If you were gifted electronics for Christmas, it’s time to ensure their protection! The last thing you want is for your new computer, tablet, HD television, or gaming system to take on destructive surges, rendering it useless. Spare yourself the heartache of losing an expensive electronic gadget by using surge protectors.

Anything that has a plug is susceptible to surges. In fact, surges happen all the time, you just don’t know it. Not every surge has the capacity to fry your electronics and appliances right then, however, even small surges can shorten their lifespans.

Simply put, an electrical surge is a brief spike in the current, lasting less than a thousandth of a second. But don’t let its fleeting personality fool you, as a surge can be detrimental.

There are numerous reasons as to why you’re experiencing electrical surges. Large appliances such as a refrigerator, air conditioner, or even a space heater, when turned on, can cause a surge capable of damaging your electronics.

Whether you own a business or a commercial space used for residential living, there are a number of things you are responsible for doing to ensure the safety and well-being of the building’s tenants. This includes providing proper lighting both inside and outside the space. Your building, complex, or shopping center’s parking lot lighting is a huge part of this, and it’s not just about safety, either.

First off, if you have a business that’s open during nighttime hours, then having bright and inviting parking lot lights will help attract customers. Poorly illuminated areas increase risks such as theft, or worse. This is going to deter a lot of people from even attempting to come to your commercial space.

Employee safety is also a big deal. Your employees should be able to approach their cars without the worry of nighttime risks, or injury due to not being able to see where they are going clearly enough. As a business owner, you have a responsibility to your employees. Focusing on this also reduces your financial liability should something unfortunate happen.

Too often, business owners and retailers neglect their parking lot lighting fixtures because of high costs associated with repair and energy consumption. The benefits far outweigh the risks, however. Besides, today’s lighting options show a vast improvement in efficiency and affordability.

With LED and induction parking lot lighting alternatives, you can effectively illuminate your entire parking lot without hurting your bottom line. Our professional electricians are happy to discuss your options with you, and are well equipped with the tools and the training necessary to get the job done right.

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Strips with more LEDs per foot will consume more power.

In short, if maximum energy efficiency is what’s most important to you, choose a light strip with smaller LEDs and fewer LEDs.

In order to ensure your LED power supply doesn’t overheat and fail prematurely, we use this general rule of thumb:

Make sure the total wattage of your LED strip lighting is at least 20 percent less than the power supply’s rated wattage.

For example, if you have an LED strip light that requires 80 watts of power to run, you’ll need a power supply that’s rated for at least 96 watts.

The vast majority of our strips include wattage per foot right on their product pages.

power supplies range from six watts to 1,500 watts for compatibility with a wide variety of LED strip lights.

Let’s take a look at an example:

It’s important to verify that the voltage of the power supply you choose is compatible with the voltage of your LED strip lighting. Also, be sure that the power supply’s input voltage matches that of the location it will be installed in. If you have an LED strip with 12-volt DC operation that you wish to use in a 120-volt AC home wiring system, you’ll need a power supply that includes 120 volts in its input range and has 12-volt DC output.

Another factor to take into account for longer runs is voltage drop. A significant voltage drop is present after a certain distance of LED strip. After this distance, there will not be enough voltage present to light the next length of strip. This varies depending on the type of strip and length being used. Usually, a single-density strip (nine or less LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 32 13/16 feet (10 meters). A high-density strip (18 or more LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 16 3/8 feet (5 meters). Please refer to “Max Run” in the specifications table of the strip light to determine how many can be run continuously without a parallel run back to power.

3) the 4) if you want your strip to be dimmable

power supply calculator on the product pages of all of our LED strip lights!

There are a few steps involved:

Step 1: Select your strip and the length you need.

Step 3: Click the green “Power Supply Calculator” tab, and select your product by choosing it from the list OR by pasting the exact part number in the search bar.

Step 4: Enter the number of strips at the desired length you’ve selected and voila! You’ll see a list of all compatible power supplies with the best match at the top of the list!

When dealing with electronics, safety is paramount, and you want everything to work like it’s supposed to. So if you’re still not sure which power supply to use for your LED strip lighting project, just reach out to our technical support team or customer service department at 866-590-3533. Our teams are available from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Monday-Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT on Friday.