows you to achieve almost any color.

Which LED strip is better is up to the buyer. He should clearly understand the scope of its application before buying and understand that for ordinary room lighting, the RGB option is a little unsuitable. And for the price it is much higher than its one-color version.

Household lighting with LED

If you choose LED strips for your home, you should first think about whether their technical parameters will coincide with what you have become accustomed to in your home over the years. Perception is influenced by:

1. Power - in no case should you mount LEDs on the ceiling or in special niches, which have a specific power of less than 12-14 watts per meter. Anything smaller is suitable for additional light sources - lighting shelves with books or souvenirs, for example, or as a replacement for a table lamp.

1. The warmth of light. Or his temperature is in Kelvin. It is actually a "stellar" spectrum of shades, where more yellow, sunny shades are achieved at temperatures almost equal to that of the surface of the sun - about 3.5-5.5 thousand Kelvin, and colder, like the incredibly hot "white dwarfs" in the starry sky - about 5.5-7 thousand. The glow temperature also affects the brightness of the radiated radiation.
2. The brightness of the LEDs should meet your expectations for the ability to dispel darkness and retain the ability to see all the details of the room in contrast. This parameter is influenced by two - the size of the LED lamp and the number of them on the tape:
   • The size is determined by the marking of the diode, or rather, by the numbers next to the abbreviation SMD. For example, SMD 4335 is a lamp that is 4.3 millimeters long and 3.5 millimeters wide. The larger the area of ​​the diode itself, the wider the area of ​​light emission, and hence the brightness of a single element of the system. In this case, even diodes of this size, placed on a strip a meter long, will be more than enough to compete with an incandescent lamp with a brightness of about a thousand lumens.
   • The quantity can be about 60 per one meter, but it all depends on the first parameter, since larger elements cannot be compactly placed on the tape in such an amount. Smaller lamps can be placed almost up to three hundred, larger ones will fit much less.

Choosing the right power source

Special feeders are sold for most tapesoperating with a voltage of 12 volts and providing power through this line up to 200 watts. This will be enough to connect a tape with a length of 15 meters and a specific power of 10 watts per meter. A 50 watt headroom is provided for additional device reliability.

Do not use power supplies designed for charging mobile devices and having an operating voltage of 5 volts. This is due to a simple consequence of Ohm's law - to provide the required power to the tape, you will have to supply a current of more than 20 amperes, which will inevitably lead to the death of the tape or the power supply. And if, for example, a computer's USB port was used for this, the damage can be even more serious.

For a more correct connection using a computer, you should use its power on a 12 volt line, provided, among other things, by MOLEX connectors. They put out the right amount of watts on their line and can serve as an excellent power source for the tape. Especially if the power supply itself is modern and powerful.

Reliability and protection criteria

For the tape to serve you for a long time and is not out of order, care should be taken to protect it from moisture and dust. Especially if it is external lighting, for example, a New Year's decoration at home. In addition, do not forget about dust protection and the quality of assembly of elements.

Protection against moisture and dust is achieved by tape manufacturers in several ways and varies in degree depending on the purpose of the application.

So, for indoor lighting at home, you can use tapes without protection at all. Humidity in a room is rarely able to reach the same values ​​as outside in the rain, and regular thorough cleaning, carried out regularly, will help to avoid the adhesion of dust.

If you live in an apartment building and are not entirely sure of the neighbors above or waterproofing characteristics of horizontal slabs on the roof of the house, it is better to purchase a device with partial protection. By releasing such a tape, the manufacturer tries to minimize the influence of the atmosphere on the functionality of the device. The tape is treated with epoxy on top, without affecting the diodes - they are still bare. But thanks to the insulating and water-repellent properties of the resin, a suddenly leaking ceiling or a few drops of splashed water will prevent the backlight from accidentally failing.