Kitchen LED Strip Lighting

[JohnW2]

I'm not using LED's for the energy saving part (as you can see ). I'm using them because they last longer, they are easier to manipulate around plinths, cupboards etc and to me they give off a much better type of light which looks contemporary which you can;t always achieve with incandescent.

Fair enough - but that doesn't alter my surprise that we're talking about a total wattage of LEDs which is in a similar ballpark to what one would have if using incandescent lighting - given that 'wattage equivalent ratios' in the range 6-12 are commonly quoted.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Simon35]

It's not the first time that I have recently seen suggestions about using seemingly ludicrous amounts of LED lighting - which, if nothing else, rather negates the energy-saving benefits that should come from using LEDs. Am I missing something?

Possibly the format of the lights makes them not much good at lighting up rooms?

But I need to think more about my current idea for lighting a 15.6m² kitchen, which would have a 1m x 2m roof lantern in it. I was considering LED panels around the perimeter, giving a little over 2m² of lighting - that might turn out to be a ludicrous amount of watts & lumens....

My kitchen/diner at home is 3 m by 6m, the kitchen half has a 1m x 1m roof lantern, which has turned what was a bit of a shady room in daylight, into a sunny spot.

 

[winston1]

It is unlikely the same 12 volt switching can be done with the low cost E-bay sourced items as many of these will have a minimum load. With out that minimum load their output can become unstable / uncontrolled and exceed 12 volts. If that happens when a LED strip is switched on ( by a switch in the 12 volt supply ) then the LED strip could be over volted and damaged.

Not true. The only supplies that require a minimum load are the high frequency AC supplies used to power halogen lights.

 

[JohnW2]

Not true. The only supplies that require a minimum load are the high frequency AC supplies used to power halogen lights.

Eh? IME, all sorts of SMTPs have stated minimum loads.

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

I have just bought a 5 metre length of Power*LED from Sunpower.

Each section is 3 LED elements in series with a 180 ohm resistor.

Rated at 12 volts.

With 12 volt supplied the LED are extremely bright.

Increasing the voltage from zero the LEDs do not produce any light until the voltage is 7 volts when there is a very pale glimmer.

This is as expected with white LED elements having a forward voltage of approx. 2.3 volts ( 3 times 2.3 = 7 )

The brightness increases as the voltage increases.

At 12 volts the voltage across the resistor is approx. 5 volts ( 12 - (3 x 2.3))

Ohms law gives the current through the resistor and therefor through the LED elements is

(( 12 / 180 ) x 1000 ) = 66 milli amps

Build quality is good and the reels are labelled with Lot numbers. This allows the colour matching of strips if more than one reel is needed.