15m LED strip light around ceiling for son's bedroom

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amywilson

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#273168 8-Aug-2020 20:16

Hi Guys,

Newbie here!

My son has requested LED strip lighting around his ceiling for his birthday at the end of August. So I've spent the last few hours turning the internet upside down trying to figure this all out and unfortunately I feel no further ahead. Before I give up on the whole idea I thought I'd ask you guys for some direction - surely this must be way more simple than I think!

- The perimeter of his room is 15m

- He wants to be able to control the lights from his phone (so I'm guessing bluetooth)

- I can wire the lights into the lightswitch (do I need some sort of transformer? and I'd also have to hide the controller somehow?)

- Or I can plug them into the ceiling space and drill a small hole (will the bluetooth controller work through the ceiling?)

- Or I guess I can plug them into his wall socket and run some cabling up the wall (will look kinda yuck?)

From what I've read, 5m tends to be the longest strip you can have. I can run 5m in each direction but that still won't get me to 15m. And I have no idea the best way to wire these in - how does everyone do it?

And lastly, will these look silly stuck onto the architraves? Are you supposed to put them in some sort of diffuser?

Bearing in mind that all this is for an 11 year old so I don't want to spend a massive amount.

Any help, direction, information, or aliexpress links would be massively appreciated! Thanks!

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#2536804 8-Aug-2020 20:38

I'm curious why he wants that? That many LEDs will be fairly bright if you get the dim ones, and could be super super bright.

LEDs often get put into a metal track sort of thing, called an LED profile, costs about $13 per meter at least for that random one I found, so $195 for that. Based on a random listing on trademe I reckon LEDs will cost you $200. Then wiring, power supply, etc, might cost you $500+, unless someone here has a good idea. I don't think this would be difficult, but I've only had it done once under the bathroom vanity and I just had my electrician do it. I did look into doing something similar myself once and it seemed pretty easy, but it was ages ago and I don't remember the details. Someone here will sort you out though. I expect you can put a power supply in the roof and drill down.

richms

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#2536809 8-Aug-2020 20:58

There are arlec ones at bunnings for quite cheap, one of them was wifi controlled. Not sure if you can extend them out that far on the supplied power supply, otherwise buy 2/3 sets and you will be good to go.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/arlec-grid-connect-smart-5m-led-white-colour-changing-strip-light_p0099708

Edit:

https://quinled.info/2018/09/17/rgbwwcw-led-strips/

This guy has done quite a bit of review for the quality strips off aliexpress etc, That will possibly be a problem unless you pay for fedex/dhl delivery to hit your timeframe.

In anycase, if you are going that way, get 24v strip, any controller should be able to do twice as long compared to 12v strip, just need a 24v power supply into the controller. I have in the past got many of the magichome controllers for things around the place, but recently been finding their cloud is dropping out alot and alexa cant control them.

Richard rich.ms

scuwp

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#2536814 8-Aug-2020 21:36

We brought a 3m strip from Bunnings. Cost about $40. That is more than enough for a bedroom, very bright! Just plugs into a wall switch and came with a remote to do dozens of different colours, patterns, etc. We just used small command hooks to put it up along the roofline. Seems a 'fad' at the moment for making Tik Tok videos.

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chevrolux

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#2536816 8-Aug-2020 22:13

timmmay:
I'm curious why he wants that? That many LEDs will be fairly bright if you get the dim ones, and could be super super bright.

TikTok

CrashAndBurn

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#2536920 9-Aug-2020 07:29

What's up with kid's and LED's 😆 My son just asked for the exact same thing for his birthday next month.

eracode

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#2536921 9-Aug-2020 07:38

Ah, Tik Tok. Presumably the LED strips are made in China ..... ?

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

timmmay

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#2536923 9-Aug-2020 08:33

Isn't TikTok just stupid short videos for people with too much free time and short attention spans?

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2536948 9-Aug-2020 10:25

timmmay:

LEDs often get put into a metal track sort of thing, called an LED profile, costs about $13 per meter at least for that random one I found, so $195 for that. Based on a random listing on trademe I reckon LEDs will cost you $200. Then wiring, power supply, etc, might cost you $500+, unless someone here has a good idea.

