Thank you for the feedback and concern about the lumens/watt measurement. As noted in the video these lumen calculations were derived from the conversion of the lux measurement into lumens using the square meters of the projection surface. In real life however, a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux, but doesn't take beam angle into account and even though sensor position was kept constant for each trial it's likely that there was some direct illumination of the sensor rather than pure reflective. You can however, see the raw lux measurement for each strip on the overview section if you would rather use those. That said, the efficiency values for each strip were calculated in the same way, so they are all relative to each other if you want to just call them modified lm/watt. If you would like to try to convert to actual lm/watt you can divide by 9.37 which brings that value in line with what is listed on the data sheets I have available for the JOYLIT, HITLIGHTS, and BTF-Lighting strips.
@@pkt1213in this case the values are off by such a large factor that it's obvious that they can't be actual lumens per watt. But this would have been very misleading if it was off by a factor of for example 1.25, as this would be actually comparable to values listed in data sheets and would definitely make at least me think they are more efficient than they actually are.
Thank you! I've never found another channel that does what you do. You provide super-valuable information while many channels just advertise whoever paid their bills this week and I hope that viewers continue to support your work.
as someone super sensitive to flicker (I can't even get an old phone) its indeed important! Any thoughts on good colored led strips in that regard?@@metelomaniac
Purchase the joylit 24v cob 2700k and just had them installed in laundry room, pantry, and range. Look amazing. Thanks! I purchased the recommended drivers from joylit on amazon. I purchased 3 wire extension cords from homedepot. I purchased 1 kit for extension etc. Electrician has 2 wire he just ran so wasn't necessary. These work great combined with lutron motion sensor and ceiling lights on one circuit
Not sure how I missed this when it came out, but just popped up in my recommendations. Very useful video. One minor suggestion for an updated video - my issue with LEDs is always about how dim they can get - as I just want some very mild lighting for when the rest of the lights off. I know you briefly covered flicker, but also how dim can these get, period - with the flicker rate would be really useful. I hope you do another one of these videos soon with some new offerings as this is really useful.
Thank you for this. Ever since learning about CRI, the lighting in my house overall has changed dramatically after installing high-CRI bulbs and now I can't help but notice when I go somewhere that has low-CRI bulbs
A video comparing different led controllers would be really interesting. I alway go for an esp8266 + WLED but this video made me question if that is the best way.
Thanks! Picked up BTF 24Volt 3000K 4000K and 6000K strips a while back after watching a Quindor TH-cam . At that time you could only get 4000K from Ali, not available on Amazon. For cabinets I tend to prefer the 4000K but I have also experimented with running 3000K and 4000K side by side to get a mix. Ultimate goal would be ESP32 based dimmer / mixer and have all three and super high refresh rate. Just no time!!!.. I am also a big fan of the Meanwell LPV-60-24 power supplies for under the cabinets. No fans and as long as you don't push it, no heat problems. Testing I've linked 4 strings (20 meters) with power injection and it does get hot!!!! For some strange reason (supply?), the Meanwell LPV-60-12 was almost twice $$ when I picked them up.
I really wish these manufacturers would make cob tunable strips that go down to 2000 or at least 2200k. 2700 is way too cool for night time! Also, minimum brightness is very high on the pautix ones, but I don't have the other ones so IDK how those are
@@TheHookUp Thanks for all your great work. Love this channel. For _future_ videos I'll plus one the QR code idea. I watch most of these videos on the TV and it's much easier to scan a QR code then to find the same video on my phone, find the link, and click it.
I also would love a google sheet; cri may be more or less important than lumens per watt for my eval than it was for yours, and could adjust what would work best for me @@TheHookUp
Amazing job as usual! Just lucky because I got the best value btf one couple of weeks ago and now I see this incredible video. Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise :)
It's great to see these improvements! We have a lot of large windows so we get great natural light all day and then several of our fixtures are using what's left of our incandescent bulb stash, so my standards for spectrum quality are pretty high. I've had to return a lot of "green cast" LEDs over the years. For my eyes, 90 CRI is the lowest I'll go - and even then sometimes the green push is too strong. *shrug* Princess and the pea?
I would love to see this done to smart strips that include addressable color (in sections) using their native apps. Some of them are just RGB, some are RGBWW, some are RGBWW but weirdly use some color with the white. I'd love to see between Govee, Philips, Lifx, etc, (just top seller of RGB and RGBWW smart strips) who ranks best. I'm currently using Govee RGBWW, and I think it's great on that flicker, but probably just an ok CRI, like maybe 80.
I thought I was about to realize I had to rip out a lot of LEDs, but apparently I did pretty good choosing! Love the Edison base bulbs you convinced me to convert my home over to!
