Blog

LED strip lights are relatively new in comparison with traditionally-used sources of illumination. In fact, they’re a completely new innovation, giving an amazing range of lighting opportunities that neither incandescent nor fluorescent lights could ever hope to achieve.

That’s because of their design, which has flexibility and versatility literally built in. The massive range of different types of LED strip lights available serves only to add to their attractiveness for potential buyers.

Typically sold by the metre, they’re flexible strips of light-emitting diodes, operating at 12-volts. Their innate flexibility is derived from the fact that they can be cut to almost any length, making them much more adaptable than any other form of lighting.

They’re also incredibly cost-effective as you’ll discover once you’ve fitted yours. They have an unbelievably long life span and cost just a tiny fraction to power in comparison with both their incandescent and fluorescent counterparts, and there's a huge variety to choose from.

Single Colour

There’s the Single Colour LED Strip Light. Available in both 12-volts and 24-volts, they’re non-addressable, which means they’re the simplest form of strip light, not able to be programmed. They’re perfect for providing bright, general illumination to fixed locations.

Most often, they’re to be found installed under cabinets or tables to provide a nice recessed glow, or as a source of indirect lighting for home theatre setups or display cases. They’re relatively inexpensive, and they’re available in a choice of light intensities and in many colours, to include warm white (3000K), cool white (6000K) and daylight white (4000K) colour temperatures.

These latter colour temperature options means LED strip lights can be used to augment a room’s ambience, tailoring the lighting mood to your own, individual specifications. Take a look at this short video and see just how this can be achieved:

Dual Colour

On the next step on the evolutionary strip light ladder are the dual colour LED strip lights, which incorporate sequenced warm and cool white diodes, enabling you to alter the intensity of each colour to achieve a wide range of temperatures from 3000K up to 6000K. In order to accomplish this great effect, you’ll need to purchase the Dual Colour Touch Controller.

As with all varieties of LED strip light, the dual colour variety has a life-expectancy that will astound you.  Indeed, such is the longevity of the entire range of these amazing strips of light, that it’s likely they’ll still be going strong in over 17 years’ time. This puts both incandescent and fluorescent lights in the shade, as neither of them can compete with the 50,000 hour life-span of LEDs.

LED Profiles

To ensure that your LED strip light achieves its full life-expectancy, you’ll want to employ the services of an Aluminium LED Profile. They’ll not only safeguard the strip against degradation caused by an inefficient heat dispersal system, they’ll also make your installation look great. Sure, there’s 3M adhesive backing on the reverse of every LED light strip, but for a truly stable fixture with an air of permanence, profiles are the only way to go.

They’ll also allow you to optimise the light dispersal of your LED strip, ensuring its beam angle is realised to full effect, and the choice of diffusers will help you find the perfect quality of light for your particular environment.

RGB

As with the aforementioned single colour varieties, the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LED strip lights are also available in either a 12-volt or a 24-volt option and your choice will be dependent upon the intensity of light you require.

There’s a whole swathe of RGB LED Controllers from which to choose, and each will give you the ability to create a full colour spectrum, thanks to the colour-changing combination of the three colours mixed with white.

Controllers such as the RGB Colour Touch Remote make this possible with a colour wheel, whereas the 20 Key RF RGB Controller  places the enormous colour palate and innumerable modes at your disposal via a radio-frequency key pad.

Ingress Protection

LED strip lights of all descriptions are a wonderful way to illuminate your home or business, both indoors and out.  This is due to the different categories of Ingress Protection with which they’re endowed.

Obviously, indoor installations will require a great deal less protection, because the strip is unlikely to become wet in your living space or bedroom. For garden or even swimming pool illumination, a higher level of protection is advisable.

This table should give you all the information you need to know about the most suitable location for each ingress protection rating.

RGBW & Pixel Tape

Fully controllable when used in conjunction with the RGBW LED Remote, the RGBW variety of strip light can create similar effects to that of the RGB, only with the added cool or warm white options, both of which will enable you to generate a much more extensive range of colours.

The absolutely stunning RGB Pixel Tape’s mind-boggling features might be best explained by watching this short video:

For your convenience, the entire collection of LED strip lights is obtainable in Kit form. In lengths of 1-metre all the way up to 5-metres, each comes complete with a compatible plug and play power source, and the controllable varieties include the appropriate remote.

As if the massive variety in which LED strip lights are available weren’t enough, they all share a number of other fabulous attributes, not least of which is their ability to be customised to suit your space.

They can be cut at pre-marked intervals along their length, using just a pair of normal scissors, however, if you don’t fancy doing the job yourself, remember that Wholesale LED Lights is the only LED lighting company in the whole of the UK to offer a free, bespoke cutting and soldering service, so why not take full advantage of that?

Super Energy-Efficiency

Possibly the most compelling reason to choose LED strip lights to illuminate your home or business is that they’re incredibly energy-efficient. This is especially noticeable in comparison with their traditional forebears.

Indeed, LED tapes and LED lights in general, require up to 90% less electricity to power them than both incandescent and fluorescent lights and bulbs.

The Single Colour LED Strip Lights (60 x 3528 SMD) for example, require just 4.8 watts of electricity to generate the same 400 lumens as a 50 watt traditional bulb. You’ll definitely notice the difference in your energy expenditure when the time comes for your next electricity bill, given that they’ll be using less than 10% of the power of your existing light sources.

All-in-all, LED strips offer you not only the greatest number of options, but also cost-effectiveness and energy-efficiency that’s second to none.

If you’d like to chat with the experts about LED strip lights, call 0116 321 4120 today.

You can also see the entire range of LED lighting products on our online store.

If you like, you can send us an e-mail enquiry to cs@wled.co.uk and we’ll do our very best to answer all your questions.