Originally Posted By: Dignan
I've been looking at LED light strips recently myself. They're great for this kind of situation. Some of them can be a little dim for task lighting, but still pretty good. They're all over Amazon.

The annoyance for me is that most of them can't be dimmed using my home automation system. I have to use an on/off appliance module in my ZWave system, because while the LEDs can be dimmed, it usually has to be done using transformers. It looks like there's one or two ZWave transformers starting to hit the market, though, so I'm getting more intrigued.
When shopping for LED lighting strips, first figure out how much light (lumens) you need (per foot), and which LED chip type can provide that amount of light (per foot).

Don't look for the cheapest, look for the LED type and brightness first, and the number of LED per foot (or meter). The older, smaller LED chips such as 3528 tend to cost less but put out a lot less light per chip.

Then look at the color temperature and CRI index (if that info is available). This determines the quality of the light. I prefer the 'warm' LED with color temperature around 2700K to 3300K. Others may prefer the 'whiter/colder' 5500K. 6500K to me is getting way too harsh/purple/blue tinged.

All LED dimming is done at the 12 volt DC level, using PWM power slicing to control the brightness. I am unaware of a 'low voltage transformer' for LED strip lighting that can be 'dimmed' from an AC 120 volt wall switch dimmer or equivalent. Of course, none of these 12 volt power modules are actual magnetic transformers. Sometimes called 'electronic transformers', which to me is just a confusing terminology.

Edit: Hmmm, maybe this would be useful for your remote control lighting system? Specs and description are rather thin on what it actually does.

Or this from Armacost.


Edited by K447 (12/02/2016 05:08)