Article

Innovative Ideas to Use LED Strip Lights in your Home

  • Led Lights
  • 30 Jul, 2019
  • Posted by: TANLITE Sales

Innovative Ideas to Use LED Strip Lights in your Home

Adhesive LED strip lights offer enormous versatility in creative home lighting. The tape may be cut to size, with different lumens and colors available as desired — innovative ideas to use LED strip lights in your place include.

  • Splashback lighting – e.g., tv/picture frame/mirror
  • Downlighting – e.g., kitchen cabinets
  • Uplighting – e.g., cornice

LED Strip Lights – Innovative Home Lighting

LED strip lights give a multitude of home lighting alternatives. Creative use of LED strip light could include creative ideas such as under-parasol lighting in the garden & stair tread lighting in the home. Here are some common imaginative ideas on how to improve the visual appeal in your home & garden using LED strip lights.

  • TV Screen – LED strip lights can be used to significant effect in creating splashback lighting. Apply the LED strip light to the rear of the TV and place it near to a wall to get a backlit glow.
  • Picture Frames – LED lights do not emit harmful UV rays & excessive heat, meaning closeup use with decor is possible. Apply LED strip lights to the rear of picture frames for a stand out displays.
  • Stairways – LED strip lighting can be used along the underside of bars to create a soft downlit ambiance on stairs. That is both aesthetically pleasing and practical.
  • Mirrors – Applying LED lighting strips to the rear edges of a mirror can help to create ideal shadow-reducing splashback lighting levels.
  • Under Cabinets – LED strip lighting provides ideal ‘task lighting’ solutions — light up bathroom cabinets, kitchen worktops, and other home cabinets with view-enhancing downlights.
  • Room Cornice – Decorative cornices above doors or around the edge of rooms often have a recess suitable for housing LED strip lighting to create ambient downlighting /uplighting with ease.

Waterproof LED Strip Lights – Water Features and Wet Zones

  • Trees/Bushes – LED strip lighting can be used to add soft backlit luminosity to any garden foliage. Attach the strip light to the stem of small trees & bushes for the best results.
  • Decking – Design the layout of any garden decking to include a small overhang. Accent this overhang & frame the outline of the decking area with subtle downlighting using LED strip lights.
  • Aquarium LED Lighting – Indoor aquariums mostly come with minimum lighting solutions. Add water-resistant LED strip lighting to the exterior or interior of the aquarium for extra accented lighting.
  • Garden Water Feature – Add a gentle glow to water features such as ponds & plumbed fountains using water &  impact-resistant LED strip lighting.

Many creative routes may be taken when acknowledging ways of home lighting using LED strips. Remember, LED strips are powered via a transformer that joins the strip of lights to mains power. Sufficient space in which to place the transformer must be used in to account when deciding where to place the LED strip light.

Considerations – ‘IP’ Rating and Power Supply

LED strip light may be used in the garden or home. Put, safe power supply & a surface on which to adhere the LED strip light is all that is required. Despite, there are many other concerns over the proper installation of LED strip lights in the garden or home:

  • IP Rating – Where the LED strip is likely to get into contact with water, products with the proper water-resistant properties should be placed. The ‘IP’ rating system highlights that electrical products are fit for use in or around water, with IP67 & IP68 offering reliable splash & dust resistance.
  • Power Supply – LED strips are powered via a transformer. Be certain to select the right transformer in fitting with the product details supplied with the LED strip light. The transformer guarantees the piece is not overloaded by decreasing the voltage of UK mains (around 230 V) to the energy needed.

Can I Cut LED Strips to Size?

Yes. LED strip light allows for truly innovative lighting solutions as the strip can be shortened in length to fill any space. Depending on the size of the LED strip, selected cut points may be found at normal intervals ranging from every 2.5cm-10cm.

Creating Ambience – What are the Kelvin Scale and Lumens?

Unlike the outdated Wattage system, lumens gives a direct implication of the amount of light produced by a bulb. For instance, a standard 40W-60W bulb is similar to a 6W-9W LED bulb, as both give around 400-800 lumens. Stronger bulbs are not recommended for creating ambiance. But what about the type of light given off? The Kelvin scale measures that.

The Kelvin scale starts at 1,000 Kelvin & ranges up to 10,000 Kelvin. The product detail accompanying LED products will show the Kelvin reading for that product, with a middle reading of about 5,000 Kelvin equalling daylight. Lower readings create softer orange &  yellow hues, and upper readings show that the light will create clinical brightness. Consequently, a lamp in the 0 – 5,000 Kelvin range is perfect for creating ambiance.