Do LED strips consume a lot of electricity?
Content
If you're thinking about using LED strips in your home, it's important to understand how much electricity they use.
LED strips consume less electricity than conventional incandescent lamps. A typical 15-foot lane costs less than $11 per year to operate. So you don't have to worry about leaving the LED strips on all night.
They won't make a big difference on your electricity bill, and they don't produce much heat that could start a fire.
We'll go into more detail below.
What is LED strip?
LED strips are a new and flexible way to light up a room. Although these lights come in a variety of styles, in general you can expect.
- They consist of many individual LED emitters on a thin, flexible printed circuit board.
Use a direct current (DC) source with low voltage.
- You can make your project however you want, as long as you want to cut the strip every few inches.
- The LED strip is flexible enough to bend 90 degrees in the vertical direction.
- There are many options for single color and changing colors.
- Since they are only 1/16" thick, you can hide them in small spaces.
- On the reverse side of the strip there is a strong adhesive tape that allows you to remove and stick the bulbs to different surfaces.
- There are other ways to adjust the brightness.
- You can change the colors, length, width, brightness, voltage, color rendering index (CRI) and other parameters of the stripes.
How much electricity does an LED strip consume?
If an LED strip uses less power than an incandescent light bulb, the next question that comes to mind is probably "How much electricity do these strips use?"
The average LED strip consumes 7 to 35 watts of power. This power largely depends on the product. More environmentally friendly, strip lights use very little electricity, while bright, full-function lights can use almost as much electricity as a regular light bulb.
Most lamps use less power than their maximum wattage. This is because you probably won't turn them on at full brightness every day.
However, if you buy the brightest strip lights with the most panels, you can use up to 62 watts if you turn the lights on full blast.
Energy efficiency of LED strips
LEDs are very energy efficient. LED lighting converts most of its energy into light, not heat. This is different from traditional lighting, which uses a lot of heat.
Therefore, LED strips require less energy than other types of lighting (eg fluorescent or incandescent) to achieve the same light level.
How long can LED strips be left on?
Theoretically, you can always leave the LED strip on, but I wouldn't recommend doing that.
Although it will be cheaper than a strip of incandescent light, you will use up many hours of transformer (power supply) life.
If the transformer had time to cool down between uses, it would last longer.
So if you only use your tape for 5 hours a day, the transformer will last a lot longer.
It would be helpful if you also thought about how heat would be dissipated. If you leave the tape on for a long time, it will generate more heat.
If you want the strip light to stay on for more than a few hours, or even permanently, you'll need to install a heatsink. This is especially important if the strip is in a room with no ventilation.
Do LED strips increase your electricity bill?
So how much electricity do LED lights use and how much does it cost?
Let's look at real examples to show how much it costs to run light bars.
To compile this table, we used the average cost of electricity in the US, which is 13 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).
A kilowatt hour is the amount of energy that can be generated in one hour at 1,000 watts of power. So to convert watts to kWh, you multiply the number of hours and divide by 1,000.
We also use 1.3 W/m for bare density strip and 3 W/m for high density strip as examples of how much power they use. Keep in mind that some bands can be much higher.
This means that even if you stretch a high-density LED strip 15 meters and turn it on for an hour, it won't cost you much more than half a cent.
Let's see what it means all year round if you use LED strips 10 hours a day.
So, if you buy a shorter, standard-density tape, you'll be spending less than $3 for a full year of regular use. On average, even a long strip with lots of LEDs costs less than $22/year or less than $2/month.
Costs will increase if you want to light up kitchen cabinets, false ceilings, vaults, etc.
Do LED strips last longer?
Lamps only last a certain number of hours, but if you take care of something, it can last a long time. LED lamps last much longer than incandescent lamps. The way LED lights are made largely explains why they last so long.
Incandescent Christmas lights burn like coals because electric current flows through the heated filament inside the light bulb.
The more electricity passes through the filament, the light gets brighter and the filament eventually burns out. This will break the electrical circuit or reconnect it. This means that it is not difficult to burn out your incandescent bulbs.
Price range of LED strips
Some strip lights are simple and sold as cheaper, while others are more complex and have many features. Due to these different design approaches, the cost of installing an LED strip can vary greatly.
Popular LED strips can cost anywhere from $15 to $75, depending on how advanced they are.
In most cases, less expensive strip lights have fewer features and are simpler. At the same time, the more expensive options have a lot to offer, such as advanced customization, Wi-Fi, and different color schemes.
Summing up
While each LED strip consumes a different amount of electricity, overall they are more energy efficient, cost effective, and beneficial to the average consumer than traditional light sources. LED strips also have other benefits, including a smaller carbon footprint, more customization options, and positive effects on health and mood.
Take a look at some of our articles below.
- How to connect an LED light bulb to 120V
- How to connect a light bulb holder
- Heat lamps consume a lot of electricity
