If you’re buying LED Strip Lights don’t forget your power supply. LED Strip Lights rely on a peripheral unit called a power supply, also referred to as a transformer or driver, which is necessary to cause them to become work.
Power supplies can be found in many shapes and sizes, which range from very basic ‘plug and play’ units to commercial style transformers which is often hardwired into your mains supply ecopac led driver. You will even hear these power supplies referred to as ‘transformers.’ This is because in addition to powering the LED Strip Lights these units are created to ‘transform’ the mains 230V AC to a low voltage 12V DC therefore making the supply applicable to the strip lights.
There are always a few considerations you’ll need to produce in regards to selecting the type of power you need.
Firstly, do you want to manage to plug right into a wall socket, or have you been planning to hardwire your LED Strip Lights right into a light switch?
If the solution to the former question is ‘yes’ you then will need a typical ‘plug and play’ driver. Here is the simplest supply available and allows quick and easy setup for standard domestic applications via a wall plug power source. The whole unit includes a black transformer, a kettle-lead with a typical UK mains 3-prong plug and a 12V male connector which attaches to the LED Strip via a corresponding female connector. The whole unit closely resembles a lap top charger and is approximately 2 metres in length.
For more complicated applications or where there’s no wall plug available an alternative mains power is available. Instead of a pot lead these supplies feature an amount of mains wire which is often wired directly around the mains supply.
In addition to choosing the type of power, you will even need to find out how big is it. These supplies can be found in varying sizes, ranging anywhere from the low 20watts to many times this figure. These figures described the most ‘load’ that the supply can manage. The ‘load’ of one’s LED Strip Lights is calculated by taking the wattage per metre and multiplying it by the amount of metres you are using. Like, if the wattage per metre is 7.2W and you are using 10 metres, then the complete load is 72watts. It is important to be sure that this load doesn’t exceed the most load in your supply, otherwise you will experience performance issues together with your strip lights, such as for example voltage drop, and reduce steadily the life time of one’s lights.