What You Need to Know About Green LED Strip Car Lighting
LED lights are integral in today's world. They are lighting nearly every electrical component. The LED light strip is also becoming more popular as a decor item in homes and vehicles.
What is an LED strip light?
LED stands for a light emitting diode. It is an electric component that glows when activated by a power source. Therefore, an LED strip light is a flexible circuit housing several LED bulbs. Below are some of the common features you can find in an LED light strip.
- Flexible - The strip is a flexible circuit board that can bend to fit in any place that you want to install it.
- Trimmable - With most strips, you can cut them to any size without affecting the wiring. Usually, you cut the connecting wire after every three rows.
- Low-profile - It's easy to hide the strip because of its thinness. That makes it effective for use as accent lighting across different places.
- Multi-color options - A single LED strip can come with color-changing options of up to seven different colors. Some of them simply have a single color.
- Dimmable - Some LED lights allow the user to adjust the brightness. This strip light comes with a remote control where you can set the color effects and brightness you want.
How do I choose the right LED Strip light?
- Brightness - As you browse through different LED lights, you will find most sellers giving a lumens rating. The lumens rating measure the brightness of LED lighting. Always try to go with higher lumen ratings. This might depend on where you are going to place the light strip. For internal and accent lighting, you might want to pick slightly lower lumens. Much higher lumens work with dark places like the trunk or when you want to use them around the headlights.
- Chip type and size - Most LED strips use the SMD chip because it is the easiest to mount on the boards. The chips come in different sizes, the most common being the SMD3528 and SMD5050. The sizes control how many chips you can pack on the length of the strip. The SMD5050 is larger and slightly brighter than the 3528. The latter can pack more strips hence you wouldn't notice the difference in brightness.
- Color intensity - LED bulbs give off the light at different intensities. When you're buying fog lights for your truck, you can choose between cool white and warm white lights. Cool white is brighter while warm white is slightly dimmer and resembles halogen bulb lighting.
- Waterproof quality - LED lighting that goes on the underbody should have high waterproof qualities. The least it should have is IP68 while the most effective is IP68 waterproof rating. With IP68, even if the LED lights get submerged in a meter deep of water, the lights will still work.
- Durability - Incandescent bulbs overheat faster than LED lights. This is why LEDs have longer lifespans. Check the lifespan of the lamp before committing to buy. Some have shorter lifespans than others.