Recessed LED strip Lighting. New Construction

Parrish

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Hello, I am designing recessed LED strip Lighting for the ceiling of a house.
Plan:
3 lanes 4 feet a part of 15 ft long strips.

Each lane will be powered at each end.

Material:
Channeling
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interior 20mm wide

LED
three row SMD 2835 360LED 16mm wide

80w/5m

Power supply
2 - 12V 30A DC Power Supply Driver,360W

1 Smart switch 10A
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Questions
1) Would this supply a 16' by 20' room with enough light?
2) Is the power and configuration of power supplies correct?
3) Kind of a dumb question, the Smart switch is 10A, the power supplies are running 30A. Is that a problem?

Thank you for your help and time.

Pictures did not post sorry.
 

Lynx_Arc

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720 watts should be more than plenty of power to light an area that size I think as I have a 55 watt LED light in my garage and it is about 10 by 20 and lights up most of it just fine. As for the power supply and smart switch I would need to know if the smart switch is 120v @ 10A or not as if it is it should handle 1200 watts and your total load is about 720 watts if it efficient enough to convert 120 to 12v without too much loss.
I am not sure how much power your light strips take nor how many LED chips or lumens without further info but if it takes up most of your 720 watts of power to supply it I'm thinking it should be enough.
 

idleprocess

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Hello, I am designing recessed LED strip Lighting for the ceiling of a house.
Plan:
3 lanes 4 feet a part of 15 ft long strips.

Each lane will be powered at each end.

Material:
Channeling interior 20mm wide

LED
three row SMD 2835 360LED 16mm wide

80w/5m

Power supply
2 - 12V 30A DC Power Supply Driver,360W

1 Smart switch 10A

3x 15' LED strips, rated at 80W per 5m. For simplicity, we'll assume...
  • Each 15' segment is 5 meters
  • The power figure per segment is the sum total of power needed for the LEDs and any current-limiting circuits onboard
  • Your switch's current limit is independent of the voltage and it can switch AC or DC loads

Thus 15 meters / 5 meters = 3 segments x 80W per segment = 240W / 12V = 20A / 3 = ~6.67A per 5m strip. If you're further powering each end then the maximum current delivered per half-segment will be ~3.33A; this may be relevant since LED strips often have maximum lengths due to current limits. In reality 15 feet is about 10% less than 5 meters so your actual currents should be slightly less.

If the switch is on the AC side between mains power and the power supply, 10A is sufficient (240W / 120V = 2A; 240W / 240V = 1A). If it is on the DC side between the power supply and the LED strips then it is not and I see three scenarios for controlling the strips:
  1. Use two switches, each controlling three half segments
  2. Use 3 switches, each controlling one full segment
  3. Use one switch controlling a 20A rated relay

However I imagine that the switch is rated for - and possibly only works with - AC loads.

Questions
1) Would this supply a 16' by 20' room with enough light?
2) Is the power and configuration of power supplies correct?
3) Kind of a dumb question, the Smart switch is 10A, the power supplies are running 30A. Is that a problem?

Thank you for your help and time.

1. I don't know what sort of lighting you require, however 240 watts of any LED flavor of strip lighting I'm personally aware of will probably make the room operating theater bright and possibly uncomfortable to be in. If you're diffusing off of a ceiling you'll lose some light in the process, but I would still expect discomfort off of any reasonably reflective ceiling.

2. One power supply should be sufficient.

3. I have addressed this above.

Pictures did not post sorry.

Looks like you tried to copy-paste the image directly into the editor and it encoded as text - which makes quoting your post a challenge. Short of using CPF features to upload images separately (the specifics of which I cannot advise one having never used them), an external image host - such as imgur.com - is required.
 
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Parrish

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I would like to thank both of you Idleprocess and Lyax Arc for you response and time.

I feel bad for not giving you a better description, but I was fed up with trying after my third attempt of posting the pictures.

It sounds like I'm on the right track for this to work,

The switch is 120v @ 10A and between the main power and power supplies. I was fairly sure that 240W / 120V = 2A; but with little experience I wanted to make sure.

From my research powering LED strips 15' long works best when done from both ends for uniform brightness.
If this is correct then maybe 2 Power Supplies at 12v 12A will work.

I'm not sure of the correct way to use 1 power supply 12v 360w.

If the Power Supply has three outputs can I connect both ends from the LED to 1 output channel.

power supply v+ to 2 LED +
Power Supply v- to 2 LED -

Each channel of the power supply would be 120W / 12v is 10A 10A/ 2 ends 5A to each end of LED strip. Is this correct?


Im hearing I may need to think about a dimmer power supply or a 433hz 12v dimmer smart breaker.

Thank you again for your time.
If you have any other ideas or concerns please share.


 

idleprocess

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I would like to thank both of you Idleprocess and Lyax Arc for you response and time.

I feel bad for not giving you a better description, but I was fed up with trying after my third attempt of posting the pictures.
No worries. Glad to help.