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This is the stuff i subscribe for. Yes. Thank you. I was hoping to see the ultra rare stuff that quindor recommend, like the colordiode and auxmer strips
I bought Govee and Wobane back in 2021 with 32.8ft each. Looking to turn them into pantry lighting and closet lighting, no fancy colors, but breaks in the lines and corners most definitely. Looking at the strips it looks like I can cut these to adjust to fit the situation like you would for LED not in a kit.
Thanks for a very helpful video. I have done several installations and there has been something "not quite right" with each product that I have tried. Interestingly, I have used three of the brands that you tested.
Are these lumens/watt figures really correct? A very efficient LED Bulp usually never exceeds 200lm/watt but this video has strips with 5 times the lumens
Yes and no, they are accurate for illuminating the inside of the testing cooler that I used. In real life a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux. The raw lux measurement is also given for each strip on the overview section.
@@TheHookUpFOR SURE YOU shouldn't publicly provide these values! that is physically absolutely impossible! the bare LEDs are a little above 100lm/W in ideal laboratory conditions! PLEASE only compare with relative values not absolute numbers! I personally think that's misleading information.
I think I was pretty clear about where the values were derived from, I also listed the raw lux values. The values for each strip were calculated in the exact same way, so they are all relative to each other.
Great work as always. I was very interested to see your results on the BTF 5050 RGB-WW lightstrip. For my kitchen cabinets, I chose that light strip, but with the 60 LED per meter instead of the 30 LED per meter you tested and it looks like I made the right choice adding the extra LEDs . They are so bright I hardly need to use the actual kitchen lights anymore. I've also found the colors to be very pleasing, but I don't know if that is because the colors are any better than the 30 LED per model or I just have no eye for color.
Thanks for the research! My kitchen strip lights developed quite the roach infestation behind them. I read that lights with lower UV and heat output do better at not attracting them. Maybe those are a couple other metrics worth measuring.
Any reason you didn't test with the 24V version of the BTF FCOB? Since they're so dense the cut lines are pretty much the same as the 12V and seems like they'ed be a better recommendation, especially for longer runs. I'll also note that I recently replaced my kitchen cabinet lights with the 24V BTF FCOB and was surprised by the WW color. It's hard to explain, but it's a brighter orange color (makes me think of orange creamsicles) than any other warm LED strip/bulb color I've seen which are more of a burnt orange/amber color.
Just scope creep, have to limit the amount of strips I test at some point. That said, I prefer 12V in most medium length applications because it's a more common voltage and I have a bunch of 12V adapters of various amperages just laying around. As for the color, the BTF-Lighting FCOB was 2920K, which is a bit cooler than most "warm white" strips which are generally between 2700-2800K. Most of the amber color WW chips are the low CRI garbage.
I also purchased 8 more joylit 24v cob 2700k and aluminum track 10mm on amazon. I bought the joylit 400w drivers. My setup is 4 rows of 2 strips in series. 2 strips in series and one set per channel for 2 channels per psu required 224watts. These power supplies run very hot. I have 2 drivers for 8 strips running in a garage that is 26' by 36' (3 car garage). I estimate the brightness to be about 40000 lumens. I was wondering if you could do comparisons for led drivers. I imagine I will have to replace these soon... Strips look great. I have the diffusers on the channel it makes it look great when off, but for sure dims the light some. In order to power this I used caseta outdoor smart plug and and pico remote on garage wall and Lutron motion sensor. It draws less than 4 amps so I just ran all the psus by the garage door opener and plugged in next to it. Was way simpler than electrician cutting 4 holes in dry wall. I also purchased the caseta elv+ switches and was planning on having 1 psu per switch, but opted for simpler setup first.
Both types of BTF-Lighting WS2814 strips are in the video, COB and 5050. The 24V 5050 package should have the same brightness and CRI as the 12V 5050 package with less voltage drop but larger addressable segments of 6 LEDs instead of 3.
For integration into HomeAssistant, it looks like the controllerless versions that plug into a Shelly that can be put into the wall would be the way to go. Can you add info on the MINIMUM brightness? I find that most LEDs seem to be way too bright for watching TV and especially for use as a night light when wandering around the house at 3am taking care of an annoying dog...
When looking at the brightness, the pixel density will of course make quite a difference. A 160+ LED/m COB vs 60L/m strip will have a big difference in brightness. With lower pixel density, diffusing will also become an important aspect. You don't want to see the individual LEDs reflected on your wall.
Do you have any plans to do a comparison of remote control bulbs, like Hue, like you did for regular LED bulbs 6 months ago? Thanks for your great work!
i definitely want the pautix tunable.. but do you think it would look okay as direct lighting? i plan on putting it on either the ceiling or in the corners where the walls and ceiling meet
Where can we find the watts per foot/meter of the LED strips? I'm trying to determine what my voltage drop will be for a kitchen setup and the calculator is asking for the watts per meter rating of the LED strips.
