Indoor Lighting Concerns and Solutions

1. What kind of LED strip is best for an indoor accent lighting application?

For indoor accent lighting, a more seamless and uniform brightness is the best. Our SMD 3528 Regular Density LED Light Strips are going to be your best bet, available in either Cool or Warm White for most accent lighting. In case this is your first foray into LEDs, SMD just means surface mount device, and 3528 is just the dimensions of the LED itself. The 3528 LEDs are small, and thus can be grouped closer together on our strips for a seamless lighting effect. Let’s say you want to accent something a littlebigger though, our SMD 5050 LED light strips are brighter than their smaller 3528 counterparts. In addition to the two shades of white, our 5050 LED strip lights can come in RGB (multicolored) strips too!

2. What color LED strip is recommended for my kitchen?

While you’re obviously free to light your kitchen with any color of the rainbow, we suggest using either warm or cool white to accent your kitchen. Now I know what you’re thinking, what’s the difference right? Well let me tell you.  Warm white is the kind of lighting you’re probably used to in your home, work place, or really anywhere else. That’s because warm white matches the light from a typical incandescent or halogen bulb, but our LEDs are much more energy efficient than those older technologies. So if you’re looking for an old fashion feel to go with your wood and tile, but without the old fashion energy waste, warm white is your go to. Maybe you’ve got a more modern kitchen in mind? Well that’s where cool white comes into play. You see, cool white is a brighter light, similar to outdoor or “daylight.” This tone is better suited for the sleek metal appliances and stone (granite is my personal favorite) counter tops of a modern style kitchen.

3. How do I stick the LED strip lights up on the kitchen cabinets?

The strips come with an adhesive backing that should be more than suitable to keep them on your cabinets. However, it must be stressed that the surface you’ll be attaching your strips to must be clean, dry, and smooth. That means unfortunately you can’t secure LEDs to the dirty floor or your family dog, no matter how good Rover would look with RGB racing stripes. In the off chance that our standard adhesive isn’t up to snuff, we also carry additional mounting options including upgraded adhesives and mounting clips that are easy to use to get your project up and running!

4. How do I power my LED strip lights?

The thing about LEDs is they use more energy efficient DC power, but most homes are wired up with AC power. Not to fear though! Our LED light strip kits come with a 12 volt DC power adapter that plugs right into any standard wall outlet. Not interested in a kit? Don’t worry! We also sell the adapters separately in sizes from 24-350 watts, to handle any amount of power you may need! To get an idea of the adapters needed, a regular strip of our 3528′s needs a 24 watt adapter, and our regular 5050′s need the 60 watt option. If you’re really adventurous, you can even hard-wire DC power into your home; unfortunately, we don’t do house calls!

5. Can my strip lights be dimmed?

You bet they can! All of our strip lights can be dimmed or brightened to an extent in a variety of ways. The most basic way to dim your strip lights is by using the standard power adapter and one of our 12-volt dimmers for LED strips. If your strip is one of our RGB LED light strips, the remote can also control your strip's animation mode, colors, speed, and length!

6. Can I use my strip lights with my existing wall dimmer switch?

Sure thing, but instead of using a standard power adapter you'll need a dimmable driver. These can be used with any of our single-color LED strips, and a compatible dimmer switch. To see if your dimmer switch will work with a dimmable driver, you’ll have to check here.  Hopefully your project will work with the dimmable driver, and as always, we're here to help with any concerns.

We truly hope this first installment in the Trouble Shooting Series has been helpful and please remember that our customer service staff (customerservice@hitlights.com) is happy to assist you with any and all of your concerns, questions, and suggestions. If you want to call and talk with us, well that’s just fine too – (225)-304-0408!