NASA estimates that the Sun takes more than four and a half billion years to illuminate the Milky Way, being the brightest star in the sky. In the prehistoric era, it was conceived as a unique luminescent element of the inhabitants of the Earth. Its natural light governed the cycles, the time until the first humans discovered fire.
Today any architect or designer and why not, anyone interested in interior design should know that LED light strips are the most important variants available on the market. We are going to reveal how to choose the best led strip that you can use to obtain a specific experience in your home or outdoor spaces.
Just by reading this article you will have enough information to avoid making the most common mistakes made by amateurs, so we advise you to save this work for future reference as it contains a good amount of technical information.
Over the years, appeared new light sources, such as candles, oil lamps or classic chandeliers, and then came coal gas, kerosene or petroleum distillation.
Since then, lighting has evolved to even be conceived as an element of aesthetics. Today, intelligent lighting has come to be: The light of the present and the future.
I have written a few articles in the past on led lighting, explaining the benefits of LED lighting and suggesting that we should be changing to this type of lighting, especially due to the large saving on energy and therefore in the electricity bill.
Since those articles the prices of LED bulbs and strips have been reduced drastically so now, there are no excuses not to change over to LED.
Of world electricity generation, 19% is intended for lighting, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). For its part, the multinational Philips ensures that switching to more efficient lighting systems would save Europe the astronomical figure of 4.300.000.000 Euros, equivalent to 50,000,000 barrels of oil per year or one billion trees, which would avoid 28.000.000 tons of CO2 emissions.
So, just switching to more efficient lighting systems could prevent 28.000.000 tons of CO2 emissions in Europe.
For this reason, increasing the efficiency of lighting devices and reducing unnecessary consumption not only would help to reduce the electricity bill, but also protect the environment. In this sense, research centres and companies in the sector work in the development of new technologies.
LED lights (Light Emission Diode, or light-emitting diode) are known since the 1960s and became popular as bright red and green spots in numerous electronic devices. Technological advances are expanding the uses of LEDs, and are nowadays used increasingly as the lighting in public places, buildings, giant screens advertising, traffic lights or lanterns for extreme sports. Also, starting in 2008, the EEC regulation allow its use in automobiles as dipped-beam headlamps.
The advantages of these lights are different and much better in comparison with incandescent light bulbs: for a start, they occupy less space, are brighter, they can last up to 50 times longer and consume up to 10 times less, and that is not all, its chip allows varying its intensity and colour of light. In addition, with the development of organic LED, we could even locate illumination on flexible surfaces, such as textiles and clothing.
However, although the widespread use of LED lights was stopped by its high price a few years back: A lamp of 3W, equivalent to a 40W bulb, used to cost costs about 65 Euros the prices have plummeted and prices are being lower every three months or so. Nowadays you can find the prices of LED bulbs could be cheaper than traditional lighting!!
For its part, Silicon could also become the light of the future material. A Canadian company, Group IV Semiconductor, ensures to have developed a technology that would make it possible to manufacture 2014 light bulbs which last for 20 years and consume less power than the current 90%. The system consists of passing electricity through a semiconductor of silicon, making almost all of the energy in light.
The use of non-polluting materials is also another of the concerns of the sector, given the toxicity of some light elements. For example, there are estimated only in the European Union (EU) 35 million mercury vapour, highly polluting, lamps installed on streets and highways. Meanwhile, the recycling of these lighting elements in convenient places such as clean spots is a good way to help preserve the environment.
The light surplus, in addition to energy expenditure, negatively affects many species of insects, large numbers of migratory birds, birds of prey, or bats. An example to follow in the fight against this problem is the so-called project "Eco light": promoted by the EU and the city of Valencia, its objective is to curb light pollution in the natural park of the Albufera. To do this, they have installed a model of perimeter lighting, with lower streetlights of a casserole type, which focus on the ground more efficiently.
All in all, there are no excuses for not installing LED bulbs as they are manufactured using the typical screw bulb type so you just fit it in without having to install new electrical circuits or other paraphernalia.
So do your pocket and the environment a favour and install LED lighting whenever you can.
NASA estimates that the Sun takes more than four and a half billion years to illuminate the Milky Way, being the brightest star in the sky. In the prehistoric era, it was conceived as a unique luminescent element of the inhabitants of the Earth. Its natural light governed the cycles, the time until the first humans discovered fire.