From my research powering LED strips 15' long works best when done from both ends for uniform brightness.
This would not surprise me - the traces on all the LED strips I've encountered are shallow due to the nature of flex PCBs and have limits on current.

If the Power Supply has three outputs can I connect both ends from the LED to 1 output channel.
I'm not sure what means of connections you have available nor the limits on running wire in this room, but so long as you stay within limits - the power supply, wiring, LED strips - you can fork the leads from a power supply as often as you'd like. 'Looping' a positive or negative lead onto itself (such as powering both ends of a strip with a single supply) is not something the power supply will notice since the load is the same and lives between the negative and positive rails.

Do arrange for the power supply(s) to be serviceable - they may not last as long as the LEDs themselves.

Im hearing I may need to think about a dimmer power supply or a 433hz 12v dimmer smart breaker.
At full output I feel that the room will be extremely bright with your proposed design (likely more than 20k lumens), thus you might want fewer LEDs or some means to limit current to them beyond their inbuilt resistors. Running them at less than rated current also prolongs their operating lives. I know that there are PWM dimmers for LED strips, but their pulserate tends to be low enough to flicker perceptibly.
 

Lynx_Arc

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You could try driving the strips from the middle instead of both ends the effect would mean it is brighter in the middle and dimmer at the ends vs dimmer in the middle feeding the ends.
 
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DIWdiver

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+1 on driving in the middle of the string. We are used to seeing rooms lighted brighter in the middle than at the edges. That might look funny, if it's noticeable. Driving from the center might also mean using less wire.

I googled "20A led strip dimmer" and I see that there are some dimmers that can control your whole array with one dimmer. Most come with a key-fob type remote. These may or may not retain the setting when you turn the power supply on and off. I did see one with a knob, that would certainly retain the setting.

Most fixed-voltage DC power supplies have a small to moderate adjustment range on the output voltage. Turning this down would reduce the current load. If you have a 20A dimmer, running it at less than 20A would improve it's longevity.
 

Parrish

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Thank you again for your responses Lynx_Arcm, DIWdiver and idleprocess

I am considering powering the strips from the middle but the strip will be in a recessed channel 15' long and I do not want to create a gap in lighting. I'm also not sure how to get the power in the middle of the channel surrounded by drywall. But I'm sure I could figure something out.

Would just one power wire need to be run to the middle of each strip?


I was also thinking of using a [FONT=&quot]30A 360W CCTV Power Supply 18 Channel Port Box, Distributed Power Supply Output AC to DC 12V 30 Amp 360 Watt,
[/FONT]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V3J6YTM/?tag=cpf0b6-20

[FONT=&quot]I would replace 6 channels fuses with a 4 amp fuse or 3 channels with a 8 amp depending on install method.
The description of the units says its limited to 1.6amp/channel so I was hoping by replacing the fuses with these larger ones it would allow for higher amperage through each channel. Is this correct?

I would install a PWM inside the box.

between the Power supply and channels.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0872Z9ZPB/?tag=cpf0b6-20


The box would be going in a large crawl space. Walls and ceiling of the cabin are sip panels and a very open concept and hiding a power supply is difficult.





[/FONT]
 

Lynx_Arc

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You would need at least 2 power wires (+ and -) per strip. You may just find a clear spot and drill a hole through the strip and the channel to run the wires through or notch the channel on the side(s) for the wires.
 

DIWdiver

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Yes, you can use a single pair of wires to run the whole system. However it would need to be pretty heavy wire. Electrical code requires 12 AWG wire for 20A. But at 20A, 12 AWG wire drops a volt every 32 feet. When you start with 120V, have a 100' run, you lose 3V in each wire, so a total of 6V less at the load. No big deal. But if you only start with 12V, and you don't want to lose a big chunk of it, you need to use heavy wire and/or keep your runs short.

The distribution board may not be designed to support significantly higher currents per channel. I don't think I'd want to plan on going higher than 3A per channel without examining the PCB to see if it can handle that. You may also be able to modify the board to make some channels support higher current. I can help with that if need be.

But if you are only going to have a single output anyway, then I would remove the disty board and just use a single fuse. An in-line fuse holder could just lay in the box, or maybe you can get a panel mount holder to fit in one of the holes in the box.

It's interesting that the description says every channel is protected by a self-resetting PTC fuse, but the photo clearly shows a glass-body one-time fuse. PTC fuses are usually soldered in, so if the description is accurate, the fuses would likely be much more difficult to replace.
 

Parrish

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My mistake when I said run one wire, I mean run a +- to the middle of each strip.

Hopefully this my last post on this topic.

I will get the 18 channel port box as posted before, remove the 18 channels and replace it with [h=1]uxcell 2 Inlet 12 Outlet Terminal Strip Blocks 660V 150A Connector Distribution Block[/h]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XM6SRL2/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Mounting this and the PWM in the box should allow me to use either configuration we spoke about and protect the gear.
 
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