If I'm doing white, I often like to go with a WWA addressable strip (WWA = Warm White / Cool White / Amber). I've bought WWA strips in SK6812-WWA, WS2818-WWA, and GS8208-WWA... The GS8208-WWA is my favorite because its dimming and tuning curves are more accurate being 12-Bit, plus every pixel is addressable, but it's also the most expensive and by far the hardest to find (I can't find it anywhere now). SK6812-WWA would be my next favorite, because it's cheaper, more efficient, and easier to obtain than the other varieties.
2700k-3000k is the most popular color temp, but a bunch of the strips in this video are either tunable or available in many different color temperatures.
@TheHookUp Any thoughts on using a 12v to 24v booster to run the high output JOYLIT 24V COB strips to run two 14ft runs on a van ceiling? Looking for lots adjustable white output for overhead lighting. Will likely go with some 12v BTF-LIGHTING WS2814 for accent cabinet toe kick lighting. Guessing I will need two different controllers one for 24v ceiling lights and one for 12v toekick lighting. Some of these boosters run at 97% efficiency so not to much power loss. Or do I just keep it all 12v and run all the same 12v BTF-LIGHTING. What would you do?
I am a noob regarding LEDs but what you are calculating is Ra, or general CRI (R1-R8) and not the CRI that matters for color quality (R1-R15). There are hardly any led strips that can reach a real CRI of over 90. The Ra 92 you mention has a CRI closer to 80.
Sort of but not really. CRI is R1-R8, they call R1-R15 "Extended CRI". I did set up my meter to show the R9 subscore (the second to last number on the R6-10 line, and R9-15 are shown in the bar graph section.
For my bathroom lighting I'm leaning to 24V IP65/68 3000K WW with 528 LEDs/m but there isn't much info on the lumens. Your JOYLIT 24V isn't IP65, so was hoping for an Aliexpress link. Is there a big difference between the 480 vs 528?
13:19 Do not use 12V strips for homes. They use resistors to drop voltage down due to unevenness of leds. The power loss is illogical to be used in homes if its 24/7 plugged in. You're essentially using power when turned off and DOUBLE when turned on. Don't trust me? Try plugging in a killawatt meter and see for yourself.
Great video. I wish I had these values a year ago as I was deciding what LED strips to use for a hallway and hobby room. I ended buying something that has the same package as the Topai, just that it is 24V. I am pretty happy with them, except that I found that on max brightness they seem to expand, causing them/the adhesive to come loose from the surface and you end up with some sort of waves every meter or so. When the LED strip cools down, they go back to normal. I am not sure of this is because it is a COB Led strip or that the underlying surface is not metal (to dissipate the heat), but it isn't something you would normally expect. I just run them at 75%, and they are plenty bright. I am curious how widespread this phenomenon is. Maybe it would make for an interesting video. :)
Hopefully I don't mess this up since I used to teach physics, but copper has a thermal expansion coefficient of about 0.02mm/m*C so if you had a 5m strip and it was installed flat at 20C and reached 80C then you would have an expansion of 5x60x0.02 or 6mm along the entire 5m strip which doesn't seem likely to cause folding/bowing but I suppose it's possible. Edit: misremembered the coefficient, it's closer to 0.02.
@@TheHookUp Yes. I also never had it/observed it with my other non-COB LED strips. It might be that silicone/phoshor gel diffuser that is on top of them that is doing the movement.
Note on voltage drop. 24v setups will need %50 of the current of a 12v at the same wattage - since voltage drop is proportional to current at the the same resistance, the same traces on a 24v will have half the voltage drop of the same power 12v LED strip. So you cannot say "lower voltage drop means better quality traces" when comparing 24v and 12v If the voltage drop is 50% lower for the 24v VS the 12V , they would have the same resistance, and therefor similar traces and "quality" Within the voltage classes, you are right - more copper usually means less drop. Also, it appears you didn't calculate the voltage drop per meter - since they were mostly 5m with only 1 X 4m, it disn't really matter :) Rest you did very well - measuring color and luminous flux under conrolled length, price per meter etc - for me, it was the well done tests that made the above mentioned issues really glare out! Going to rewatch and see if I misread any of your graphs :) been a busy day so I could be to blame for misreading.
@@TheHookUp Yep, except on long runs you sometimes need to apply voltage at more than one point on the strip to counter voltage drop. Much less of an issue with 24v units, and, ( as you show ) its not a major issue anymore with the better quality strips at 12v ( I am old and remember playing with the earlier led strips - a CRI of 60 would be classed as awesome back then, and 2 volts drop over 3m were common - they would get warm enough to soften the tape and peel off the surface they were stuck to. ) BTW - Your reviews and tests are very good, keep up the good work!
