You might come with questions like “Do LED strip lights cost a lot of electricity?” or “Are LED strip lights worth it?”
The simple fact is LED strip lights are really economical but stick to this article to get all your queries answered.
LED (light-emitting diodes) strip lights are becoming very popular these days. Everyone is using them to decorate their homes and offices. LED light strips are there to illuminate the event, from small birthday parties at home to mega-events like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. These lights are an easy way to get theatrical effects at home.
You may like to add a hip feel to your bedroom, closet, mirror, or exhibition hall by installing LED ribbon lights. But no one will do this before checking his wallet.
LED strip lights provide a wide spectrum of vivid colors at a low cost and high quality. These lights consume very low electricity as compared to traditional light strings and incandescent bulbs. The reason lies in their less heat and more bright light production.
These strip lights are basically the collection of many LEDs on a common circuit. This LED tape is flexible, easy to install, comes with many color options, and is customizable, adhesive, and economical.
LED strip lights may require expensive installation, but they prove to be cost-efficient in the long run. Factors like light density and length of the strip are actually determinants for its cost.
Plus, 10 hours of daily usage can make them live for as long as 10 years. Moreover, a typical 5m strip will almost cost less than 3$. That is pretty good, right?
How much Power Does an LED Strip Light Consume?
The power consumption (watts per meter) depends on various characteristics of the strip.
- The density of light plays an important role in this regard. A typical LED strip comes with 30 diodes per meter. At the same time, a high-density strip will have 3 to 4 times the number of diodes
- The other important factor is the size of the diode, which is often a four-digit figure. The diode with a longer length will draw more power and will be brighter than a shorter one. The same is the case for the length of LED strips
Consequently, a high-density strip with a long length and larger diode size will consume the highest power.
What Power Supply do you need for Your LED Strip Light?
It would help if you did a simple calculation to find the appropriate power supply for your LED strip. Firstly, you need to know two things:
- Power consumption in watt per meter (given on the datasheet of the strip)
- Length of the strip in meters
Then you simply need to multiply these two figures to get the number of watts for supply. For instance, if you have an LED strip of 9 m length and the power consumption given is 16 W/m. Then you need a supply of 9×16= 144 watts in total.
But the recommendation is that you should select a power supply with higher power than required to cope with any unintentional overloads.
Do LED Strip Lights Increase Your Electricity Bill?
The simple answer to this question is no. Actually, your home’s electricity bill majorly depends on heavy types of machinery like refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners.
In fact, you will see a decrease in your bill if you replace the traditional lights with LED lights. If you have a lot of lights at your place that you have on for a long time, then LED strip lights can be a promising substituent.
As far as the cost of lighting is concerned, you will see a decline in it by using LEDs instead of incandescent or halogen bulbs. These energy-efficient lights will reduce the amount of electricity used for lighting by roughly 80%, thus decreasing your bill.
All LED lights are designed to last almost 21 times longer than incandescent bulbs. The average life of LEDs is estimated to be almost 23 years. Their longer span cuts your lighting expenses for a long period. So, installing these lights becomes a no-brainer when they are causing a massive reduction in your monthly electricity bill.
LED vs. Traditional Lighting
Let’s compare LED lighting with a traditional lighting system like incandescent, CFL, or halogen bulbs:
Incandescent Bulbs vs. LED Lights:
Incandescent bulbs are basically filament bulbs that produce heat and light when electricity flows through them. At the same time, LED bulbs are diodes that use electrons to produce photons. LED bulbs do not heat up easily and thus have longer lives.
Moreover, due to less energy dissipation, they consume less power than incandescent bulbs for the same levels of brightness. You can replace a 60-watt incandescent bulb with an 11 watt LED. Similarly, a 100-watt bulb can be substituted by a 13 watt LED.
CFL Bulbs vs. LED Lights:
CFL produces visible light via invisible ultraviolet light generated by inert gasses like argon and mercury vapors. The CFL bulbs are dim at first, then gradually warm-up and get bright. These bulbs are almost 70% energy efficient as compared to incandescent ones.
But still, these are less efficient than wonderful LEDs. A 16 watt LED bulb can replace a 25 watt CFL bulb with the same level of brightness by lowering energy consumption from 216 kWh/year to 140kWh per year.
Halogen bulbs vs. LED Lights:
Halogen bulbs use halogen gasses to produce infrared lights. They may look cheaper than LED lights but have many disadvantages over these lights. The halogen bulbs are more fragile, produce a lot of heat, and contain harmful gasses.
But LED bulbs are much safer to use, and they consume 80% less energy as compared to halogen ones. A 10 watt LED bulb can efficiently replace a 42-watt halogen bulb.
How Much Money Could you Save by Using LED Light Strips?
As stated above, these luminous LED lights could save you money in two ways, i.e., by reducing your lighting cost and by their long lifespans. Even if you are using CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) in your homes, which are much better than incandescent lamps, LED strips will still use almost 18% less electricity as compared to them.
For instance, we can compare a 5 meter,9.6 watt LED tape with an equivalent incandescent bulb (275 watts) and calculate the annual cost for each of them at the usage of 4 hours per day and at the cost of 14p per kilowatt-hour. In this case, LED strip saves about £46.40 each year over an equivalent incandescent lamp bulb.
If you live in the USA, you might have around 40 light bulbs in your home on average. In that case, you can save 300 USD a year by replacing them all with LEDs.
Which Kind of Strip LED Lights Cost More?
You may find some LED lights much more expensive than other kinds that you suspect are unreasonable rather than economical. Like everything, pricing in this case also depends on the quality of chips, coating, and resistors used in the strip.
- Inexpensive LED strips; there is less difference between chips on the strip as compared to cheap one
- If the PCB track is made of some efficient conductor like copper, then the strip will cost more
- Cheap LED strips use smaller resistors, whereas expensive ones have appropriate resistors
- The coating is also one of the important determinants. High-quality strips come with a durable, water-proof, odorless, splash-proof, and stable coating. Also, cheap LED strips are irritable for sensitive noses due to their unpleasant odor
How to Make LED Strip Lights Last Longer?
LED strip lights don’t produce much heat, but if they are kept on 24/7, their life span will be affected. LEDs work on a simple principle of reducing life span to half for every 10°C rises in temperature.
So, they should not be overheated. Once they get too hot to touch, they should be left off for 10-15 minutes. This will increase their life and durability.
Frequently Asked Questions
1-What are RGB LED strip lights?
RGB stands for primary colors red, green and blue. These colors combine to give all the colors of spectrum and you get color changing LED strips.
2-How long can LED strip lights stay on?
These lights have an average lifespan of almost 50,000 hours which means they will keep illuminating your place for almost 17 years.
Last Words
With all that said, we can conclude that LED strip lights cost much less electricity as compared to conventional lightings. These lights are more long-lasting and economical than incandescent, CFL, or halogen bulbs. They are not a purchase but an investment.
The LED strip lights are truly worth it. Besides their reasonable price, LED strip lights are high in demand and fashion these days. This Christmas, you must think of LED lights to illuminate your home and workplace.
LED strip lights can add a cheer to your wallet and glamor to your place. All you need is to make an on-time investment and use them with care. It’s time to start saving money.
