Recessed lighting is commonly used in rooms where ceiling height is an issue. These fixtures are essentially placed flush into your ceiling and project light from a hole or an opening on an otherwise clear plane.

Often you'll find this kind of lighting in an area that utilizes dropped ceilings with removable panels. Ceilings like these are usually implemented because they are concealing pipes or wiring that is exposed beneath the original ceiling - this practice can commonly be seen in basements and industrial spaces where aesthetics weren't initially taken into consideration.

Since recessed lighting is usually exposed to the underside of sensitive wiring or pipes, there are a number of potential dangers that present themselves when these fixtures are used.

A common mistake is using recessed lighting that produces too much heat for the amount of space left between the dropped ceiling and the original. Be sure when you're installing these devices that a qualified electrician, like the kind employed by John C. Flood, verifies there is enough ventilation and room between objects that excess heat won't make the area a fire hazard.

If you notice that you have a recessed lighting fixture which is dim and periodically flickers back to full brightness, this may be a sign that the wattage of the light bulb is too powerful for the lamp. Most recessed models will have heating sensors built in that automatically dim the light to avoid flames. One solution might be to lower the strength of the bulbs that you use in these features, although the bigger problem may be that your lighting instruments themselves were installed in too close quarters.

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Strips with more LEDs per foot will consume more power.

In short, if maximum energy efficiency is what’s most important to you, choose a light strip with smaller LEDs and fewer LEDs.

In order to ensure your LED power supply doesn’t overheat and fail prematurely, we use this general rule of thumb:

Make sure the total wattage of your LED strip lighting is at least 20 percent less than the power supply’s rated wattage.

For example, if you have an LED strip light that requires 80 watts of power to run, you’ll need a power supply that’s rated for at least 96 watts.

The vast majority of our strips include wattage per foot right on their product pages.

power supplies range from six watts to 1,500 watts for compatibility with a wide variety of LED strip lights.

Let’s take a look at an example:

It’s important to verify that the voltage of the power supply you choose is compatible with the voltage of your LED strip lighting. Also, be sure that the power supply’s input voltage matches that of the location it will be installed in. If you have an LED strip with 12-volt DC operation that you wish to use in a 120-volt AC home wiring system, you’ll need a power supply that includes 120 volts in its input range and has 12-volt DC output.

Another factor to take into account for longer runs is voltage drop. A significant voltage drop is present after a certain distance of LED strip. After this distance, there will not be enough voltage present to light the next length of strip. This varies depending on the type of strip and length being used. Usually, a single-density strip (nine or less LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 32 13/16 feet (10 meters). A high-density strip (18 or more LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 16 3/8 feet (5 meters). Please refer to “Max Run” in the specifications table of the strip light to determine how many can be run continuously without a parallel run back to power.

3) the 4) if you want your strip to be dimmable

power supply calculator on the product pages of all of our LED strip lights!

There are a few steps involved:

Step 1: Select your strip and the length you need.

Step 3: Click the green “Power Supply Calculator” tab, and select your product by choosing it from the list OR by pasting the exact part number in the search bar.

Step 4: Enter the number of strips at the desired length you’ve selected and voila! You’ll see a list of all compatible power supplies with the best match at the top of the list!

When dealing with electronics, safety is paramount, and you want everything to work like it’s supposed to. So if you’re still not sure which power supply to use for your LED strip lighting project, just reach out to our technical support team or customer service department at 866-590-3533. Our teams are available from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Monday-Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT on Friday.