Hello, I recently installed some Wefomey COB strips. Multiple strips attached to shelving. Some are warm white as desired. While others are only on cold white and will not change to warm. Any possible ideas?
So...The Shelly RGBW2 can not handle individually addressable LED strips. But Shelly can change colour of all led's and also dim all. Is that correct assumption?
Thanks for collecting all this data. Have you ever tested the RGB saturation/color accuracy of smart bulbs? There have been certain ones I've bought with really weak, washed-out colors. I'm curious if there is anything on par with Lifx for color saturation.
Did you happen to measure the energized but turned off efficiencies of the addressable strips? IIRC some of those on strip controllers aren’t very efficient when off
Great comparison but... What about the rest of the world that absolutely hates the dingy yellow 3000K color. Makes your house feel like you are in a smoke filled bar. Some of us prefer a white light closer to daylight color.
2700k-3000k is the most popular color temp, but a bunch of the strips in this video are either tunable or available in many different color temperatures.
Hi, I really enjoyed your review. I was wondering if you would consider doing the same kind of review for undercabinet LED puck lighting, such as Ikea's MITTLED LED spotlights and other comparable brands. CRI, brightness, efficiency, etc. Also, it would be great to see a review of which drivers and dimmers work the best for these LED strip and undercounter puck lights. Thanks very much. 👍
How do these compare to the Hue strips? Their pricing is downright embarrassing, but they do seem to perform well in my experience. Would be interesting as a comparison. Also really impressed at the CRI for the WS2814, I remember the older chips were awful at white.
when testing SK6812 there is an option in WLED that let you prefer the brightness or the accuracy. you traded the brightness for accuracy, you could have tried the other settings too ;)
Nah, I was using the setting that doesn't combine RGB into W, it just had a separate white channel slider. The CRI measurement was for the white channel alone and adding RGB does not increase that CRI value.
Awesome as always Rob! I'm going to guess that somewhere within your existing videos, you covered what to look for and/or recommendations for 12V or 24V power supplies, and the Shelly controller?
I get that you would go bankrupt if you did everything, but I would have loved to have seen CCT/TW/WWCW DIY strips. You did tunable for kits, so I was hoping/excited you would do tunable DIY.
How to make huge "circle lamp" from these? like they have in malls / pharmacies giving out soft light like a soft box. Or are there any led strips that would have leds on the side instead, so it would be much easier to install without cutting it to small pieces first?
I would like to know the efficiency difference between a pwm and spi controlled led strip: BTF FCOB CCT strip. I find it hard to find reviews like yours on the cct efficiency's.
The big difference is that an SPI (addressable) strip is never truly "off", it always has power running through the strip's busbars and each addressable IC is waiting for data to know whether to turn on.
@@TheHookUp Thanks for your reaction! I get that an standby power is used, but I can easily fix tgat by switching tge power supply on and on when required with automation. Is there no real difference in lumen per what? with pwm vs spi?
Do you believe that these results hold up across the different temperature options for these lights? I am more of a 4000K person which is why I am curious. Thank you!
They should, in fact generally speaking CRI tends to be the highest around 3500k. Edit to clarify: CRI is independent from color temperature but 3500k seems to be easier to produce with high CRI.
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Thanks for a very informative video. I am looking into using LED strips as main light source so flicker (and CRI also) is very important to me. The 23% flicker percentage (at 50% brightness) of RGBW2 seems not that much smaller than the 32% of the Daybetter kit, which you described as unusable for long term - do you have any idea if this is on the RGBW2 or can be attributed also to the used power supply? I have even seen in a post from Shelly Facebook Group dated a few years back that the Shelly had then PWM at just 400 Hz.
Another great video. Thank you for continuing to produce informative content. DIY LEDs is something I have been interested in getting into. I'm thinking about building some floor lamps and I have been gathering information on how to go about it. @ChrisMaherDIY has some great content on his channel about DIY LED projects. This video really supplemented some my research for this project. Based on what I have already learned and your video, I'm now pretty confident that the WS2814 are the best strips for the results I want. Question for you, what colorimeter (spectrometer) are you using for your measurements. For some reason the quality of light if very interesting to me and because of that I'm also interested in spectrometer.
Great great video! Does anybody know about the CRI of BTF 5in1 RGBCCT analog/pwm led strip? 12 or 24V version, I hope they use the same LEDs and are just clustered differently. Thank you!
Is there a set for dummy's that includes everything so I can set it to turn on when dark and off during the day? I really don't want the advanced set up.