Over the years, appeared new light sources, such as candles, oil lamps or classic chandeliers, and then came coal gas, kerosene or petroleum distillation.
Since then, lighting has evolved to even be conceived as an element of aesthetics. Today, intelligent lighting has come to be: The light of the present and the future.
I have written a few articles in the past on led lighting, explaining the benefits of LED lighting and suggesting that we should be changing to this type of lighting, especially due to the large saving on energy and therefore in the electricity bill.
Since those articles the prices of LED bulbs and strips have been reduced drastically so now, there are no excuses not to change over to LED.
Of world electricity generation, 19% is intended for lighting, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). For its part, the multinational Philips ensures that switching to more efficient lighting systems would save Europe the astronomical figure of 4.300.000.000 Euros, equivalent to 50,000,000 barrels of oil per year or one billion trees, which would avoid 28.000.000 tons of CO2 emissions.
So, just switching to more efficient lighting systems could prevent 28.000.000 tons of CO2 emissions in Europe.
For this reason, increasing the efficiency of lighting devices and reducing unnecessary consumption not only would help to reduce the electricity bill, but also protect the environment. In this sense, research centres and companies in the sector work in the development of new technologies.
LED lights (Light Emission Diode, or light-emitting diode) are known since the 1960s and became popular as bright red and green spots in numerous electronic devices. Technological advances are expanding the uses of LEDs, and are nowadays used increasingly as the lighting in public places, buildings, giant screens advertising, traffic lights or lanterns for extreme sports. Also, starting in 2008, the EEC regulation allow its use in automobiles as dipped-beam headlamps.
The advantages of these lights are different and much better in comparison with incandescent light bulbs: for a start, they occupy less space, are brighter, they can last up to 50 times longer and consume up to 10 times less, and that is not all, its chip allows varying its intensity and colour of light. In addition, with the development of organic LED, we could even locate illumination on flexible surfaces, such as textiles and clothing.
However, although the widespread use of LED lights was stopped by its high price a few years back: A lamp of 3W, equivalent to a 40W bulb, used to cost costs about 65 Euros the prices have plummeted and prices are being lower every three months or so. Nowadays you can find the prices of LED bulbs could be cheaper than traditional lighting!!
For its part, Silicon could also become the light of the future material. A Canadian company, Group IV Semiconductor, ensures to have developed a technology that would make it possible to manufacture 2014 light bulbs which last for 20 years and consume less power than the current 90%. The system consists of passing electricity through a semiconductor of silicon, making almost all of the energy in light.
The use of non-polluting materials is also another of the concerns of the sector, given the toxicity of some light elements. For example, there are estimated only in the European Union (EU) 35 million mercury vapour, highly polluting, lamps installed on streets and highways. Meanwhile, the recycling of these lighting elements in convenient places such as clean spots is a good way to help preserve the environment.
The light surplus, in addition to energy expenditure, negatively affects many species of insects, large numbers of migratory birds, birds of prey, or bats. An example to follow in the fight against this problem is the so-called project "Eco light": promoted by the EU and the city of Valencia, its objective is to curb light pollution in the natural park of the Albufera. To do this, they have installed a model of perimeter lighting, with lower streetlights of a casserole type, which focus on the ground more efficiently.
All in all, there are no excuses for not installing LED bulbs as they are manufactured using the typical screw bulb type so you just fit it in without having to install new electrical circuits or other paraphernalia.
So do your pocket and the environment a favour and install LED lighting whenever you can.
A few years ago, LED light strips were not accessories that were placed precisely because of the volume of light that they incorporated in the rooms, but rather because of the design and originality that they brought to the place where they were placed, but that has recently changed since You can get enough lighting not to use other types of luminaires.
LED strips began to be used in the environment of gamers, since it was there that the whole movement in favor of LED lights began, incorporating them into the general design of the rooms where gaming tables, curved monitors, ergonomic sports chairs ruled. and the keyboards where the colors were also present the colored lights.
But little by little, LED light strips have been expanding and now it is quite common to be used in the new designs of some architecture studios like Pacheco Arquitectos where we use it basically in all our new designs.
