About power supplies

LED Drivers are sometimes also referred to as Power Supplies. As most LED Strips run on low voltage (12V or 24V mainly), you will need a LED Driver to power up your Strip. For your Single Color LED Strip to perform at its best and offer you a lifetime of enjoyment, it needs to be properly powered.

How to determine the right power supply?

In order to determine what amount of power you require, you will need to know:

A) The power consumption of your strip (in watts)
B) The length of the LED strip in your circuit.

The LED Strip draws its power from the LED Driver. The driver does not push power in the LED Strip. Therefore, it’s totally acceptable for your LED Driver to have more power than what the LED strip requires. This will, in no way, damage your LED strip. As a matter of fact, we always recommend loading a LED Driver to 80% of its capacity for residential use and around 60% for commercial / intensive usage. Therefore, the calculation for residential usage goes as follow:  Meters of LED strip required X wattage per meter X 1.25. For commercial or intensive usage: Meters required x wattage consumption per meter X 1.45. In a nutshell, if your LED Strip requires 80W, use a 100W power supply for home usage and around 150W for commercial usage.

If you are not sure about the power consumption of your LED Strip or the maximum amount of strip that you can connect in series, consult our Single Color LED Buyer’s guide.

Although all LED Strips are dimmable, there are two main types of LED Drivers: dimmable and non dimmable.

The Dimmable LED Driver allows you to adjust the intensity of your LED Strip though a standard wall dimmer. It should never be used with a RGB or CCT adjustable Strip. All Dimmable LED Drivers are hard wired (to be installed directly to the 120V Circuit).

The Non Dimmable LED Driver should never be connected to a wall dimmer. You can always dim LEDs that are hooked up to a non dimmable power supply by adding a low voltage dimmer to your single color strip. RGB LED’s always require a controller. For RGB Strips, the controller also acts as a dimmer.  Non dimmable LED Drivers are offered in two different models:  with a wall plug (up to 112W) and hard wired. The hard wired power supply needs to be connected to a 120V, often through a junction box.

Here is a list of available power supplies for your 12V set up:

Dimmable :
Electronic : 24W, 48W ,60W, 96W, 150W (after 2X75W), 200W (2X100w)

Non Dimmable: 
Plug-in: 12W, 24W, 36W, 72W, 114W
Indoor Only Hard Wired: 12W, 24W, 48W, 60W
Indoor/Outdoor Hard Wired: 24W, 48W, 72W, 96W, 132W, 192W

Here is a list of available power supplies for your 24V set up:

Dimmable :
Electronic : 24W, 48W ,60W, 96W, 150W, 200W
Magnetic :  75W, 100W, 200W, 300W

Non Dimmable: 
Plug-in: 12W, 24W, 48W, 72W, 96W, 114W
Indoor Only Hard Wired : 12W, 24W, 48W, 60W
Indoor/Outdoor Hard Wired : 24W, 48W, 72W, 96W, 150W, 187W, 240W, 320W