Yes 1. get one of the kits from the first section of the video 2. use the included remote to set it to the brightness/color temp that you want 3. Get a normal timer plug and set it for whatever schedule you want
No, CRI is independent of color temperature, so if you had a mix it would measure the CRI at whatever overall color temp was being produced, and it would be somewhere in between the CRI of the WW and the CRI of the CW chips.
There is something wrong with those lumen per Watt efficacy numbers. They are all at exceedingly high levels. The theoretical maximum efficacy is just shy of 700 lm/W with green monochromatic light matching peak photopic sensitivity.
I hear ya, however they are accurate for illuminating the inside of the testing cooler that I used. In real life a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux, but doesn't take beam angle into account and even though sensor position was accounted for it's likely that there was some direct illumination of the sensor rather than pure reflective. The raw lux measurement is also given for each strip on the overview section if you would rather see those. That said, the values for each strip were calculated in the exact same way, so they are all relative to each other if you want to just call them modified lm/watt.
For the analog strips -- are you running an analog controller? I'd love to run an analog controller that is WLED compatible, however these are really hard to find. Quindor has a reference analog design but its DYI. Just wondering how you're controlling the analog (non all in one ) strips.
thanks. You mentioned that in your video but jeez I guess I just wasn't aware the Shelly was an actual controller and not just a relay. Thank you. I'll see if Shelly does cct strips as well
Good timing, I am getting ready to purchase some LED light strips for my Kitchen! I have an extra 12volt power supply that I used to power low voltage outdoor lighting. Would that work with these 12 volt LED strips.
Thank you for the feedback and concern about the lumens/watt measurement. As noted in the video these lumen calculations were derived from the conversion of the lux measurement into lumens using the square meters of the projection surface. In real life however, a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux, but doesn't take beam angle into account and even though sensor position was kept constant for each trial it's likely that there was some direct illumination of the sensor rather than pure reflective. You can however, see the raw lux measurement for each strip on the overview section if you would rather use those.
That said, the efficiency values for each strip were calculated in the same way, so they are all relative to each other if you want to just call them modified lm/watt. If you would like to try to convert to actual lm/watt you can divide by 9.37 which brings that value in line with what is listed on the data sheets I have available for the JOYLIT, HITLIGHTS, and BTF-Lighting strips.
I wasn't concerned with actual lumen output. Since everything was measured and calculated the same, I think it is totally valid to compare products.
Pls suggest me the best free style projector the best In all .. waiting for ur reply sir
@@pkt1213in this case the values are off by such a large factor that it's obvious that they can't be actual lumens per watt. But this would have been very misleading if it was off by a factor of for example 1.25, as this would be actually comparable to values listed in data sheets and would definitely make at least me think they are more efficient than they actually are.
can you do a similar test but with webcam/light ring lights?
No philips?
Thank you! I've never found another channel that does what you do. You provide super-valuable information while many channels just advertise whoever paid their bills this week and I hope that viewers continue to support your work.
I appreciate it!
I literally have no idea where else I would find info like this, I'm extremely glad this channel exists
There is one channel called ProjectFarm
This guy is to Best Buy what Project Farm is to Home Depot, both are amazing.
I love this CRI focus lately. Too many LED strips and bulbs get away with terrible CRI performance.
Flicker and CRI are the most important and should be the first concern when buying LEDs
as someone super sensitive to flicker (I can't even get an old phone) its indeed important! Any thoughts on good colored led strips in that regard?@@metelomaniac
Purchase the joylit 24v cob 2700k and just had them installed in laundry room, pantry, and range. Look amazing. Thanks! I purchased the recommended drivers from joylit on amazon. I purchased 3 wire extension cords from homedepot. I purchased 1 kit for extension etc. Electrician has 2 wire he just ran so wasn't necessary. These work great combined with lutron motion sensor and ceiling lights on one circuit
Not sure how I missed this when it came out, but just popped up in my recommendations. Very useful video. One minor suggestion for an updated video - my issue with LEDs is always about how dim they can get - as I just want some very mild lighting for when the rest of the lights off. I know you briefly covered flicker, but also how dim can these get, period - with the flicker rate would be really useful. I hope you do another one of these videos soon with some new offerings as this is really useful.
SO GLAD to be a Patreon supporter! 😊
Thank you for this. Ever since learning about CRI, the lighting in my house overall has changed dramatically after installing high-CRI bulbs and now I can't help but notice when I go somewhere that has low-CRI bulbs
Great review Rob. Thank for showing which strips to "flick off " 😊
It would be nice for the DIY breakdown to be organized by voltage. Once you commit to a voltage its a pain to switch.
A video comparing different led controllers would be really interesting. I alway go for an esp8266 + WLED but this video made me question if that is the best way.