The truth be told, knowing where to place them and having good taste and trying not to excessively saturate the spaces, they are a perfect complement, which will give a touch of originality to the room, as well as illuminate them in a more elegant way and which is very important by spending much less on electricity.
Which LED light strips to choose
First things first, you have to have certain clear details and characteristics to be able to choose the best LED light strips that can be bought right now on the market, that is, those that can meet our needs and our claims.
If the following protocols are taken into account, the best strips that best fit what we want to illuminate and where we consider placing it can be specified.
LED chip
The LED chip is the one that sends the information to the strip so that it lights up in a particular way, both in lighting, intensity, frequency, design, size and everything that has to do with its operation.
The way to name this type of chips is quite simple at first, if we don't go too deep into the others.
They begin with SMD (Surface Mount Device) which means "Surface Mount Device" and then see the size of the LED diode, so if we talk about the SMD5050 chip, it will mean that its dimensions are 5.0 x 5.0 millimeters .
The normal thing is that we use the SMD3528, SMD5050 chips and more sporadically we can find the SMD3020 and SMD2835.
The normal thing is that we use the SMD3528, SMD5050 chips and more sporadically we can find the SMD3020 and SMD2835.
LED strip length
Since we already know the type of LED that is normally sold and its powers, the next thing we must analyze is the length of the strip, with which we will also know how many elements are going to make it up.
The longer the strip, the higher the voltage must be so as to get all of it to work in the best possible way. The normal thing is that the voltage moves in the 5, 12 and 24 volts for those that have DC direct current and 220 V for those that do it with AC alternating current that we have at home in our electrical circuits.
The difference between the two types is that while the latter can be connected directly to the mains, the former require an alternative AC-DC power source.
Something quite important is that those LED light strips that have very low voltages are only effective for those strips that are short, which means that, if we want to illuminate long lengths on very long walls in a room, these are not going to work for us. .
For better understanding, the 220 V ones can work with strips of up to 50 meters, while the 12 DC ones could be used with strips of 8 meters at most.
Taking this into account, it will be possible to choose a specific LED strip in a better way, since as you have just seen, the length is something fundamental, so we must always know it before buying any lighting system that we are talking about.
The density of the lights in the strips
When we talk about density, we are referring to the number of LED bulbs that the strip has per meter. In other words, the lighting that is achieved with a strip that has 30 LEDs per meter is not the same as that with 120.
This will mark the level of lighting in the room a lot, so we must be sure that it is what we expect when we install the strip, that is, if we put one with 120 LEDs per meter, the power will not be the same as if we use a of 60.
The most advisable thing is that, if you are looking for a simple detail of light for our designs, go for a density of 30, if you are looking for something more lighting, go up to 60 and only reach 120 LEDs per meter when you really want a good power .
Indoors or outdoors?
Normally, LED strips are for indoors, but they can also be used outdoors since some types have IP certification so they can be placed outside the house.
In these cases the nomenclature is the following IPXX, where the first X corresponds to protection against dust, and the second is the one that marks its resistance to water.
What color can I have my LED strips?
Currently, there are two types of strips according to their color, monochrome and RGB.
Monochromatic strips are those that only reproduce one color throughout. This does not mean that there are only those with white lights, but that there are some monochrome ones in other colors, red, blue, etc., but always maintaining the same color, with no possibility of obtaining other different colors.
However, the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) strips have three colors that are red, green and blue to be combined with each other and thus achieve thousands of different colors. These strips have the power to vary colors, to put only one, to combine them or to get color effects to change from one to another.
In addition, also depending on the type, they are capable of varying the intensity and having effects. If we want white we will get it, but it will not be as good as in the white monochromatic LED strips.
The control
LED strips can be controlled by means of a control that is on the edge of the entire strip, something that is not very practical and is often uncomfortable.
You can also bring a remote control with which to control everything that is the effects and colors, in addition to turning it on and off.
Then there are smart LED light strips available that are connected through a mobile application and that go either by Bluetooth or by Wifi. The good thing about the latter is that they can be part of a home ecosystem and follow routines like all other devices in the home.
With everything that we have just told you from here, you already have all the necessary information to choose and purchase the LED strips that they currently sell and that is the most suitable for the use that you plan to give it. You can tell us which one you have chosen or if you have any questions, contact us on our social networks of Pacheco Arquitectos in Murcia.
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