Buying Guide: LED Strip Lighting

Following the introduction of LED Lighting to the garden, LED Strip Lighting has become the latest trend to light up the yard.

Like all other types of Garden Lighting, LED Strip is simple to install, but with the added effects and options come a few things to consider so you can be sure you’ll get the effect you want.

The Best Spots to Install Strip

Installing LED Strip is all about being discrete, you want to avoid being able to see the LED’s directly. It makes the lighting design look tacky & reduces effect of the surrounding glow they give off. LED Strip is all about the glow.

1. Steps
2. Fences
3. Retaining Walls
4. Decking
5. Behind Wall Features & Lattice Work

Weather Resistance

LED Strip can be installed in basically any environment, indoor, outdoor or even submerged. The key to not running into trouble is checking the IP Rating, or the conditions the strip is specified for. When looking around, think about where your trip will be installed. Think about things like even though your strip might not get hit by direct rain but is outside, it’s a good idea to get weather resistant strip because water condensation can have affect it.

Wattage

The various strips on the market are all specified by their wattage per metre, but what does that mean? The higher the wattage, the higher the brightness. So what brightness do you need?

Like with other styles of garden lighting, often less is more. So if you’re using a strip in a darker area with low or no overhead or surrounding lighting, lower wattages may suit better, around 4-5W per meter. But if you’re using the light as the primary source to light a path, or have a bit of surrounding light around, you don’t want it to get drowned out so think about higher wattages, up to around 15W per metre.

Run Lengths

LED Strip isn’t available in continuous lengths greater than 5m because when run any further continuously it won’t work. The small gauge wires wouldn’t be able to cope with the power demands. So with this in mind, if you need longer lengths, you need to think in 5m pieces with larger cables running to connect each section.

Colour Options

Near-unlimited colour options is one of the best features of LED Strip Lighting. Of course, Warm & Cool White as well as other Fixed Colour Strips are available. But RGB LED Strip installed with an LED Controller allows you to completely control the mood of your outdoor space. You can set colour changing cycles with different patterns or set the colour each night to what you feel like, all by remote control.

Key Components

1. LED Driver: This is effectively your power supply. The driver plugs into the powerpoint and drops the power supply from 240v AC to 12v DC. Drivers are rated by Wattage, the wattage of an LED driver must be greater than the total wattage of the LED lighting (strip and/or globes) connected to it.
2. Garden Lighting Cable: Vital to allow you to connect up each component. Cable must be sized appropriately for wattage of the circuit & the distance. We go into more detail on Cable Sizing in our Help Centre.
3. LED Strip: The strip itself, available in lengths up to 5m and for good reason. The wire contained within an LED strip is small gauge & can only cope with so much load. Running lengths longer than 5m can cause dangerous heat issues as well as excessive voltage drop. Various colour & brightness options are available to suit all uses.
4. LED Dimmer: Connects between Single Colour LED Strip & Driver. This allows you to adjust brightness via remote control or wall panel.
5. LED Controller: Similar to the Dimmer but with higher function, this connects between RGB LED Strip & Driver. This allows you to adjust brightness & colour patterns via remote control or wall panel.
6. LED Repeater: In more complex setups, wire this or a number of these in conjunction with a Dimmer or Controller. This allows uniform dimming or RGB colour changing across multiple strips that are on the same circuit.

Configurations

LED Strip Lighting can be installed any number of ways, but there are few different ways to go about it depending on how you’re using it. Check out the various configuration below:

Single Strip

A single run of Single Colour LED Strip is the simplest installation, you can easily add a dimmer & it will work beautifully:

The Driver simply plugs into the powerpoint, choose whether or not you want a Dimmer or Controller & run Garden Lighting Cable between each component to your LED Strip. Remember, no single runs longer than 5m.

Multiple Strips

If you need to run a strip length longer than 5m, or need to connect runs in different areas. It can be done easily, see the example configurations below:

By using the same components as in the single run & splicing the cable, you can easily add extra runs to your circuit. But Remember, if you’ve got a length over 5m, don’t connect end-to-end like below:

Multiple Strips with Multiple Drivers

For high wattage or long distance setups, you can configure your LED strip to run off multiple drivers whilst being controlled off a single Dimmer or Controller. This is done with the addition of LED Repeaters. See the configurations below: