The lighting of a modern apartment is carried out using various design techniques and technical means, one of which is LED ceiling lighting. The most practical, cheap and effective way to organize such lighting is to use a strip with LEDs.
Benefits of LED strip
- Diode lighting provides ample opportunities for the implementation of design ideas. In particular, using an LED strip, you can make a uniform illumination around the entire perimeter of the ceiling, organize interior lighting of ceiling panels or light zoning of rooms, as well as achieve the necessary intensity and direction of the light flux.
- Ease of installation and connection. Thanks to a simple electrical circuit and a small number of elements included in it, LED backlighting can be done with your own hands.
- Low consumption of electrical energy.
Types of LED strips
Waterproof tape. A feature of this type of LED lamps is the use of a silicone shell to prevent moisture from affecting the elements of the electrical circuit.
Using tapes of this type, you can make a lighting system both inside and outside the room.
Single and multicolor ribbons. The type and color of the emission of LEDs mainly regulates their use in a particular room interior. At the moment, there are a large number of models of these lighting devices that have elements in their design with varying degrees of light intensity.
Features of mounting LED strip
Installation of LED lighting is quite simple. Its main stages are cutting the tape, mounting it, as well as connecting the adapter and controller.
pruning
Most models of this product are available in rolls or lengths of 5 meters. Naturally, when placing a tape around the perimeter of a room, segments of a strictly defined length are necessary.
Important! It is impossible to cut the tape in an arbitrarily chosen place, since this can lead to a breakdown in the electrical circuit and failure of the entire device.
To obtain a segment of the required length, it is necessary to make cuts in strictly defined places, which are marked with a dotted line, as well as an arrow or a scissors symbol.
The choice of adapter should be dictated primarily by the total power of the tape segments connected to it; to evaluate this parameter, their total length and the power of one meter of the product should be taken into account.
Wiring diagram
Connecting LED lighting systems in most cases requires the use of a reduced voltage of 12 volts. The required voltage value is obtained by using special devices - adapters that are connected to the household electrical network via a plug connector or terminal connection.
In cases where it is necessary to provide several modes of operation of the LED strip (changing the brightness of the glow, flickering or operating in the Christmas tree garland mode), a controller is used. This small device consists of a housing in which the elements of its electrical circuit are located, a plug for connecting an LED strip, and a sensor that allows you to control the operation of the controller from the remote control.
Installation
Since the LED strip is not intended for outdoor installation indoors, it is placed in such a way as to be able to illuminate certain areas, while remaining invisible.The most popular ways of mounting these products is to place them behind the stretch ceiling canvas, hiding the tape in baguettes or in plasterboard niches along the perimeter of the ceiling.
LED lighting can be arranged quite simply. The most popular way is to place a strip with LEDs around the upper perimeter of the room. Almost all models of these products have a self-adhesive base. To attach to the surface, it is enough to remove the protective film from it and attach the product to the surface along the perimeter of the ceiling, gently pressing it with your fingers along the entire length.
In most cases, you will have to use a soldering iron to connect to the electrical network. Depending on the total length of the mounted lighting system, as well as on the availability of places where sufficiently large adapters and RGB controllers can be hidden, a parallel scheme for connecting LED strips can be used, providing for their connection after leaving the adapter.
The advantage of such a connection scheme is the use of only one adapter in it, however, in this case it is quite large, which creates certain difficulties in the covert placement of this device. In addition, when connecting several LED strips, there is a significant voltage drop across their elements, which leads to a noticeable decrease in the intensity of the light emission of the LEDs located at the opposite end of the connection from the adapter.
More preferred in many cases is the use of a parallel connection, which can be performed using one or two adapters.
It is often easier to discreetly place several small secondary power sources around the perimeter of a room than one larger one. In this case, you should use a parallel scheme for connecting LED strips, in which the connection is made on the phase wires before entering the adapters.
Controller connection
RGB controllers are used to control the operation of colored LED strips. Connecting these devices is also not particularly difficult. The red and black wires coming out of the adapter are connected to the controller input. When connecting them, it is important to observe the polarity (red wire - "plus", black, respectively, "minus"). Next, the wires leading to the LED strip are connected to the controller output.
Marking used:
- R - wire with red insulation.
- G - with green.
- B - blue.
The fourth wire is common. As with connecting a single-color tape, it is undesirable to combine their sections into serial connections that exceed 5 m in total length.
When connecting several color tapes in parallel, it is often necessary to use fairly massive power supplies or, as an option, install additional signal amplifiers.
The infrared sensor that the controllers are equipped with should be placed in such a way that its location does not interfere with the transmission of the control signal from the remote control.
LED ceiling lighting is most in demand as additional lighting systems that can advantageously emphasize certain interior details, focus on some of its elements or highlight the functional areas of the room. Since the installation of LED strips is quite simple, and their price is quite acceptable, today these devices are rapidly gaining popularity as an element of home electrical wiring.
