Linear strip lighting is soft and not harsh, and also can greatly enhance the fashion and design of the space. With the popularization of light knowledge and attention to the lighting atmosphere, linear strip lighting is increasingly used in home space.

How to choose linear strip lighting for the home space? What spaces suitable for different types of linear strips ? How to apply? What are the installation details that need attention?

Low voltage light strip

Applicable area : Ceiling light, curtain box light, bedside light strip, cabinet light strip

China’s home electricity is 220V high-voltage electricity, nowdays many LED lamps and lanterns are 12V, 24V, and 48V . Compared to high-voltage lamps, low-voltage lights are safer, longer life, the size of the lamps can be made smaller, and the most important is, no strobe, the light is healthier. Home linear lights are usually used for low-voltage strip.

The most common low-voltage strip, the specification is 60-120 beads per meter, 5-10 meters a roll, and the cutting unit is 50-10cm . Usually with adhesive backing, you can directly paste in the light slot.

Some light strips will also be equipped with PVC pipe sleeve, to achieve the effect of waterproof, protection.

Low-voltage strip lighting is widely used in home space, such as ceiling lights, curtain box lights, bedside strip lighting, in-cabinet strip lighting, under-cabinet strip lighting, under-bed strip lighting, etc. low-voltage strip can be used everywhere that you need to hide the light.

The installed way of the light strip greatly affects the light.

For example, there are two most common Installation method of ceiling light: one is mounted on the inner wall of the light slot, and another is mounted in the center of the slot.

The difference between the two kinds of light effect is obvious. The former out of the light uniform gradient, the light looks more natural, soft, textured, and luminous surface is large, the visual effect is brighter. The latter is a more traditional approach, there will be a clear cut-off light, the light does not look so natural.

There are also two common installation ways of curtain boxes and ceiling edge lights. One is installed on the top of the ceiling, another is installed in the center of the light slot, the former light is more natural and soft.

In addition to the classic ceiling lights, curtain box lights,more and more areas like bedside lights, bedroom / kitchen adopt the installation way  of using light, improve the practicality of light and the comfort of home space.

In addition to the installation location, the installation details of the light strip is also very important.

1. Low-voltage strip lights need to be paired with a variable voltage power supply. Because low-voltage power is DC power supply, attenuation is more powerful than high-voltage power, the end of the strip easily look not so bright.
Therefore, the general 10m of the strip needs to be matched with a variable voltage power supply. If the strip is longer, you need to prepare more than one variable voltage power supply, power supply and strip in series to ensure that the light is evenly bright.

2. Because the light strip is relatively soft, direct installation is hard to pull straight. If the installation is not straight, the light out of the edge of the puddle, it will be very ugly. Therefore, it is best to buy PVC or aluminum slot, the light band fixed straight, the light effect is very much better.

Borderless Aluminum channel strip light

Suitable space: ceiling seamless installation, wall embedded installation

Aluminum channel light strip is based on the low-voltage light strip, adding aluminum channels and high-transmittance PC lampshade. Unlike ordinary low-voltage strip can only be used to hide the light, aluminum channel strip can create a borderless lighting effect, increasing the richness and beauty of the lighting design.

The aluminum channel light strip can be installed in the center of the ceiling without hiding it. With the addition of PC lampshade, the luminescence is bright and soft without harshness, and the borderless light strip greatly enhances the design of the space.

In many popular design spaces from Europe and the United States, aluminum channel strips are gradually replacing traditional main lights and downlights and are used for the main lighting of the space, bringing a qualitative leap in home lighting. Take corridor lighting for example, using an aluminum channel strip instead of traditional down lighting, greatly improving the quality and comfort of the light space.

The installation of aluminum channel light strip is not complicated, after the slot in the profile, loaded into the aluminum channel light strip, and then batch of putty and paint to cover it, which is more convenient than the complex way to hide the light of low-voltage light strip.

Aluminum channel light strip can also be used in the space of the Yin and Yang corners, being used in large numbers of creative design, favored by designers，which accelerating the popularity of aluminum channel light strip.

High-voltage strip & T5 lamp

Applicable: Commercial space

Nowdays, low-voltage strip and aluminum channel strip are the most mainstream strip products in the home space.

In addition to these two types of light strips, there are also old-fashioned high-voltage light strips and T5 lamps. However, these two types of light strips are currently mainly used in commercial space, and decreasing in the application of home space.

The difference between a high voltage strip and a low voltage strip is that it can be directly connected to 220V high voltage electricity without a transformer (but requires a driver). A bundle of high-voltage wire is usually tens of meters long. Because the brightness does not fade, a strip of lights only need to install a driver on it.

Compared with the low-voltage strip, the advantage of high-voltage strip is cheap cost, stable brightness, and the disadvantage is, high brightness, more blinding, and easy to have strobe. Therefore,high-voltage strip is mainly used in outdoor and municipal lighting.

T5 lamp is also one of the traditional light source, the advantage is uniform light, easy to maintain, but with the stability and life improvement of the LED , the characteristics of T5 lamp that easy to maintain is depressing. And the brightness of T5 lighting is usually higher,it is mainly used in commercial space instead of home space because the light is too harsh.