Calculating Power Supplies for LED Strip Lights

Posted by Thomas Shaw on June 3rd, 2018

For anyone who is preparing on installing LED strip lights (also known as LED tape) you need to be able to accurately calculate the power needed. Getting insufficient power supply will bring about only some (or none) of the LEDs illuminating, or may cause irritation flicker. An over specified power supply will price more to buy, and will also be harder to match as they may be bigger. Get far more information about LED Driver

To calculate the power supply essential for your new LED strip lights, you should know:

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

To calculate the size of power provide (in Amps) you should multiply the length of the LED tape by the amount of the LEDs per metre and then multiply this by the power with the LED (0.08w to 0.24w per LED are standard values). Then divide the worth by 12 volts to calculate the essential Amperage of the power provide.

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

We advise you add a minimum of 10% towards the calculated worth to allow for resistance and losses within the cables. You would also have to have to let for any attainable expansions or additions inside the future. Most LED Strip Lights can have more sections added employing joining cables.

Calculation Examples:

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

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

For any LED strips over two metres in length you'll be able to supply a 12volt feed to each ends of the strip or one feed inside the middle, by cutting the strip into two and connecting the power provide to each strips. This gives a additional even power distribution and really should deliver a far more constant illumination.

LED Strip Light Makes use of

You can find two most important factors for applying LED strips. 1 is efficiency - LED lights are very effective, with the majority of the power going to generate light, not heat. Their extremely lengthy life (20,000 hours is standard) means that in addition they don't will need replaced incredibly typically, leading to vastly decreased lifetime charges.