For anyone who is planning on installing LED strip lights (also called LED tape) you must be able to accurately calculate the power essential. Getting insufficient power supply will result in only some (or none) from the LEDs illuminating, or may cause irritation flicker. An over specified power provide will expense a lot more to get, and will also be harder to fit as they are bigger.

To calculate the power supply essential for the new LED strip lights, you have to know:

Length of your strip or tape
Number of LEDs per metre
Power consumption per LED

To calculate the size of power supply (in Amps) you'll want to multiply the length of your LED tape by the number of the LEDs per metre then multiply this by the power with the LED (0.08w to 0.24w per LED are standard values). Then divide the value by 12 volts to calculate the expected Amperage in the power supply.

(Length of LED Strip x LEDs per Metre x LED Power) / 12

We recommend you add at least 10% for the calculated value to enable for resistance and losses within the cables. You'd also want to let for any possible expansions or additions in the future. Most LED Strip Lights can have more sections added applying joining cables.

Calculation Examples:

Example 1: A 5m roll of SMD3528 (0.08w) with 60LED/m would be: (5m x 60 x 0.08) / 12 = 2amps +10% = 2.2Amps.

Example 2: A 5m roll of SMD5050 with 60LED/m would be: (5m x 60 x 0.24) / 12 = 6amps +10% = 6.6Amps.

For any LED strips over 2 metres in length you may provide a 12volt feed to each ends from the strip or one feed within the middle, by cutting the strip into two and connecting the power supply to both strips. This gives a far more even power distribution and should really provide a much more constant illumination.

LED Strip Light Uses

You can find two main motives for employing LED strips. One particular is efficiency - LED lights are very efficient, with the majority of the power going to produce light, not heat. Their incredibly lengthy life (20,000 hours is common) means that in addition they do not require replaced pretty normally, leading to vastly decreased lifetime charges.