How to Plan and Prep for Strip (Tape) Lighting

Strip lighting, also known as tape lighting, is ever-increasing in popularity. Strip lighting is a great option for adding lighting to areas that may not usually be well-lit. These include kitchen cabinets, shelving, and highlighting objects or furniture. Take a look at all the questions you should consider and think about before ordering tape lighting. 

First, let's start with explaining strip lights. What is strip (tape) lighting?

• LED  strip lights are strips of LED diodes that operate on low-voltage DC power. They are literally strips of tiny little lights that emit energy for a continuously lit space. 

Where do you have power? 

• This is important because you need to think about where you'll connect your drivers. Drivers give the tape lights power. Because strip lighting runs on low-volt power, drivers are required to convert the typical 120v energy down to 12v. 

How many feet of tape lighting do you need? 

• This will depend largely on your project. Whether you're installing strip lights in a kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom be sure to measure out the space. This will help you figure out how much tape lighting to purchase as well as the type of driver you need. The driver needs to be big enough to run the tape. For example, tape light usually uses 1.44 watts per foot so if you have a 10' run (14 watts) you would need a 20-watt driver. 

What color scale (kelvin) are you going for? 

• Color scale, or kelvin, refers to the color of the light you want to emit. Many people opt for a warmer white (2700K-3000K) for their residential spaces. This can give the space a warm, inviting glow. 

Are there any spots where we need connectors? 

• Basically, you'll want to look out for any corners, turns, or breaks that the tape lighting will need to make. You'll need to connect either tape to tape or tap to wire. This way you can continue a run on the same driver if you have a break (i.e. between cabinets) and use the same power source.

 Now comes the time to decide on the type of tape you want and how you should install it. Below are the most common tapes you can choose from. We recommend Diode LED due to their extensive quality control and the overall longevity of their products. 

 Installation Guides for Tape Lighting: 

How do I size a driver?

Every tape has a wattage per foot, each tape is different, each lumen is different. You find the wattage on the spec sheets. For Valent 200 it is 1.72 watts per foot. If I was doing a kitchen and it had 15’ of tape in the kitchen I would multiply 15 x 1.72 which is 25.8 watts. I could use an Omni Drive X 30W driver for this job. Other things to consider when figuring out drivers. 1) Placement. If I put 7’ of tape around an island and the rest is going under the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, I will want two drivers, just for ease of installation. 2) Every tape has a max run. Streamlite for instance is old school and maxes out at 16.4’. If I had a long island and needed 20’ the best practice is to split that in two and run 10’ of tape on either its own driver or get a larger driver (1.72 x 20= 34.40) like a 60W driver and run both runs back to the driver. If you do need long runs our Blaze and Valent run between 30-40’ for one run.

Above Cabinet or Cove Lighting

You can use Blaze for this due to the height of the ceilings, there should be no dotting. If it is just a glow use Blaze Basics 100. If you want some light use Blaze Basics 300. If it is a high ceiling and there is more than three feet above the cove you need to use Valent 500 to reach up into that ceiling area. S1 channels are suggested for protection- but you do not need them since it is hidden. For small jobs that use Blaze use the Omni Basics Driver. For cove jobs with long runs or when using Valent use the Omni X Driver.

Slat Walls/Mud-In

You don’t want to see dotting, use Streamlite for these jobs

Ambiance- Streamlite and the S2 canal or mud-in channel with Omni X Driver.

Lighting- Many slat walls are in hallways and are a source of lighting.

   Lighting with cans- Streamlite 4, canal black channel or mud-in channel with Omni X Driver.

   Main Source of Lighting- Valent 500 or 800 depending on the room, canal black channel or mud-in channel with Omni X Driver.

Wet Tape Installations

Inside Installations- Bar areas and if you have a concerned installer bathroom toe kicks.
All our tape options (Blaze, Valent, Valent X and Streamlite) have a plastic jacketed version that is IP65. You would consider the same things you did for the above installations when installing wet tape. Please note*** That jacketed version makes the tape bulky, and it will only fit in a few channels S2, 16MM, 20MM, and A1 (which comes in black and white). There are no connectors. If your customer buys a roll they will need to solder leads to the tape. We are happy to do custom leads at the factory for these jobs and recommend it. We do not suggest this material for outside (the jacket material will turn black in the sun) or showers (it is ugly to look at and channels are not suggested for showers because they are areas to pool water).

Outdoor Installations-
IP65- Damp Rated- Neon Blaze- Field Cuttable or Custom. This is a good product for under eaves, patio lighting, gazebo lighting- anything with a little UV protection and protection from water (rain or sprinklers). Also good for stair installations, bridges, and under the deck.

IP67- Wet Rated and UV Protection- Linnaire- Field Cuttable or Custom. This can be in direct rain or sprinklers and has more UV protection. This is good for flower bed installations, or garden walks. It can also be wrapped around buildings or used for exposed signage. It can also be used in showers above the shower line. (Depending on the shower it may be able to be used below the shower line as well.) Due to the different styles this is a better option for stair installations, under the deck and handrails.

IP65- Immersible in water and UV Protection- Alphatech- Custom- This can take super hot and super cold temps and is sauna and steam shower rated. Can be put into the shower, but also ponds and pools. It can be poured into cement because it is impacted rated and can be walked on. It also can be pressure washed, so has unique applications in commercial kitchens and salad bars as well as manufacturing applications.


Color Installations

Use the same principles for the above applications. For indoor installation we suggest Streamlite RGBW. It is the best RGBW but also least expensive. For outdoor applications we have Neon in RGB and Alphatech in RGBW. Streamlite can be field cuttable, but the soldering pad is extremely tiny, so we suggest custom cuts for all color jobs.

Controls- You do need to ask how the customer wants to control the system. For the installers they need to be aware for every piece of tape (or 100W of tape that is on one run) they will need a receiver and a constant voltage driver, our is the VLM. Depending on the system they will need other parts as well. See below.

App System- Casambi- All you need is the receivers and the app is free. We like this system because it is open-ended. You can have as many scenes as you want, put scenes on timers and create calendar changes (so the Christmas scene will pop up on December 1st.) It does have an optional wall mount that Diode does not stock, but it can be sourced.

Wall System- Touchdial simple basic. You need the receivers and the wall control unit to run the system. Limited scenes with a color wheel. Most commercial applications like wall controls. DMX Wall Control- A little more advanced, also used in commercial applications or commercial theaters. You need the receivers, the decoder and the wall control. Nicolaude DMX wall control. This is usually going into an area that has a DMX system already and you need the receivers, decoders, and wall control. We do sell the DMX systems as bundles.

Remote Control System- Touchdial. Limited scenes with a color wheel. You need receivers and remote control (It has a wall basket so it can sit up on the wall or you can take it out and walk around with it).

 Special thank you to Diode LED for their guidance for tape lighting.