LED Light Strips - More information

What are LED Strip Lights

LED Strip Lights and LED Tape are energy efficient and have become the main choice to create stunning visual effects . They are lightweight and usually low voltage. Their sleek design with easy-to-fit nature makes them ideal for:

Accent lighting - fit LED Strips around contours to create a backlight or glow around contours
Task lighting - LED Strips are bright enough to illuminate worktops
Mood lighting - Strip Lights create an ambient wash of light in any room

An LED Strip Light is made up of a flexible board with in-built copper tracks, soldered to the flexible circuit board are a number of low voltage LEDs. There are usually cutting points at intervals, allowing them to be cut or trimmed to the desire length. Offcuts of strip can be reconnected either with connectors, or have wires resoldered onto them, avoiding waste.

There is a self-adhesive backing on the LED Strip Lights, simply peel the backing from the Strip and fit the LED Strip to the desired location.

Strip lights are available in a wide range of colors, including white, warm white, red, blue, green, amber, and even or colour changeable - RGB, or RGBW Strips.

Where LED Lights Strip can be used

LED Strips can be used virtually anywhere, from the lounge, to kitchen, to bedrooms. Our Waterproof LED Strips can be used in wet locations such as in shower rooms, and even outdoors under wall copings, and around patios or decking. We've also supplied Waterproof Strips for Glass Ballustrades.

We stock a range of LED Strips to light rooms, such as in the living room around the pelmets or coving. Until LED Strip came along, to fit lights to coving, or in pelmets would have meant using fluorescent tubes or neons, which are bulky, and are made of glass, and expensive. Fluorescent Tube and Neons are high voltage making them not as user user friendly or easy to install as LED Strip Lights. With LED Strip Light it is easy to create a seamless light around any room.

What are the advantages of using LED Strips over other light sources

LED Strips can be used virtually anywhere you could use normal incandescent or neon lights. They offer the folllowing advantages:

Energy efficient
Low voltage
Low temperature
Flexibility, they will follow contours
Easy to work with
Can be trimmed
Offcuts can be reused
Long lifetime
Colour changing and animated
Dimmable
LED Strips can be Smart - control via Alexa or Google

LED Strip Lights can be used in a lot of places normal lights could not be used, or relied upon to last for long periods of time. This has inevitably led to automotive manufacturers using them in their new vehicle designs, often closely following the after-market car modding scene which we were a part of in the early 2000s.

How long will LED light Strip last

LED Strip powered from the correct voltage Power Supply in optimum conditions can be expected to last a minimum of 20,000 hours (cheaper Strips). However designs of LED Strips can vary. The manufacturer of the Strip can increase the resistor value to reduce the voltage to the LEDs, this can greatly enhance the lifetime of the LEDs, but it will reduce the brightness of the LEDs - they will not produce such a bright or striking light as they would otherwise be capable of.

Most LED Strips are designed to be manufactured cheaply, using just Resistors to protect the LEDs. These are fine for a simple installation that you don't need to last a long time or to be reliable, perhaps for a room that is not used frequently.

For use in the home and other architectural applications where high performance and reliability is critical. In light of this we developed our Litewave Professional Strips - some of the best LED Strip Lights available. They have on-board Constant Current drivers to regulate the current and voltage to the LEDs ensuring a bright, even light along the length of the strip with minimum light decay. After 10,000 hours our Strips will have a decay of around just ~3%. Strips without the additional constant current protection can fade quickly, as much as ~35% in 10,000 hours.

Are LED Strip lights safe

LED Failure on poor quality LED Strip Generally they are safe, but there are some bad LED Strips out there. The Strips sold on our site all have the relevant safety certifications. The low voltage power supplies are also matched, on our site you will see in the description information detailing the length of light Strips that can be powered.

We would advise against purchasing unbranded LED Strips, and especially Power Supplies from auction websites, unless they are from a reputable company. We can supply cheap LED Strips. Many are cheap for a reason, usually the cheaper they are, the more likely they are to have LEDs fail, or show odd colours (colour changing LED Strips).

How do I cut the LED Strip

LED Strips designed to be cut, there are usually cutting points marked on the board at intervals. The cutting points are usually 5cm or 10cm intervals, depending upon the type or design of Strip you have. We have Strip with a very close cutting point of 33mm, each LED in effect has it's own protective circuit.

Can I fit the LED Strip

LED Strip is very easy to fit.

Make sure the surface the Strip is being fitted to is suitable, some surfaces may be damaged in the future if you decide to remove the strip.

Prior to permanently sticking the LED Strips, it is a good idea to lay the strip in place, then illuminate the light the strip to check the effect is what you want. Centralise the strip as applicable.

With the surface being clean, and dry, simply peel the self-adhesive backing from the back of the Strip, exposing the adhesive. Then apply the Strip into place working from one end. Press between the LEDs to firm into place.

How to join LED Strips

The fastest way to join LED Strip is to use our Snap Fit Connectors, they making joining one LED Strip to another LED Strip fast and easy using just a pair of scissors. For a permanent join that cannot easily be pulled apart, you may want to solder the LED Strips together.

Connector for joining Colour Changing (RGB) Strip to another RGB strip - no solder needed

LED Light Strips can be joined together, however we must stress: you should not join the Strip beyond the maximum length it was designed to be run. A 5M Reel should NEVER be joined with more strip or another 5M Reel! To do so would cause the LEDs to draw more current along the copper tracks than they were designed to handle.

Correct installation of LED Strip Lights is important

For short lengths of Strips up to 5 Metres, as long as the Strip and LED Power Supply (PSU) or Driver is the correct voltage, and the PSU and slightly oversized for the Strip there should be no issue. An undersized PSU can caused the PSU lifetime to be shortened. If the amount of Strips on the PSU is too much for the PSU, if the PSU has overload protection (ours do) it can cause the lights to pulse on and off.

For larger installations where more than 5 Metres of LED Strip Lights are going to be powered, correct installation is important. If installed badly, the LED Strips or connecting wires could pose a fire risk. There are important rules that need to be followed with LED Light Strips.

A bad installation could involve linking long reels of LED Strip together. Depending on the type of LED Strip you are using, 5 Metres is usually the maximum combined length of LED Strip Lights that can be powered without running the risk of drawing too much current. There are 3 types of Strips we stock that can be powered beyond 5 Metres. This 10M LED Strip Light is our Litewave Pro Strip and can be safely powered up to 10 Metres due to it have a low current draw. We also stock these colour changing Strips that be safely run up to 6 Metres, this one is 12vdc, and this one is 24vdc - ideal for areas where the Strips will have long lengths of cables between the Strip and the Colour Controllers or Power Supplies.

Our warning - LED Strips installed the wrong way

We've heard of people linking long runs of Strips with Cat 5 Cable with several Power Supplies of 200 watts per Power Supply. Cat 5 Cable (also Cat 6, 7, and 8 variants) are designed to carry data, not power. A 200w PSU or LED Driver (24vdc) has the capacity to deliver 8.33 Amps down that thin wire. A 12vdc 200w PSU can deliver up to 16.6 Amps down the wire, this can cause the wire to get extremely hot, posing a potential fire risk. We've had to warn people countless times about this type of thing. As the saying goes: "A little knowledge can be dangerous". Just don't risk your home, your's, or other's lives in order to save a few pounds! - If you really must, we politely request you look elsewhere.

For large installations, we work with our customers to provide the LED Light Strips pre-made to the correct lengths, matched with the correct Power Supplies, and Colour Controller. We supply bespoke schematics and can work with the electrician or installer to ensure a safe, and reliable installation that will last for many years. It's easy to get a quote, just complete this LED Strips - made-to-measure form