Installing LED Tape – how to wire your large LED projects
How do I install LED strips longer than 5 metres?
Many suppliers of LED strip lights sell their products in standard 5m reels only. Very often, these companies don’t have real in-depth knowledge or experience of LED tape projects, and they can’t give their customers installation advice.
One of the questions we get asked most often is, “how do I install more than 5m of LED tape?”
Maximum lengths
LED strips are typically manufactured in 5m reels, as this is roughly the maximum length you can install in one continuous length without getting a voltage drop towards the end of the reel. Any longer, and the LEDs at the end of the reel appear less bright than those close to the power supply.
(In reality, our experience is that it’s actually possible to install around six metres of single-colour LED tape in one continuous length before your eye will notice a voltage drop and a consequent loss of brightness. This can depend on the type of LED tape you are using; 24v LED strips carry the current better, so longer lengths are less likely to suffer any voltage drop.
How to wire LED strip lights in parallel
The key to installing LED tape in lengths longer than 5m is to wire your LED strips to your transformer in parallel. Are you wondering if you’ll need a transformer for every 5m LED strip that you plan to install? Well, you don’t! You can wire multiple strips back to one single transformer – just as long as the total wattage of your LED tape doesn’t exceed the transformer’s output.
As we’ve already said, you can’t simply join the reels together in series with a single starter-lead (end-to-end) – as that would certainly produce a significant voltage drop along the tape’s length. Instead connect the three reels to your transformer separately, using three starter-leads, then install them in position with the ends butted close together, without gaps, so the light would be continuous and the three strips of LED tape appear to be a single reel.
Follow these wiring guidelines, and the brightness of your LED strip lights will be consistent from start to finish.
How would I install LED strip lights in a rectangle?
Are you planning to install LED strip lights all around your living room, in a rectangle? Are you wondering how best to do this, and how many cables you’ll need? Well, here’s a wiring diagram that will help.
Two LED strips doesn’t always mean two cables back to a transformer and receiver – as you can see on this wiring diagram.
Can you wire LED tape in a ring main?
If you wire your LED strip lights in a ring main, you’ll be able to connect approximately 10 metres of tape in a single run. (So that’s twice the normal 5m length).
This is because the ring main will power your LED strip from both ends; it’s just as if you are powering 2 x 5m lengths independently.
How to wire a LED tape project with multiple zones/areas
Here is a wiring diagram showing how to wire a multiple-area project. It uses RGB 15w 24v LED tape (up to 5m reels) and a multizone controller.
This approach is very common in locations where there are several areas that can’t be wired together. Restaurants, hotels, night clubs, and even large homes often use a design like this.
