LED strip lights are being used worldwide. It is both used in commercial and household settings. The flexibility they provide, and the ease of installation have made them the first choice for many lighting designers.
It not only provides flexibility of installation but also the flexibility of choice of color and brightness. In this guide, we walk you through the benefits of using battery-operated LED strip lights.
Apart from flexibility, the most prominent reason why people choose LED strip lights over other alternatives is their elegance and aesthetics. They have the potential to transform any ugly-looking room/area into elegant decor with their aesthetically pleasing design/colors.
There’s a way you can enhance the beauty of the already awesome strip lights – by using the led strips with a battery pack.
Yes! No need of using an additional wire that looks ugly and spoils the look and feel of the room.
Apart from this, battery powered LED strip lights make it easy to use them outdoors. You can use them in any setting you want. Also, their portability is amazing. But, even if there are so many benefits of using the battery powered strip lights, you should keep some important things in mind.
The choice of the battery pack and the type of strip lights you use have a greater effect on their performance. In this guide, we will be educating our readers on which battery packs to use with the battery-operated LED strip lights and which not to use.
Why use Battery powered LED Strip Lights?
Let’s talk about the reasons you should opt for buying a battery pack instead of connecting it directly to your power source.
- Portability
By far, the biggest advantage of using a battery pack for your LEDs is portability. While setting up your project/room’s lightning, you have to strategically think about the power sources. How to adjust and fit the wire that connects your lights to the source.
However, if you use battery powered LED strip lights, you don’t have to worry about anything. Just install the lights wherever you want, and use a battery back alongside. It doesn’t take much space and you can easily hide it as well.
- Easy to use outdoor
What if you want to install the lights outdoor? It is hard to find an electrical outlet outdoors, and if found it will still be quite far from where you want to install the lights. Battery powered LED strip lights do not need any of this. They are easy to install outdoors. You don’t have to stress yourself for finding out the power source. Install the lights wherever you want. It’s that simple.
- Easy to Install
Even if you’re a DIY enthusiast, you’ll still need Youtube Tutorials on how to install certain types of LED strip lights due to the complexities involved in setting up electrical power sources. But, in the case of LED strips that use battery packs, even an amateur can install them with ease. These are much less complex. After all, not everyone is a DIY electrician! Battery powered LED strip lights are for everyone!
- Minimal wire exposure
Another big reason to use battery-operated LED strip lights is that there is minimal wire exposure. The area looks neat and clean. No ugly wires to run, no litter – only the aesthetic lights and their elegant vibes!
Issues with Using Batteries for LED Strip Lights
Though there are many advantages of using battery packs for your LED lights, there still can be problems that can spoil the experience. Here’s a list of things to keep in mind before opting for using battery powered LED strip lights:
Make sure you use Dimmable LED Strip lights
When you use normal LEDs that are not dimmable or you have them at full brightness, the battery life can be significantly shortened. Nobody wants that. You want a sustainable and longer lifespan of your batteries that can light up your LEDs for a longer time.
This is possible when you use dimmable LED strip lights. The LED strip lights usually last for a long time but this can significantly increase your battery life just by dimming a bit without much loss of brightness.
On top of that, dimmable LED strip lights also enable you to choose the color, brightness, and temperature of the light. This enables you to create your desired atmosphere in your rooms.
Battery Powered LED Strip Lights for Under Cabinet
These LED strip lights and battery pack (below) are perfect for lighting under cabinets since they don’t require a constant power wire.
Just plug into the battery pack from a USB charger cord to charge it when needed.
It also has a built in switch to turn it on and off or use the remote control to turn it on/off.
Disposable Batteries or a Rechargable Battery Pack
Disposable batteries will work fine, but you will have to replace them often. However, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, the kind used to charge your cell phone will also work
There are only a few types of battery packs that work well with led strip lights; because most of them will turn off after a certain time. This is because of the Auto-Off mode. Most battery packs have this function to automatically switch off after 20 minutes of little or no power draw.
These strip lights do not take much power, so the battery packs you use might likely turn off after a fixed amount of time – when you do not switch off your lights.
There are very few battery backs that have the ‘Always-On’ mode. This enables the battery pack to stay turned on even when there’s little or no power draw. Using this for your strip lights is the right choice.
Rechargeable 12V 3000mAh Lithium ion Battery Pack for LED Strip Lights – by TalentCell
Here’s a battery pack that we recommend. This is the TalentCell Rechargeable DC 12V/5V 3000mAh Lithium-ion Battery Pack. It is a dual output external power bank that allows 12V and 5V LED strips to be plugged in.
What’s important, it does not turn off automatically since it has the ‘Always-On” mode with a physical switch.
This is a great battery pack for many LED strip lights. I use it as a power backup to light u my bar shelf. I keep it plugged into the wall power so it stays charged, and when the power goes out, the LED lights stay on so there is light in the room when power is out.
This battery pack also allows for charging and led light operation at the same time, so if the power goes out you will still have led lights.
It is small at only 2.5 inches by 4 inches.
- 5 Volt (USB) LED Strip Lights are better
When you use the battery-powered LED strip lights, your main priority should be to use energy-efficient strips. Using 12V LED strips would be good if you have long runs of less, but you might need to add extra power supplies for long runs anyway.
5V LED strip lights work perfectly with the battery packs, so you should be using them for better performance.
The strip lights shown above are the 5V version working on a battery pack – also controlled by remote control and the battery pack has a switch, so you can use it as a light switch without any wires for your LED strip lights.
Video: Best Battery Packs for LED Strip Lights
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln1Kwr1MD5I[/embedyt]How long do Battery Powered LED Strip Lights last?
This will depend on if you use dimmable LED strip lights. If you do, you can get several days of continuous on using a USB power brick.
Can you run LED Strip Lights off a Battery?
Yes, but you need a certain rechargeable battery pack.