Thanks! Picked up BTF 24Volt 3000K 4000K and 6000K strips a while back after watching a Quindor TH-cam . At that time you could only get 4000K from Ali, not available on Amazon. For cabinets I tend to prefer the 4000K but I have also experimented with running 3000K and 4000K side by side to get a mix. Ultimate goal would be ESP32 based dimmer / mixer and have all three and super high refresh rate. Just no time!!!..
I am also a big fan of the Meanwell LPV-60-24 power supplies for under the cabinets. No fans and as long as you don't push it, no heat problems. Testing I've linked 4 strings (20 meters) with power injection and it does get hot!!!! For some strange reason (supply?), the Meanwell LPV-60-12 was almost twice $$ when I picked them up.
Looks cool but not enough amps for the JOYLIT 24V COB
I really wish these manufacturers would make cob tunable strips that go down to 2000 or at least 2200k. 2700 is way too cool for night time! Also, minimum brightness is very high on the pautix ones, but I don't have the other ones so IDK how those are
Would really appreciate an on screen QR code to your blog page which shows all your findings.
Love your work. Keep it up :)
Interesting idea. I can't put a QR code in the video now, but I can put together a google sheet to share the data.
@@TheHookUp Thanks for all your great work. Love this channel. For _future_ videos I'll plus one the QR code idea. I watch most of these videos on the TV and it's much easier to scan a QR code then to find the same video on my phone, find the link, and click it.
I also would love a google sheet; cri may be more or less important than lumens per watt for my eval than it was for yours, and could adjust what would work best for me @@TheHookUp
Amazing job as usual! Just lucky because I got the best value btf one couple of weeks ago and now I see this incredible video. Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise :)
It's great to see these improvements! We have a lot of large windows so we get great natural light all day and then several of our fixtures are using what's left of our incandescent bulb stash, so my standards for spectrum quality are pretty high. I've had to return a lot of "green cast" LEDs over the years. For my eyes, 90 CRI is the lowest I'll go - and even then sometimes the green push is too strong. *shrug* Princess and the pea?
I want to appreciate this kind of content because it's actually so damn valuable! Thank you!
I would love to see this done to smart strips that include addressable color (in sections) using their native apps. Some of them are just RGB, some are RGBWW, some are RGBWW but weirdly use some color with the white. I'd love to see between Govee, Philips, Lifx, etc, (just top seller of RGB and RGBWW smart strips) who ranks best.
I'm currently using Govee RGBWW, and I think it's great on that flicker, but probably just an ok CRI, like maybe 80.
I thought I was about to realize I had to rip out a lot of LEDs, but apparently I did pretty good choosing! Love the Edison base bulbs you convinced me to convert my home over to!
This is the stuff i subscribe for. Yes. Thank you. I was hoping to see the ultra rare stuff that quindor recommend, like the colordiode and auxmer strips
I bought Govee and Wobane back in 2021 with 32.8ft each. Looking to turn them into pantry lighting and closet lighting, no fancy colors, but breaks in the lines and corners most definitely. Looking at the strips it looks like I can cut these to adjust to fit the situation like you would for LED not in a kit.
Thanks for a very helpful video. I have done several installations and there has been something "not quite right" with each product that I have tried. Interestingly, I have used three of the brands that you tested.
This was great, most people don't understand the importance of CRI
I'm really happy to see that the BTF-Lighting FCOB WW strip performed well, so I'm assuming their FCOB CW+WW strips would have similar results.
I got so excited when I saw a new video from you. I thought it was going to be the projector review. When will this be up?
2 weeks, February 15th.
@@TheHookUp thank you. I am holding off on buying a projector till I see this video. Love the work you do.
Are these lumens/watt figures really correct? A very efficient LED Bulp usually never exceeds 200lm/watt but this video has strips with 5 times the lumens
Yes and no, they are accurate for illuminating the inside of the testing cooler that I used. In real life a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux. The raw lux measurement is also given for each strip on the overview section.
@@TheHookUpFOR SURE YOU shouldn't publicly provide these values!
that is physically absolutely impossible!
the bare LEDs are a little above 100lm/W in ideal laboratory conditions!
PLEASE only compare with relative values not absolute numbers!
I personally think that's misleading information.
I think I was pretty clear about where the values were derived from, I also listed the raw lux values. The values for each strip were calculated in the exact same way, so they are all relative to each other.
@@TheHookUp I'm fine with that explanation - thank you.
Your efficacy numbers are not derived correctly. Let me know if you want to talk separately on this. Thanks!
Great video, very informative and helpful. Thank you very much for your work.
Perfect timing, now I know what to buy thanks
Super. Very nice job. My go-to now, for LED data.
