Recommendations for LED strip lights? (chinese rubbish?)

Howdy do folks,

Unsure where to post this, but figured this might be the right place?

Looking to re-plaster the sitting room, and gonna drop the ceiling about two inches, except at the edge, and the plan is to run some LED strip lighting around the perimeter of the 'drop' to use as some ambient lighting.


Thing is, LED strip lights (I'd need about 20meters) can be had for either feck all money, or an awful lot of it... and I'm not sure if there's any difference in the products or not.

An electrician I contacted today, said he will get me a price tomorrow, but that his supplier/shop charged €180 for 10meters of LED strips not too long ago for a job he did for someone else.

Whereas if i go on ebay, i can get 10 meters for €50.

So I browsed Amazon for a while and got fed up with the 'doesn't deliver to Ireland' message coming up, and the completely random mish-mash of reviews. Even on products heavily weighted with 5-star ratings, there's always a consistent base of 'worked for a week and stopped working' reviews.


So I'm not sure if LED strip lights are just a big of a 'gamble' purchase in the first place, or is there an actual brand out there that are trusty or worth spending extra for?


Anyone got any ideas?


Cheers

4motion

If you dont want to spend fortune on Philips smart ones but xiaomi on aliexpress or somewhere in china.
Like this ones. Way cheaper smart if you need.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Yeelight-Smart-WIFI-mobile-phone-control-RGB-LED-Strip-Light-Ribbon-For-Ceiling-Counter-Cabinet-Life/32818153794.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.1.6bf17a37VE6ODF&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10902_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_6,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=6b2cf41a-67fe-4aa4-85dd-db505a6ab42b-0&algo_pvid=6b2cf41a-67fe-4aa4-85dd-db505a6ab42b

I don't think I need smart ones (I presume for lighting, 'smart' just means voice activated?). I am happy with the traditional light switch and a remote to change the colours.

I just don't want to buy cheapo stuff and have to pay to have it all re-done in a short time, because of LEDs failing left, right and centre.

vidapura

Well yeah, 'smart' these days means they're controllable from something like phone or Alexa or whatever.
Can be handy from a security angle.. make em come on and off at various times if you're away etc.
But, yeah, wouldn't be killin myself over that stuff.

There are plenty of brand name offerings out here .. its just hard to find them online for some reason.
I looked at the LED stuff available locally in the electrical trade shops and its remarkably more expensive than the stuff you see online. It is branded tho.. so comes with guarantees.. etc .. and possibly you gets what you pays for..

If you don't like getting your hands dirty then maybe its the way to for you.
Pay for the expensive stuff, get someone to install it and get on with your life.

If you don't mind a bit of fiddling around with DIY you could go cheaper, but as you say its a 'gamble'...
(I wonder about safety more than reliability tho...)

I don't think there is a way to guarantee that LED's won't fail.. so you might be best thinkin bout how to set up the installation so that replacin the LED's is not a huge trauma/expense.

Most LED strips need a Driver.. its what converts 240v mains to the DC voltage that LED's need.
If you get the driver set up by an electrician in such a way that you can unplug either it or the strip of LED's then it should make changing dead LEDS easier.

If you are going to get the hard work done to make the recess in the ceiling like that.. which is great.. I'd just make sure to do it deep enough and narrow enough so you can hide the LED install nicely up in there..

I would then just tack the strip up or use command strips.. nothing so permanent that replacing would necessitate
replastering...

FatB

I DJ on the weekends for the last 16 years, so my electrical/lighting knowledge is moderate due to that. It's been 3 years since I did much research into it but I've purchased maybe 10 sets of led strip lighting over the years. At the time, 5050 LEDs with 300 LEDs per 5 meter roll were the way to go when searching AliExpress etc for half way decent strips.

You'll need a controller to interface with them and a power supply (sounds like you'll have it direct to the mains via a switch on the wall, which will mean the electrician will be your best bet for safety reasons, will still need a transformer though).

5m roll goes for anywhere between €3.50 to €10 generally and you can use the savings to pay the electrician to make it look perfect for your needs.

Smart comes in handy for automatically setting the lights for security reasons etc as mentioned above, they would connect to your wi-fi and some of the apps allow you to have a light show go to the sound of music etc, which you may end up using once in your life to see what it's like...

Most of the controller's I've used over the years have had a memory store so it goes back to the setting it was last on when you turn them on which means you won't need the remote or app 99% of the time.

I've never had a set die on me but I generally end up donating them to a friend or family member due to an event they have in their home and just buy a new set online afterwards.

The quality and amount of light has been very consistent across all the sets and I've never been disappointed with any of them apart from the first one not being 5050 (think it was 3228 or something like that, it has a lower quality led and less of them, but I didn't know any better at the tone and they still served their purpose)

Cheers for the replies, folks. Much appreciated.

I ended up going for these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5M-30M-Full-Kit-5050RGB-IN-SERIES-CONNECT-LED-Strip-Light-Controller-Transforme-/111963852775


Got 15 meters which should be a bit more than I need, but rather be looking at it, than looking for it, as the saying goes. He seems to have an eBay shop that only really sells LED lighting stuff, and has 99% positive feedback, UK Based, etc. so I reckon they shoul;d be a safe enough bet.

Will likely end up getting a few packs of command strips alright for the install. Make life that bit easier in the event of anything needed changing/replacing.

The ceiling will be dropped in the centre, to create a floating ceiling kind of effect (or feature ceiling, as i've seen them called).

Something like this: https://i.postimg.cc/sXxV5v6N/ledstrip02.jpg


Whole room is getting re-plastered, and I'm planning to wire the LEDs to a light switch, so I'll be getting an actual electrician to carry out all of the work regarding the lighting (as I wouldn't dare try it myself, as I've no idea about the first thing with regards to dealing with electrics/wiring, etc.).
So I'm hoping that any potential dangers will be dealt with properly as he goes about his work.