How to illuminate stairs with LED strips?
Solve your doubts and know the entire catalog of LED Strips to illuminate stairs that we have at GreenIce
We always have many doubts when it comes to lighting a staircase, starting with which elements to use to how to carry out the installation. Currently, a very simple way that is becoming very famous is the use of LED strips.
1 Types of LED Strips
We have different types of LED strips that can be used for these configurations, as a general rule, we have analog and digital LED strips. Analog ones can be monochrome (single color), with variable color temperature (warm, natural and cold white), multicolor (RGB) and multicolor with white (RGBW), and digital RGB in its entirety. Regardless of the type of strip that has been selected, the following presentations must be taken into account, the LED strips can be 12 or 24 volts direct current, and they can also be connected directly to the 230V electrical current, in the latter case, there is only the alternative of analog LED strips, in addition, these strips have an important limitation for this type of installations that they can only be cut every meter, that is, you could not have, for example, a strip 1.5 meters long.
2 Use LED strips on the steps
A very efficient way to illuminate the staircase is to use LED strips on the steps. However, the idea, although it is easy to imagine, its way of installing is not so obvious. Despite this, it is very easy, first it is necessary to select the strip that we are going to use. We must take into account where we have the food, how much space we have and what is the width of the step. Once the LED strip has been selected, we must locate a stair profile that adapts to the dimensions of the LED strip. The most common and practical option is to use 12V strips or strips 24 volt 8 to 10 millimeters wide, and they can also be cut every 5 or 10 centimeters. This will make it much easier to select the profile, since most of these profiles are designed for LED strips with these dimensions. There are several types of profile depending on what you want to illuminate, whether you want to illuminate from the front or if you want to illuminate the vertical part of the step (an option widely used by designers).
3 How should the LED strips be connected?
Once the LED strip and the profile have been selected, the most important thing on a technical level comes, the connection, many wonder if we should connect all the strips in series or in parallel, the best option is without a doubt, connecting them in parallel. The explanation is very simple, the ideal is to guarantee the same level of light on all the steps of the ladder, if we decide to connect the strips in series, the step closest to the power supply will emit more light than the step that is furthest away, due to the voltage in the first strip will be greater than the tension received by the last one. Therefore, we must try as much as possible to connect all the strips in parallel so that all sections receive the same electrical potential (voltage), thus achieving a uniform lighting level in all sections of the staircase.
