3 Options for LED Color Changing Lights: Which One Is Right for You?

Lighting is an important aspect of any space and it has the potential to accomplish a lot of different goals. Sure, your lights will illuminate a room. They can also draw people's attention to certain things, create a mood and add a sense of fun to your space. For businesses, perfecting your lighting with LED color changing lights enhances your brand. So, which ones are right for you?

Your Top Choices for LED Color Changing Lights

Picking the right lights for your retail or restaurant space will make a big difference in how people remember your business. Look at every area that needs lighting to see which options will work best. You can mix and match a lot of great products from HitLights to create the setup you need.

Best for Overhead Lighting

Start with smart light bulbs for your overhead lighting in each room. These lights are great replacements for the bulbs in your overhead fixtures. Their wide range of options makes them useful in many different settings.

These bulbs can create 16 million different colors, including warm light and daylight. They also work with voice control assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant, so it is easy for your facilities manager to control them. Programming different scenes is easy on these bulbs and allows you to change the lighting throughout the day with no effort.

With these LED color changing lights, no special installation is required since they are a standard A19 E26 bulb shape. They use 9.5 watts of energy while putting out the brightness of 60-watt bulbs.

Best for Outdoors

You can take great lighting outdoors with this LED strip light kit. Though these are not meant to be soaked in the rain, you can still try installing these lights on a deck or patio area to create mood lighting at night. 

These strips are made with bright 5050 LED lights, so you'll have vibrant colors in any area you add them to.

For installation, each strip comes with 3M adhesive and fixing clips so you can secure the lights anywhere. A 12v power supply keeps your lights running. The strips use 24 watts of energy, making them an efficient choice.

Best for Unique Jobs

Not all lighting jobs adhere to standard sizes. That's where these premium LED strip lights come in handy. They offer bright lighting and great color, and you can cut the strips into smaller sections. This allows you to fit the lights into tight spaces, such as display cases, shelving units and cabinets. You are able to cut and reconnect between every third LED light, making custom sizes possible.

As a bonus, these lights are RBGW, not just RBG. You can choose a color for your lights or switch to a quality white light if the moment calls for it, giving you even more options in how you use these LED color changing lights.

The strips install with high-quality adhesive tape to keep them in place. There are 300 LED lights per spool. To power the strip, you will need to get a separate DC 12v power supply and an RBGW controller to change the colors. These lights consume 4.4 watts for every foot of lights.

How To Pick the Right LED Color Changing Lights

As you're looking for the right LED lights for your next project, you want to make sure you're choosing the right option. By taking the time to learn what to check for, you can feel confident that the item you invest in will give you the results you want.

Look for the UL-Listing

Start by making sure that any light you buy has a UL logo. UL stands for Underwriters Laboratories. This company has authorization from OSHA to test the safety of different kinds of electrical products. UL looks for different signs of quality in each product to make sure the item is reliable and won't cause harm when used.

For lights, this can mean making sure the lamps won't overheat or burn out more quickly than expected. UL also rates power supplies to guard against products that would short out or pull more energy than expected. You can find many UL-listed products with HitLights, so you know you're getting LED color changing lights you can trust.

Plan Out Your Project

As you look for lights to buy, take the time to plan exactly why you need them and how you'll use them. Start with the location where you plan to install the lights. You will need special lights if you are lighting an outdoor space since not all lighting products are waterproof.

Sizing is important as well. For small spaces such as corner display cases, you may want to opt for strips that you can cut. You can fit them in the areas you need, highlighting specific items or illuminating hard-to-light workspaces.

If your plan involves trimming out an entire room in LED color changing lights, you may want to buy longer strips. This way, you can use fewer pieces and get the installation done faster and more seamlessly.

Look at Your Power Needs

LED lights need to get their energy from somewhere. For most strips, that means they need a DC power supply. When buying LED strips, check to see if the power supply comes with the kit. If not, you can always buy a separate one. Just make sure the voltage matches what your lights need.

As you consider your power requirements, you also need to plan the layout of your lights so you can easily plug them in. Your lights won't do you any good if they are too far from an outlet. LED light bulbs avoid these issues, but you are limited to placing them in traditional fixtures.

Think About Brightness

As you choose your LED color changing lights, you will want to make sure you are picking the right brightness for your space and needs. Brightness is measured in lumens. The higher the lumens, the more light your unit will give off.

Lights with higher lumens will be useful in workspaces or display cases where you want people to be able to see detail well. Lower lumens may be beneficial for backlighting a display area or creating a calmer mood. Also, check to see that your lights are dimmable. Most units are dimmable these days, allowing you to get multiple uses out of your lights.

Do You Need Extras?

Thanks to technology, your LED color changing lights can do a lot more than just turn off and on and switch colors. Several options are compatible with smart assistants. This means you can control your lights using tools such as Alexa or Google Assistant that you may already have. Turn your lights on, change the color and dim them with a simple spoken command.

Many smart LED color changing lights also work with special apps. Imagine you lock up your store for the night, only to realize you didn't check to see if all the display lights are off. You can open the app from anywhere, get the status of the lights and turn them off or on as needed without going back to the building.

You can also use LED lights to create a cool atmosphere. You can use several options from HitLights with an app that syncs the light to music. Install the lights at an outdoor bar or restaurant, and watch them pulse and change in time with the beat of the music. Now you've taken your patrons' experience to a new level.

What To Remember When Getting LED Lights

Like with any new project, installing LED color changing lights comes with a few special considerations. Start by thinking about how you are actually going to install them. Many options come with high-quality adhesive that should stay in place for years. You may be able to put them up yourself in a small retail space, but in a large restaurant or club, you might need to consider hiring a professional for the job.

LED lights have a good life span, but when a light does go out, you will need to replace that entire strip. You can't change out just one small bulb in the row.

If you are using smart features with your lights, make sure you take the same cyber security precautions you do with any other Wi-Fi-connected items, including giving devices unique names and passwords to protect them from hackers.

When you're ready to upgrade your space with great lighting and ambiance, LED color changing lights are the way to go. By finding the right unit for your needs, you can change the way people experience your store or business. Get started by contacting a HitLights expert today!