Great work as always. I was very interested to see your results on the BTF 5050 RGB-WW lightstrip. For my kitchen cabinets, I chose that light strip, but with the 60 LED per meter instead of the 30 LED per meter you tested and it looks like I made the right choice adding the extra LEDs . They are so bright I hardly need to use the actual kitchen lights anymore. I've also found the colors to be very pleasing, but I don't know if that is because the colors are any better than the 30 LED per model or I just have no eye for color.
Thanks for the research! My kitchen strip lights developed quite the roach infestation behind them. I read that lights with lower UV and heat output do better at not attracting them. Maybe those are a couple other metrics worth measuring.
Any reason you didn't test with the 24V version of the BTF FCOB? Since they're so dense the cut lines are pretty much the same as the 12V and seems like they'ed be a better recommendation, especially for longer runs.
I'll also note that I recently replaced my kitchen cabinet lights with the 24V BTF FCOB and was surprised by the WW color. It's hard to explain, but it's a brighter orange color (makes me think of orange creamsicles) than any other warm LED strip/bulb color I've seen which are more of a burnt orange/amber color.
Just scope creep, have to limit the amount of strips I test at some point. That said, I prefer 12V in most medium length applications because it's a more common voltage and I have a bunch of 12V adapters of various amperages just laying around.
As for the color, the BTF-Lighting FCOB was 2920K, which is a bit cooler than most "warm white" strips which are generally between 2700-2800K. Most of the amber color WW chips are the low CRI garbage.
I also purchased 8 more joylit 24v cob 2700k and aluminum track 10mm on amazon. I bought the joylit 400w drivers. My setup is 4 rows of 2 strips in series. 2 strips in series and one set per channel for 2 channels per psu required 224watts. These power supplies run very hot. I have 2 drivers for 8 strips running in a garage that is 26' by 36' (3 car garage). I estimate the brightness to be about 40000 lumens. I was wondering if you could do comparisons for led drivers. I imagine I will have to replace these soon... Strips look great. I have the diffusers on the channel it makes it look great when off, but for sure dims the light some. In order to power this I used caseta outdoor smart plug and and pico remote on garage wall and Lutron motion sensor. It draws less than 4 amps so I just ran all the psus by the garage door opener and plugged in next to it. Was way simpler than electrician cutting 4 holes in dry wall. I also purchased the caseta elv+ switches and was planning on having 1 psu per switch, but opted for simpler setup first.
it would be nice to see BTF-24V-060L-W it is WS2814 strip with 24v input. There is not many 24v strip manufacturers
Both types of BTF-Lighting WS2814 strips are in the video, COB and 5050. The 24V 5050 package should have the same brightness and CRI as the 12V 5050 package with less voltage drop but larger addressable segments of 6 LEDs instead of 3.
For integration into HomeAssistant, it looks like the controllerless versions that plug into a Shelly that can be put into the wall would be the way to go.
Can you add info on the MINIMUM brightness? I find that most LEDs seem to be way too bright for watching TV and especially for use as a night light when wandering around the house at 3am taking care of an annoying dog...
I did collect that stat, which one are you interested in?
When looking at the brightness, the pixel density will of course make quite a difference. A 160+ LED/m COB vs 60L/m strip will have a big difference in brightness.
With lower pixel density, diffusing will also become an important aspect. You don't want to see the individual LEDs reflected on your wall.
You are clearly trying to become the Project Farm of LEDs. Bravo, good sir! /bows
Science! I love it
Extremely helpful. Thanks.
Great video! Have you evaluated outdoor strips and power supplies that could be installed under an open pergola?
Love the BTF COB strips.
Do you have any plans to do a comparison of remote control bulbs, like Hue, like you did for regular LED bulbs 6 months ago? Thanks for your great work!
Amazing review as always!
Do you happen to have affiliate links to these LED strips from a source in Europe?
I've been really happy with the JunWen brand for my kitchen under-cabinet lighting.
Thanks!
i definitely want the pautix tunable.. but do you think it would look okay as direct lighting? i plan on putting it on either the ceiling or in the corners where the walls and ceiling meet
Where can we find the watts per foot/meter of the LED strips? I'm trying to determine what my voltage drop will be for a kitchen setup and the calculator is asking for the watts per meter rating of the LED strips.
I am ur new subscriber. Please suggest me the best free style projectors all in one .. m wait for ur reply plz
I'd love to see a comparison of these Amazon options with a "professional" grade strip from Flexfire.
I'm sure they are pretty good, but yikes! $239 for 5m!?
If I'm doing white, I often like to go with a WWA addressable strip (WWA = Warm White / Cool White / Amber). I've bought WWA strips in SK6812-WWA, WS2818-WWA, and GS8208-WWA... The GS8208-WWA is my favorite because its dimming and tuning curves are more accurate being 12-Bit, plus every pixel is addressable, but it's also the most expensive and by far the hardest to find (I can't find it anywhere now). SK6812-WWA would be my next favorite, because it's cheaper, more efficient, and easier to obtain than the other varieties.
