It is a fact that LED strip lights are on a roll nowadays. They look appealing and attractive. And generally speaking, they have many applications in our daily life. That’s why they are prevalent everywhere. But there is an issue going on with these lights. Can we hardwire these strip lights or not? These lights will become more valuable if we can hardwire them. Many people want to know this.

In simple words, the answer is yes; we can hardwire them. But first, there is something else that we should know. You should understand what the purpose of these LED lights is. You cannot use wire nuts at the ends of the temporary lights. It is suitable only for strip lights.

Moreover, you should keep in mind the steps and safety tips for this process.

Why Hardwire LED Strips Light?

Generally speaking, these are just regular lights. But what makes them distinct is their benefits. They are more luminous and energy efficient. It is simple to hardwire these lights.

You connect these lights to the wiring in your house. But there is an important thing to consider here. The technicians should be professional and experts in this field. They should know what there are doing.

You must be wondering why this hardwiring is essential. Well, it brings a lot of benefits with it. If you do this, you will lessen your cleaning task. You will have fewer wires in your home. You can clean them easily. Moreover, with fewer wires, your space will look less complicated. It will make your house more elegant.

Another advantage that it adds is the steady flow of electricity. But this feature depends on how well you have hardwired the lights. In this post, we will see this hardwiring process. How can you do this in your home with your LED strip lights? And what preventive measures should you keep in your mind while doing this?

Where To Hardwire LED Strip Lights?

Everyone wants to beautify their homes or space. It gives a positive vibe when your room is smooth and polished. Yes, you can install the strip lights in your home. And they will make it more aesthetic. But if you haven’t done it correctly, you probably lag. For this, you will have to hardwire the lights. You can do this for:

• Guest room
• Bathroom
• Kitchen
• Bridges
• Public buildings
• Malls and stores
• Hotels and restaurants
• Concerts and Light Shows
• Other locations

But as we have discussed above, this procedure needs excellent expertise.

Guest Room:

In a guest room, it’s convenient to hardwire your LED strip lights. Your guest room’s roof can have strips installed. If you put LEDs around it, your room will appear completely different.

Assess your roof’s length carefully so you can figure out the number of strips you need.

If you want your guest room to appear more elegant, play around with colors to make it enjoyable. You can do this with the help of modern strips that change color.

Bathroom:

Research has shown that pictures of bathrooms are more famous on social media sites. If you like to follow the latest trends, take selfies in the bathroom. But first, make it photo-friendly by putting in some lovely LED strip lights. It is also a great way to bring your old toilet up to date. After putting in lights, you don’t have to do much work to make your bathroom look nice.

It is a fact that these strip lights create a pleasant atmosphere. But one thing to add here is that their brightness is very beneficial. It increases visibility in your home. It is common to install these lights in bathrooms and kitchens. You can hardwire these lights here, also.

It’s not a tough job to do so. And it does not need the additional connector power source. In fact, we can link these directly to the same wall switch.

Kitchen:

When it comes to the kitchen, it is not an easy task to hardwire. We usually have hot temperatures in our kitchen. This high temperature is unsafe for the LED lights. And the service life of these strip lights gets reduced. So it is necessary to make a band of lights. To do so, we must use the current lighting. Strip lights are a great way to brighten the space under your cabinets. It makes the room look nice and provides an excellent view of the cabinets below.

By putting them underneath the upper cabinets, you can change the whole look of your kitchen. After putting them in, my kitchen is now a well-lit place to work. I also don’t feel any stress because the lights aren’t shining right on me.

For more information, you can read How To Choose the LED Strip Lights For Kitchen Cabinets?

Bridges:

Many designers use LED strips to improve the look of their developments these days. You can find LED lights on bridges all over your state. These lights make the bridge look better. These strip lights use less electricity. They are more productive compared to other types of lighting.

The lights on the Swan Street Bridge in the United States are an excellent example. Engineers use more than just strip lights to make bridges look better. They also use LEDs. You can see this wonder at the Skyway Bridge and Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

Authorities say they started the work to make the bridge safer and more beautiful. Using LED strip lights to create a bridge has a lot of good points. You can choose various illumination patterns for a bridge with strip lights.

Public Buildings:

LED strip lights are also helpful to light up state buildings. These are important in many public buildings and art museums in your town. Governments use these LED strips all over the world to light their facilities. The best example is when Wollaton Hall is lit up for Celebrations. Any building can become a landmark by adding LED strips to the outside.

Malls and Stores:

In business, there are many ways to use strip lights. These are useful for background lighting in theaters, stores, and shopping malls. Remember that the lights can significantly affect how your attendees feel. Some store owners also put them on their store signs and logos to make them look better. It helps them get more people to come into their shops.

Several studies show that color and lighting affect how we feel. For example, low light from above can help you relax. Evening red light is good for your mental health. It enables the body release melatonin, which helps people sleep better at night.

Hotels and Restaurants:

If you own a guest house or hotel, you can enhance the mood of your place by putting LED strip lights in different areas. You can use these strips on the balcony, in the reception area, by the pool, and in the conference center. Hotel rooms are being lit up more and more with LED strips.

Concerts and Light Shows:

LED strips are strong enough to withstand bad weather. So, you understand how they could be helpful in outdoor concerts and light displays. You may have noticed changing patterns of colors in the light sources at the music event. Most of the time, it’s done with an RGB LED strip light.

