At the moment, manufacturers can boast of a huge assortment of LED strips. To simplify their installation, the tapes are made on a glue-coated base. LED strips are used both for lighting ceilings and for all kinds of niches.
Types of tapes by type of LED
Modern LED strips have different types of glow:
- Red, - blue, - yellow
- green, - a combination of yellow and white.
By the way, there is no actual white color in the spectrum, so the corresponding cold monochromatic glow is obtained using a blue LED covered with a phosphor layer, and a dye is used for a warm tone.
LED strips are classified according to the types of LEDs used in strips, their density (calculated as the number of LEDs per meter of strip), power (measured in watts), the degree of protection against moisture and the color of the glow.
Types of diodes
To obtain single-color LED strips, two main types of LEDs are used - SMD 3028 and SMD 5050.
SMD 5050 has three crystals and is brighter than SMD 3028. The Latin letters SMD are an abbreviation in English and translate as “surface mounted device”. The following numbers show the dimensions of the diodes, measured in millimeters (for example, 3028 - the size of the LED is 3 mm by 2.8 mm).
By the number of LEDs per meter (by density), tapes are classified:
- SMD 3028 for 60, 120 and 240 diodes per meter, - SMD 5050 for 30, 60 AND 120 diodes per meter.
The more the number of LEDs in the strip, the more powerful and brighter it is.
LED strips can differ from each other not only in the number of diodes, but also in their size. This directly affects the power. So, a strip on SMD 3028, which has 60 diodes per meter, consumes about 4 watts, and a strip on SMD 5050, which has the same parameters - 60 diodes per meter, will already consume 14.4 watts.
The SMD 3028 tape with 120 diodes per meter requires a power of 9.6 W, and the same SMD 3028 tape, but with 240 diodes per meter, will already require 16.8 watts. Parameters such as power and footage affect the choice of power supplies.
Waterproof tapes and tapes for street lighting
The protection levels of the LED strip sheath against harmful influences - water and other substances penetration - are consistent with international standards. In accordance with these standards, tape types are designated by indices - IP.
IP 20 - open type LED strip, it is used in rooms where there are no additional requirements for its protection from moisture (bedroom or hall).
IP 65 - waterproof tape. This type is convenient for use in bathrooms, kitchen work areas, in exceptional cases it can even be used for street lighting.
IP 68 - the tape is completely insulated from moisture, it can be immersed in water to a depth of up to 1 meter and can even be frozen.
Recently, RGB tapes have become widespread. Their peculiarity is that they are not limited to one color, the controller, at the request of the owner, can issue a monochrome color, but can make the ribbon shimmer with almost all the colors of the rainbow.
