There are several different types of LED strips on the market, here is a basic overview of what is available for the DIY option. I don’t talk about the all in one solutions where the LED strip is hardwired to a designated controller. Generally these are lower quality and have about 30 LEDs per metre. The benefit of specifying the specific type of LED strip is you can control exactly how much lighting you need for the space.
The plan is that I’d be using sensors to automatically power my lighting without me having to use switches in the house.
Warm White | Cool White – 2 wires
The basic option of the same type of LED on the whole strip. You can have one which is at a fixed temperature of a warm white or cool white. Warm whites are used for living spaces and people tend to go for a cooler white for the bathroom and kitchen. The cheapest and easiest to set up!
CCT – 4 wires
The CCT option is a strip which has both warm and cool white. With the right hub you can then get really precise white tones if you are trying to match with other lighting. I’d recommend this type of strip as it’s fit for most purposes and gives you a good level of customisation.
The temperature colour of whites is listed as K values. 6,000K to 9,000K it goes from pure white to an icy blue. 2,000K to 6,000K goes from a sodium orange to a warm white at 3,000K to the pure white at 6,000K.
To be honest, this option will work for the majority of people, including myself. I wanted to go for maximum future proofing but the reality is I will use the coloured LEDs a handful of times. At the moment this isn’t the case because of the honeymoon period with setting these up!
RGB – 3 wires
An LED strip with a colour chip, this can do the primary colours and also combine them to get the full spectrum of colours between. The main downside with this is they struggle to get a natural white. You often find that the white may be too yellow or blue due to the lack of a real white LED. Fine for a party setup but not everyday living space!
You can generally see this type of setup on a gamers home setup!
RGBWW | RGBCW | RGBNW – 4 wires
The same as above but with an additional white LED on the chip. You are limited to one type of white so RGBWW would be the best option, you get the colours and the most natural homely white. the RGBCW and and RGBNW are cooler whites.
RGBCCT – 6 wires
The most customisable and complex option of the lot. You get the full light spectrum of colour, plus the temperature range of white. The advantage of this is that combining these two you can create pastel colours not possible on other strips. A good controller like the Hue bridge would enable any combination of colour whereas using a bridge like an Amazon Echo would give you a set list of colours. The downside to this is the strip is generally wider (10 – 12 mm) and you have 6 cables coming off which is a bit harder to hide than just 3 cables.
Other LED strip variables to consider
Voltage
12 Volts are fine for most applications. If you have longer runs or want more power then 24 volts is worth getting.
Waterproofing
I don’t know too much about this as I’ve not had to look into it for myself. Most suppliers offer a waterproof version for the same LED strip which would be useful for outdoor applications.
LED strip density
I made a mistake here initially. I wanted RGB CCT so basically looked for the cheapest ones I could find. However, the density, the amount of LEDs per metre changes drastically, as does the price. Expect to find 30 LEDs per metre on Amazon, better ones go to 60 per metre and you can get 96 for the most packed ones.
The trick some suppliers do is though alternate the type of LED so technically the density is half what they state. I initially got an RGBCCT 60 LED per metre strip but what I got was 15 LEDs of RGB alternating with 15 of CCT.
All was not lost as I ended up using them. They they were backlighting and reflecting on the wall so the colours mix well. However when looking at them directly you would see quite harsh whites and colours alternating which definitely isn’t an ambient look.
The creme de la creme is 60 LED RGBCCT where each chip has all three on one point. This means that the whites and the colours shine out from the same point and you can get a much smoother glow. I had to get 5 metres of this for my bookshelves seeing as the light would be directly visible. My hallway lighting is hidden by the plate shelf so the 30 CCT 30 RGB alternating strip worked great for that.
The example pic here has the maximum at 144 LEDs per metre. The options stated above have different maximum values. As you would expect, a basic white LED strip can cram the most LEDs per metre.
Addressable LED strip
These are when each individual LED has its own separate chip as opposed to the whole strip. This would let you program individual LEDs to do it’s own thing. Examples could include rainbow effects or timing options so they turn on in waves. It would make some cool Tron like effects if you had a use for it.
I have no need for that level of functionality so can’t offer any more information there!
Other posts are to follow regarding how to power and control the LEDs.