Calculate The Power Consumption Of Your Led Strip Lights

Calculate The Power Consumption Of Your Led Strip Lights

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Calculating the power requirements of your LED Strip Lights before you buy is very important. All Strip Lights operate through a 12 volt power adaptor which can handle a predetermined load. If the power requirement of your lighting setup exceeds the load of your transformer you may experience a decrease in the performance of your strip lights. That is why it is important to always work out beforehand how much power your total strip light setup will use so you can choose the right auxiliary units for your lights.

There is never any guarantee that two light setups will run at the same cost in power. LED Strip Lights offer a lot of opportunity for customization, which means there are a lot of variables to pick from. As such, some setups will obviously demand more power than others. A longer length of strip, a strip light with more LEDs per metre, or, in the case of RGB Strip Lights, a strip light operating at full setting with a DMX controller will be using more watts.

As LED Strip Lights are usually sold on a per metre basis it is most straightforward to express their power requirements on a per metre basis as well. While it is possible to calculate the power consumption of each LED, which is usually about a tenth of a watt, it isnt practical to work out the entire power consumption of your setup this way. Using a watts per metre format is far more user friendly.

You can usually find the wattage of a strip light in the specifications section of a product page. If you are unable to see any information relating to the power requirements of an LED Strip Light then we recommend getting in contact with the seller.

Of course the easiest way to explain is by example. A strip of single colour LEDs, with 30 LEDs per metre, uses 7.4 watts per metre. If you were to be using a continuous 10 metre length of this strip the total power requirement would be 74 watts. From this you would be able to determine that a single power adaptor with a 100 watt load can handle the job and there is no need to purchase a larger adaptor. If the load of your set up did exceed the load of your power adaptor, say for example because you were using 20 metre length, which equates to a total of 148 watts, then an adaptor with a larger load would be required.

In the case of RGB LED we dont encourage our customers to buy larger adaptors, but instead you can increase the load by incorporating amplifiers into your lighting setup. The purpose of an amplifier is very straightforward; they are designed to boost, or amplify, the load of your adaptor. So if you want to add an extra length of RGB LED Strip Light, but know that you will exceed the load of your existing adaptor by doing so, then all you need to do is wire in an amplifier. Always remember, amplifiers require their own power source, so for each amplifier you buy you will need an additional 3-pin power adaptor.

For any more information on LED Strip Lights and their power requirements please call 0116 321 4121.

About the Author:
Peter Jenny is an experienced writer with a Masters Degree in Operations Management. Peter has a wealth of experience in the lighting industry and is keen to share his knowledge about upcoming products and new discussions around LED lighting. He is currently working as a Content Manager at Wholesale LED Lights, UK.

For more information, visit GU10 LED or
LED Strip Lights



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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