LED Lighting for your home needs planning! {VLOG}

LED Lighting for your home needs planning! {VLOG}

In today’s NJroute22.com VLOG – we talk about a general interest topic revolving around “LED Lighting,” or more specifically – indirect LED STRIP lighting.

This is not a “how-to,” per se. Rather, it’s an honest look at what ordinary homeowners or apartment-dwellers might want to consider before delving into this hobby or industry.

Proper LED Strip Light installation requires planning

In case you want to install these “cool” LED Strip Lights, you need to really go over what you want to accomplish before you invest time or money.

The world of LED lighting is not as simple as just putting some sticky LED Strip Lights up in a few minutes. Unless you want it to look cheap, or not be installed well.

But before we get started down our route, there are some easy “hacks” that might allow for a quick and inexpensive route, such as:

– Lighting behind your flatscreen TV. Those are pretty easy and don’t require much. Can be had for under $15.00

– Also, you can get simple LED light bulbs that change color. This also gives you the ability to enhance the mood of your room, just not as fancy as under-counter or behind cabinets.

Once you want more than that – you have to roll your sleeves up and do some considerable planning and careful thought and research.

The LED Strip Lighting world is a bit overwhelming

Buying a roll of strip lights is easy.

Installing it properly is not.

They make it look easy for simple, straight installations. But if you want something a bit more sophisticated it’s time to TAKE YOUR TIME!

There are tons of accessories, mounting apparatus, wires, and connectors to look into.

Much of the time, you will be required to both CUT your LED lighting, as well as “jump” over one area that does NOT need the light to the next area that DOES.

You also have to plan how many different sets you might need, and where the AC power source will be.

It’s like putting a puzzle together.

Research how the LED lighting systems work

This means understanding the various parts and accessories actually WORK. It’s not as clear cut as you might suspect.

If you have an “easy” install – that can be accomplished with ONE continuous line of lights – your work is a bit easier.

But if you have an installation that has many jumps between light and no light, you have a much larger project ahead of you.

Becoming informed about the various kinds of lights is also imperative. There are a few YouTube channels out there that indeed help. Doing it blindly by just browsing your favorite online store isn’t as helpful.

Knowing what colors you want – and whether true WHITE is important to you must be determined before you go shopping.

Study, document, plan your LED Strip Light project

Once you’ve done a little homework – you have to literally do mock installations. Look at every place you may or may not want light.

Drawing diagrams is essential for a proper system.

You need to figure out how much of each light, you need. (Always buy MORE than you think). Determining what “grade” or voltage is also daunting. Price creep comes into play (i.e., the cheapest color LED Strip Lights are often the lowest possible quality).

The same holds true for connectors. What types you need, and how many.

On top of that – even if you’ve made all the purchases – you STILL need to continue planning and “testing.” Because each light strip has different lengths between terminals – and that could very well affect how your installation looks – and so on.

Your original idea of sticking some light in one spot – may change as you work the plan out.

After all that research – you need to feel confident

I would suggest several weeks of looking into this industry before you make the commitment.

You really want to know what you’re getting into. What brands might be preferred, etc. Look into other sources, such as online businesses that specialize in this type of product, instead of buying on Amazon or eBay. The number of options on Amazon is downright massive. The market is flooded to the brink with products from China.

Keep delving deeper and deeper. You’ll keep discovering new aspects of this whole lighting industry that you didn’t know about yesterday. The hole goes deep.

But once you’re armed with that information – your confidence goes up. And you’re probably now ready to at least give it your first shot.

We may start our own LED lighting installation business after this!