LED Tape

Most websites will list LED tape under the watts per metre. This is a terrible way to sell LED tape because it only tells ytou about the energy used not how bright ther tape is. Poor quality tape will use more energy than a good tape anb will run hotter, suffer colouyr shift and suffer short life. For best performance you need to buy good quality tape and to pay attention to heat by using a good heat sink if you are using the more powerful tapes.

If you look at our selector you can select the Lumens per metre and then select the colour. I suggest that you select a rage of brightnesses because there are some high end tapes and some which are more compettitive. the prices are per reel and not per metre so pay attention to the length of the tape.

12V  tape is very bad because the voltage drop is significane and so with longer tape lengths the tape can be brighter at one end than the other. You woudl also need thicker cables if the driver is located remotly. 24V tape is much better and significaltly longer cable runs can be made without noticable effects of voltage drop manifesting.

With LED tape you need a constant voltage driver, so you must choose from a 24V constant voltage driver. You also need to work out the correct power and if the driver is to be used out doors. 

The suggested led drivers on our site will typically drive the whole reel so for example if you buy a 5m reel of 10.2W/m tape that a total power of 5 X 10.2 = 51W then we woudl suiggest a 60W led driver. However if yoou intend to cut the tape into shorter lengths you have the option to run all lengths from a single driver or in this case you might cut the tape in to three equal lengths and so three 20W driver will do the job.

If in doubt contact our sales team.

The secret of dimming LED tape is that all tape is dimmable but it is the driver that determines how it is dimmed. If you buy a non-dimming LED driver then it won't dim at all but if yuou do want to dim the tape you must but either a Phase cutting dimmer (Most popular for domestic use) or either 1-10V or Dali. These are the usual methods....

However there is a new method of dimming and that is to buy a CASAMBI system and this will allow you to controll the lighting via the CASAMBI app. if you are interested in this system please contact our sales team and we will put a system quotation together for you.