I really need advice from an electrician ASAP. please help me? Im so confused

[Carla]

I really need advice. I know nothing about electrics so i am looking for someone to give me some basic answers and help.

I want to put lighting around my ceiling. I need 20meters, I found 20 meters of led strip lights on ebay, they come in 4 rolls of 5 meters totaling 20 meters.

It says the specs are 12v 10a and 120watts (please see attached photo) I have tried asking the seller for advice but he isnt making much sense.

basically i need to know if the 10a power supply is enough to power 120watts (20meters) of led lights? im worried about it not being enough and they might over heat. im assuming it must be ok otherwise they wouldn't sell the power supply with the 20m set but i just need to make sure it is suffice to power it.

 

[DPG]

Maplin are no longer. B&Q possibly yes. Also either the Range or Home Bargains sell them I think.

 

[plugsandsparks]

If you go to Eyre and Ellison in Chesterfield, you can walk out with them, they use PowerLED components, so far very good.

 

[Carla]

its the RGBW ones I'm looking to get as the white on them is pure unlike the tinted white on regular RGB led strips

 

[Carla]

If you go to Eyre and Ellison in Chesterfield, you can walk out with them, they use PowerLED components, so far very good.

If you go to Eyre and Ellison in Chesterfield, you can walk out with them, they use PowerLED components, so far very good.

i doubt the range would sell 20 meters of RGBW as its quite a big strip. i live in essex but i could give the one in Chesterfield a ring, maybe it can be done over the phone and posted. thanks guys

 

[Carla]

I'm with @SparkyChick posts. You pay your money you take your chance. You have to be careful with Chinese electrical goods.
Go with @Midwest advice and get them from a reputable dealer.

Getting back on topic a mate of mine disregarded my advise not to go with Chinese downlights from fleabay because he was too tight to pay the £300 quid odd for the Collingwood units I wanted to supply....they all failed within a year. Cost him a lot more than £300 quid in the end.

if i used a different electrician would they generally get them from a reputable supplier or would most use chinese products? i could tell an electrician i want them from a reputable supplier but id have no way of knowing if they would actually do that or not

 

[Midwest]

my electrician wanted to buy them from china. id like to get them myself from a reputable supplier but i dont know where. would it be somewhere like maplin or b&q ?

Goggle is your friend there, just avoid ebay. Simples.

 

[Midwest]

if i used a different electrician would they generally get them from a reputable supplier or would most use chinese products? i could tell an electrician i want them from a reputable supplier but id have no way of knowing if they would actually do that or not

Being on the end of things that have gone Pete Tong, its far simpler to deal with a UK based retailer.

 

[Carla]

Being on the end of things that have gone Pete Tong, its far simpler to deal with a UK based retailer.

Goggle is your friend there, just avoid ebay. Simples.

yeah i plan to but what worries me is my electrician wont do that and id have no way to know

 

[plugsandsparks]

Eyre and elliston have a branch over the border at enfield and Edmonsons have one near Romford. Strips come in 5M rolls, give them a call for 4 rolls, probably two drivers and two controllers. You can get some tech support from them, to a limit , 20M at 12V is not something i have contemplated, in fact, you should be looking at 24V and get the supplier to match the strip length to the driver.

 

[Carla]

Eyre and elliston have a branch over the border at enfield and Edmonsons have one near Romford. Strips come in 5M rolls, give them a call for 4 rolls, probably two drivers and two controllers. You can get some tech support from them, to a limit , 20M at 12V is not something i have contemplated, in fact, you should be looking at 24V and get the supplier to match the strip length to the driver.

so if i got 4 rolls of 5 meters, i could attach them all together and cover the 20m room. does that mean at each point where i connect another 5 lm strip i would have to have an adapter n cord running down the wall? i planed to have the cable n adapter run down the corner of the walls and box it in to hide it

 

[JK-Electrical]

how do i find a reputable dealer in ny area

 

[Marvo]

I would suggest you find an installer with plenty of LED experience. The trick with LED's is knowing from experience which products are good quality and which products are compatible with each other. Buying from China via EBay is going to be a lottery..... and one with few winners. Never buy any electrical or lighting products if the seller can't provide a comprehensive data sheet (in coherent English).

