Since our last newsletter I have had a huge number of calls in and around LED Strip lighting and though this would be a great topic to discuss. LED Strip is the most misunderstood product and the most widely used product with the electrical industry. It’s seen as a simple 12v DC lighting strip that can operate of a basic 12v DC battery, well in the Automotive industry this may be the case but lets look at this a little further, in most automotive cases the strip is less than 2m in length and wired trough a simple controller to a battery.
With regards the commercial strips there are many factors which have to be taken into consideration all of which are based on the customers needs and expectations, key factors to consider:
- Why are you looking to install LED Strip?
- Where are you looking to install the strip?
- What kind of effect are you looking for, RGB coloured or white variants
- How would you like to control it, remote, wall switch, dimmable, voice, APP or as part of a Smart Home System?
Once we have this information there is a couple of key points we must always remember:
- LED Strips have length limitations
- All LED strips consume power which is normally described as watts per meter
- Is it to be dimmed? White strip dim’s differently to coloured strip (RGB, RGBW)
Once you have asked the above questions you now have an idea of what the end result should be, now let’s make it work and look at the componentry:
- What type of LED strip is required and how much
- What will be the power consumption of the Strip I intend using
- How am I going to power the strip, do I need?
- A normal power supply or a dimmable power supply?
- How am I going to control the LED strip?
- If its RGB I will need a WiFi/RF Controller (1009FAWI), if its white, I can use a Trailing Edge wall dimmer or a switch but only if you use a dimmable power supply
Note: if you want to control your White LED strip by remote you can use the WiFi/RF Controller and use a single channel allowing up to 4 channels. If I am using a WiFi/RF Controller (1009FAWI) I will still need a power supply (it must be non-dimmable) .
Note: You can’t dim the 1009FAWI using a dimmable power supply as the WiFi/Rf Controller (1009FAWI) is a dimmable unit itself, to operate the WiFi/RF controller you will also require a suitable remote to pair with the WiFi/RF Controller.
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