You can also use these strips to make your aquarium look nicer. In some waterfalls, waterproof LED lights are helpful to make things look different.

Other Locations:

Apart from the above areas, there are many other locations where you can do this procedure. There are two things that you should keep in mind while hardwiring anywhere.

• Always check the power output of the area.
• Second, test if it is safe to do so.

There are some rules set by UL/CSA. You should always strictly abide by these rules.

How To Hardwire LED Strip Lights?

As discussed above, it is not a difficult task to hardwire. You have to ensure one thing. The strip lights and output power wires are firm. They are securely connected together.

You can either use the wire nuts. Or there is another method of doing so. You can join the ends of all strip lights to the same cables. In this way, you can hardwire and make connections.

Step 1: Get the Material Ready.

First of all, you should have all the material ready. Cut the strip lights according to the length you need. And it is not a straightforward thing to cut these lights. You should have proper knowledge of how to do this. Otherwise, you can end up damaging these lights. It is crucial to use sharp scissors to cut along the rows.

For more information, you can read How to Cut, Connect and Power LED Strip Lights.

Also, you should ensure that the control system is ready. The examples include:

• Dimmer
• Switch
• Bluetooth controller that works without wires.

You must also ensure that you have the following things:

• Correct power adapter
• A/C power cable
• Male barrel plugs

The goal is to use an LED strip:

• Under the control of a dimmer
• A switch
• Bluetooth.

And you should keep in mind one more thing. You should follow all the steps for installing the LED strip lights. 

Step 2: Plug the Adapter Into the AC Power.

Clip a wire connector onto the end. Because each case is different, it needs a separate power adapter. You must understand the meaning of the colors. It is necessary to link the AC supply for a three-color strip.

Now, you connect the brown wire first and then the blue wire. The former goes into the adapter’s live port. And the latter links with the adapter’s neutral power. You connect the standard AC cable to the ground port. The power source needed here should be either 12V or 24V.

Step 3: Plug the Adapter Into the DC Power.

The procedure of plugging the adapter is the same as before. There are two wires; black wire and red wire. Connect the former with V- port and the latter with the V+ port.

Step 4: Light Test

You should do this test to see if everything is working smoothly. If there is no problem, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, try different power settings.

Measuring LEDs Size And Power Supplies:

Measure the Area Where You Plan On Hanging the LEDs:

Try to make a guess at first. You should have an idea of how many strip lights you will need. For different locations, you should estimate each. You should know the length that you need. If the size is not correct, it will create problems later on.

Before you proceed with anything else:

• Plan out the insertion. You should draw a picture of where you’ll put the lights.
• Suppose there are any sockets nearby that you can plug them into.
• You should see where the nearest plug is. What is the distance between the strip lights and the plug?

Test the Voltage Of the LEDs To See What They Need:

The power source for these lights is 12V or 24V. You can check this information on the label or the website where you bought the lights. For effective performance, it is necessary to have the correct power source. Otherwise, the lifespan of the strip lights gets disturbed. And they cannot work correctly in this scenario.

Sometimes, you will have to cut the LED lights into pieces or use more than one piece. You can have the same power source for more than one LED light. The 12V power source is more common. But the lights with 24V are brighter.

For more information, you can read How to Choose The Voltage of LED Strip? 12V or 24V?

Determine the Maximum Power Consumption Of the LED Strips.

Every electronic appliance runs on electricity or power. In the case of these lights, the power depends on the length. The wattage is generally mentioned on the label. You can get it from there. For total power consumption, the formula is as follows:

= watts * full length of the lights

The unit of measurement differs from area to area. So you should not forget to check the unit. It can be watts per foot or watts per meter. We can understand this by taking an example. For instance, we have a strip of 10 feet. The total output current is 24 watts. We can get the power consumption as 24/10 = 2.4 watts per foot.

Estimation Of Minimum Amperes Required:

To find the minimum amperes, we have a formula. We can figure this out by dividing the power by voltage. You must be wondering what the amperes are. It is the unit used to measure the electric current. The electric current moves quickly through the LED strip lights. If it does not move quickly, the lights will go out.

We have a tool called “Ammeter” to measure the electric current. If you don’t have this tool, there is still a method to find it. For instance, there are 24V strip lights. They use 240 watts of electrical power. To get the electric current, we apply the formula. Divide 240 by 24. The electric current used is ten amps.

Complementation Of Power Supply And Power Requirement:

You should have a power source that matches the power requirements. After the above talk, you will have an idea about the correct electricity supply. A brick-style adapter is the most popular type of power source. After linking it to the LED strip, all you have to do to use it is insert it into the wall. There can be another scene of a power source. For instance, you want to provide the energy to each strip light individually. For this, there should be an adapter for each. Each adapter has different power requirements.

For more information, you can read How To Choose the Right LED Power Supply and How to Connect LED Strip to Power Supply.

FAQs

Conclusion:

In this post, I have thoroughly discussed the process of hardwiring. Yes, it is possible to do so with LED strip lights. But you have to keep in mind the steps and the safety measures. After all, your safety is of paramount importance to us. The reward of hardwiring is significant. It adds a new touch and a new look to your home.

There is no doubt that it makes the atmosphere more aesthetic and pleasing. Keep in mind that you always buy branded and original strip lights. The company or manufacturer from where you get these should be reliable.

We are a factory specializing in producing high-quality customized LED strips and LED neon lights.
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