Given the lengths and wattages of the tapes you mentioned I'd be looking at 24v tapes, not 12v.

 

[Carla]

I would suggest you find an installer with plenty of LED experience. The trick with LED's is knowing from experience which products are good quality and which products are compatible with each other. Buying from China via EBay is going to be a lottery..... and one with few winners. Never buy any electrical or lighting products if the seller can't provide a comprehensive data sheet (in coherent English).

Given the lengths and wattages of the tapes you mentioned I'd be looking at 24v tapes, not 12v.

so basicaly if i just look for a qualified electrician with Led experience he will be able to figure all this out for me and make sure its done properly? because honestly trying to figure this out is stressful. id rather pay someone to do it

 

[Marvo]

so if i got 4 rolls of 5 meters, i could attach them all together and cover the 20m room. does that mean at each point where i connect another 5 lm strip i would have to have an adapter n cord running down the wall? i planed to have the cable n adapter run down the corner of the walls and box it in to hide it

There will be a limit on the max length a single run of LED tape can be because the tracks inside the tape can only handle a certain amount of current. Usually the max length is 5 meters but can sometimes be up to 10 meters for 24 volt tapes.

If you need a 20 meter length of tape around a room you can't do it in a single run, you're definately going to need to make it in shorter lengths with multiple supplies.

 

[Marvo]

so basicaly if i just look for a qualified electrician with Led experience he will be able to figure all this out for me and make sure its done properly? because honestly trying to figure this out is stressful. id rather pay someone to do it

Yes, LED design is not an easy area and it's likely to get more stressful if you don't find someone with good experience to do the design and a proper spec as well as the installation. There's a lot of junk on the market that's unreliable at best and downright dangerous at worst. There's even a lot of great quality products available that simply aren't compatible with each other and just don't work together. Also the currents involved, hence the wiring sizes involved, especially when you're talking about 20 or 25 meters of tape can also become something of a design issue. The whole area of LED design is a bit of a minefield.

 

[rolyberkin]

One of the forums sponsors electrical2go sell LED tape at very reasonable prices, give them a call or get your electrician to call them, where in Essex are you?

 

[plugsandsparks]

so if i got 4 rolls of 5 meters, i could attach them all together and cover the 20m room. does that mean at each point where i connect another 5 lm strip i would have to have an adapter n cord running down the wall? i planed to have the cable n adapter run down the corner of the walls and box it in to hide it

You have caught me exactly when i am designing led strip for 10 rooms with recessed ceilings. All the recesses i have split into 2 runs, the manufacturer would only commit to 10M at 24V , but it is manufacturer specific. So i have two drivers feeding 10M each and two controllers linked together. BUT this is a specific design against a specific manufacturer. The devil is in the detail....... My client wants full dimming and colour control from his Ipad and mood switch so it has to be designed with full backing from supplier (manufacturer), the more you get into it the more you find the limits of whats doable. A 20M run is well out there, unless you get a written confirmation it will work, you are wasting time and money.

 

[plugsandsparks]

Duplicate

 

[Spoon]

i planed to have the cable n adapter run down the corner of the walls and box it in to hide it

So as above. If the limit is 10M then you could still do what you want but have 2 10M lengths. Both come up the corner of the wall but split directions, so the corner is the centre point.

 

[plugsandsparks]

yep you can have 100M if you want, just split it down, most of my runs were between 12M and 16m, drivers are remote and have just run two 5core YY to each recess at one point as the recesses are either square or round

 

[Phillip]

The power supply is well within spec to drive the LEDs but don't connect them in series, just extend the four connectors to the four corners of the room.

 

[wsoppitt]

Place I ordered from came within 4 days, including them making up bespoke lengths.

Where do you use?

 

[DefyG]

I have tried asking the seller for advice but he isnt making much sense.

Doubt he would to me either as my Chinese isn't too good!

 

[Baddegg]

my electrician wanted to buy them from china. id like to get them myself from a reputable supplier but i dont know where. would it be somewhere like maplin or b&q ?

I doubt he’s an electrician if he wants to supply and fit stuff from eBay! Unless he wants to come back in a month and redo it....