Though they are flexible and adaptable lighting products, LED strips need a power source to shine. What if you wish to install the LED strips in a site without access to a power source or outlet? You might be asking whether any portable power option exists.
This post will guide you on how to choose and link a rechargeable battery (or standard AA batteries) to an LED strip, therefore enabling use of your LED strips anywhere!
Examined and advised
Often, we prefer to run our LED strips "off the grid." Based on the following criteria, we looked for and tried out several battery choices:
1) 12V output rechargeable
2)Lightweight and user-friendly
3) Enough power to run a whole reel of over an hour
The battery has a DC jack with adjustable voltage, 12V among the possibilities, and USB connections producing 5V.
The battery unit's DC port is "female"; to connect it to the LED strip, the included male-to-male cable can be used.
Press the power button on the battery first to make sure the 12V output is chosen. Then, just connect one end of the DC wire to the battery port labelled "DC output." Then, connect the other end to the LED strip's barrel jack end. You're done!
Life of the Battery
The battery pack can give roughly a full hour of continuous illumination of a whole reel from a full charge.
The official battery capacity specification given by shows 85Wh. Based on the FilmGrade LED strip power spec of 90W per reel, this equates to roughly 1 hour.
Simply press the battery pack's power button to momentarily turn it off. As a safety measure, we advise totally unplugging the LED strip when not in use.
Increasing Battery Life
In some situations, we frequently discover that the LED strip's brightness may be lowered. A PWM dimmer that fits directly into the low voltage DC system is used for this.
Acting like a "valve" that lowers brightness without any flicker or colour change, dimmer links between the battery pack and LED strip.
Battery life increases in direct correlation to the dimmer setting, as anticipated.
Different battery choices
By no means are the ways to connect a battery to an LED strip limited to the technique and tools we examined. Some broad advice and rules for locating a suitable pairing are listed below.
Fundamental Needs
Powering an LED strip from a battery calls for mainly:
LED strip voltage has to fit battery output voltage
Your requirements will determine battery supply capacity.
The way LED strip connects to the battery pack has to fit
Choosing Voltage
The main thing to keep in mind is that a battery supplying a voltage level above the LED strip voltage spec can harm the LEDs. On the other hand, under voltage is not typically detrimental to the LEDs but may cause lower brightness or complete lack of illumination.
Twelve volts DC is the most frequent combination of LED strip and battery voltage. 12V should be OK unless you have a particular circumstance calling for something different.
A battery holder generating 12V from 8x 1.5V AA batteries will allow you to use conventional AA batteries.
Power Capacity Calculation
Usually measured in milliamp hours, shortened mAh, or watt-hours, abbreviated Wh, battery capacity This figure shows how many hours the battery can deliver a particular electrical current (mA) or power (W) before it runs out of charge.
To determine how long a fully charged battery can run an LED strip, one needs some straightforward arithmetic.
First, find the wattage of the LED strip. Usually, a specification sheet for the LED strip product will include this. Typically, it is stated in watts per foot or metre. Should it be given in A (Amps), convert to milliamps (mA) by multiplying the figure by 1000. Should is given in watts (W), first divide the figure by the voltage (e.g. 12V) then multiply the outcome by 1000.
Then, get the battery's mAh rating. Below are mAh ratings for typical battery types:
AA Dry Cell: 400-900 mAh
AA Alkaline: 1700 to 2850 mAh
Alkaline 9V: 550 mAh
Standard vehicle battery: 45,000 mAh
At last, split the LED strip mA value into the battery mAh value. The outcome is the anticipated battery life in hours.
Instantaneous Power Draw Capability
Many batteries will also indicate a maximum instaneous amperage limit, usually stated in Amps. We really advise ensuring the LED strip stays under this limit. Exceeding this limit could harm the battery or reduce its life.
Shenzhen Benwei Lighting Technology Co., Ltd was established in 2010. It is a national high-tech enterprise integrating design, R&D, production and sales of indoor and outdoor lighting products and also can do OEM ,ODM .For more details about our offerings, please contact us at bwzm18@ledbenweilighting.com