You can get LED profiles from AliExpress, but realistically you are limited to 1m lengths. I wanted some 2.5m LED profiles, but the largest I could get shipped was 2m. Cost about $10 per meter including LED strips of the same length, but you would probably want to use a continuous strip instead. Due to the voltage drop, 24V LED strips are better choice to give a more even brightness over their length. I would divide the 15m into separate walls. You can get LED power repeaters so each set of lights can have their own power supply, but they're still dimmed or colour changed by a single PWM source.

Daynger

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#2536969 9-Aug-2020 11:26

Most LED strip comes with an adhesive backing on it already, you could use that to attach to the architrave edge but usually the strip gets hot enough to weaken the glue on the adhesives over time.

5m is the recommended longest runs used as sometimes the far end can be a bit duller due to volt drop, i have fed both ends of strips before for long runs.

The wiring should be like this: Switch->LED Driver->Dimmer/colour controller->LED strip.

Do only one or two sides, it will be plenty bright enough.

If you have a large ceiling cavity it should be easy enough to install too, small hole for LED strip wires into room then all the control gear above in ceiling space on top of any insulation or attached to a truss to help keep it cool and make it last longer.

Something like this ( https://www.bunnings.co.nz/arlec-grid-connect-smart-5m-led-white-colour-changing-strip-light_p0099708 ) as suggested above would be the best bet, local warrantee and ask for an SDoc so you know you are covered if it bursts into flames and you lose part of your house.

chevrolux

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#2537029 9-Aug-2020 11:56

If you are comfortable with a tiny bit of soldering, the Shelly RGBW2,with a 24V strip and power supply is probably the most cost effective? Others, who can do the maths, could probably confirm, but I think 15m should be achievable with 24V and the given ratings of the shelly.

Time may be an issue - Shelly shipping isn't fast at all.

smcc

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#2537223 9-Aug-2020 17:52

There are many devices that will do this is Wifi and apps on Ali express. you can join LED light strips 4 wires to solder to get to 15m. a quick search shows these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000082763360.html?spm=a2g0o.home.15002.8.650c2145JSmQnI&gps-id=pcJustForYou&scm=1007.13562.168240.0&scm_id=1007.13562.168240.0&scm-url=1007.13562.168240.0&pvid=ee4c907c-3312-49ed-9eae-ba4bc402b0f6&_t=gps-id:pcJustForYou,scm-url:1007.13562.168240.0,pvid:ee4c907c-3312-49ed-9eae-ba4bc402b0f6,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%230_668%23808%234093%23883_668%23888%233325%238_668%232846%238108%23192_668%232717%237566%23870__668%233374%2315176%23425

and

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000510282967.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000060.1.64915f9b1FkwdV&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.146401.0&scm_id=1007.13339.146401.0&scm-url=1007.13339.146401.0&pvid=6608acd9-b755-43c3-8089-c626c5a6b6ba&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller,scm-url:1007.13339.146401.0,pvid:6608acd9-b755-43c3-8089-c626c5a6b6ba,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%230_668%23808%234093%23883_668%23888%233325%238_668%232846%238108%23192_668%232717%237566%23870_668%231000022185%231000069217%230_668%233468%2315614%23593

but there are many others

mattwnz

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#2537231 9-Aug-2020 18:27

I made one up from light dot co dot nz , which uses an aluminum profile and has a diffuser built in. I just brought all the parts from them. You can get a controller for it that goes between the transformer and the light to control it. Mine is only white and I can dim and turn it off remotely, but I think they also do colour ones. I thought a remote would be far better than an app, for longevity. Otherwise the philips hue strips also look to be a good option, and they do colour, but quite expensive.

richms

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#2537232 9-Aug-2020 18:28

App/wifi based means you can possibly get control from a PC, I know that hue and one other are suppored in razer chroma, and I have seen people use some of them to be interactive from their twitch stream chats.

Richard rich.ms

amywilson

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Wannabe Geek

#2538022 10-Aug-2020 16:48

Thanks for all your help everyone. I've chatted with my son and apparently they DO need to go right around the room, and yes, it IS because of Tik Tok lol.

Looks like I'll have to try source some 24v ones... just when I thought it couldn't get any more complicated!

amywilson

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Wannabe Geek

#2538151 10-Aug-2020 20:17

Sooooo... I've found a 15m in series set on Ali Express. But it's only 12V - do you reckon it will light up ok?

If not, my other option is a 15m in parallel set using some LED extension cables to get the strips in the right place around the room (via the ceiling). Do the LED lights lose power via the extension cables? Thoughts?

Apologies for the huge pics, looks like I can't do links...

I've tried to do a mock-up of the room below:

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