As the energy savings and efficiency of LEDs causes them to become mainstays in every industry, manufacturers are busy making new designs and formats for LED strips and bulbs. These products require adequate power supplies, especially for the strips of light that are useful in a portable capacity. This will enable you to better understand the utility of these strips, as well as the LED lights power supply that best accompanies particular configurations.
GETTING A HANDLE ON LEDS AND LIGHT OUTPUT
In particular, for LED strips, it’s a good idea to separate them by the number of lumens (light output) they emit per meter. A strip that holds 60 LEDsper meter might have a light output of 180-300 lumens per meter, depending on the specific kind of encapsulated SMD LED. These SMD LEDsgenerally come in two sizes: the SMD 3528 emits anywhere from 3 to 5 lumens, and the SMD 5050 emits between 10 and 15 lumens.
In order to gauge the LED lights power supply you would need to operate a strip and judge the set-up by the rated power consumption. If there are 60 SMD 3528 LEDs per meter, then it will consume 5 Watts per meter of strip. If it’s the brighter 5050 SMD LED, then the power consumption jumps up to 14.4 Watts per meter of strip.
GETTING THE RIGHT LED LIGHTS POWER SUPPLY
Next, after understanding the relationship between power consumption and voltage, you can determine the current. Power = Current x Voltage. The voltage is a static quantity that depends on your electrical outlet. These values are important because you need to know how many LED strips you can connect to an outlet, and how much light you can get out for your applications. If you try to connect too many LED strips to a single outlet, then the voltage drop will adversely affect your ability to keep them all lighted – unless you have an adequate LED lights power supply.
Energy Recovery Products (ERP) is an LED driver distributor that specializes in the US-based design of energy-efficient LED power supplies for multiple industries. This includes medical, telecom and information technology. Browse our robust suite of products on the ERP website, and let us meet your lighting needs.