Now you need to do this same test for LED can-less puck lights (Halo, Cooper, etc)!
Yes, that's on my list of videos to do.
@@TheHookUp Excellent! Hope you can get to it soon!
Hi! Why not testing any solutions between 3000K and 4000K (e.g. for kitchen lighting)? Anyway a great job, as usual!!!
2700k-3000k is the most popular color temp, but a bunch of the strips in this video are either tunable or available in many different color temperatures.
@TheHookUp Any thoughts on using a 12v to 24v booster to run the high output JOYLIT 24V COB strips to run two 14ft runs on a van ceiling? Looking for lots adjustable white output for overhead lighting. Will likely go with some 12v BTF-LIGHTING WS2814 for accent cabinet toe kick lighting. Guessing I will need two different controllers one for 24v ceiling lights and one for 12v toekick lighting. Some of these boosters run at 97% efficiency so not to much power loss. Or do I just keep it all 12v and run all the same 12v BTF-LIGHTING. What would you do?
Hi. Thanks for sharing these awesome videos! 👍 What is the brightest *5V* (COB) LED strip you have come across?
I am a noob regarding LEDs but what you are calculating is Ra, or general CRI (R1-R8) and not the CRI that matters for color quality (R1-R15). There are hardly any led strips that can reach a real CRI of over 90. The Ra 92 you mention has a CRI closer to 80.
Sort of but not really. CRI is R1-R8, they call R1-R15 "Extended CRI". I did set up my meter to show the R9 subscore (the second to last number on the R6-10 line, and R9-15 are shown in the bar graph section.
For my bathroom lighting I'm leaning to 24V IP65/68 3000K WW with 528 LEDs/m but there isn't much info on the lumens. Your JOYLIT 24V isn't IP65, so was hoping for an Aliexpress link. Is there a big difference between the 480 vs 528?
13:19
Do not use 12V strips for homes. They use resistors to drop voltage down due to unevenness of leds. The power loss is illogical to be used in homes if its 24/7 plugged in. You're essentially using power when turned off and DOUBLE when turned on.
Don't trust me? Try plugging in a killawatt meter and see for yourself.
Incorrect. Those strips use three LEDs in series to drop the voltage. You are thinking of 12v pixels which are individually controllable.
Great video. I wish I had these values a year ago as I was deciding what LED strips to use for a hallway and hobby room.
I ended buying something that has the same package as the Topai, just that it is 24V.
I am pretty happy with them, except that I found that on max brightness they seem to expand, causing them/the adhesive to come loose from the surface and you end up with some sort of waves every meter or so. When the LED strip cools down, they go back to normal.
I am not sure of this is because it is a COB Led strip or that the underlying surface is not metal (to dissipate the heat), but it isn't something you would normally expect. I just run them at 75%, and they are plenty bright.
I am curious how widespread this phenomenon is. Maybe it would make for an interesting video. :)
Hopefully I don't mess this up since I used to teach physics, but copper has a thermal expansion coefficient of about 0.02mm/m*C so if you had a 5m strip and it was installed flat at 20C and reached 80C then you would have an expansion of 5x60x0.02 or 6mm along the entire 5m strip which doesn't seem likely to cause folding/bowing but I suppose it's possible.
Edit: misremembered the coefficient, it's closer to 0.02.
@@TheHookUp
Yes. I also never had it/observed it with my other non-COB LED strips.
It might be that silicone/phoshor gel diffuser that is on top of them that is doing the movement.
Are you planning on reviewing the new budget label printers available on Amazon?
label printers?
@@TheHookUp Yeah, lot's of cheap apparently capable ones. The problem gauging which ones are worth buying.
Note on voltage drop.
24v setups will need %50 of the current of a 12v at the same wattage - since voltage drop is proportional to current at the the same resistance, the same traces on a 24v will have half the voltage drop of the same power 12v LED strip.
So you cannot say "lower voltage drop means better quality traces" when comparing 24v and 12v
If the voltage drop is 50% lower for the 24v VS the 12V , they would have the same resistance, and therefor similar traces and "quality"
Within the voltage classes, you are right - more copper usually means less drop.
Also, it appears you didn't calculate the voltage drop per meter - since they were mostly 5m with only 1 X 4m, it disn't really matter :)
Rest you did very well - measuring color and luminous flux under conrolled length, price per meter etc - for me, it was the well done tests that made the above mentioned issues really glare out!
Going to rewatch and see if I misread any of your graphs :) been a busy day so I could be to blame for misreading.
I mean, you could argue that building a 24V strip with 12V thickness traces is a waste of money. You want to balance voltage drop with cost.
@@TheHookUp Yep, except on long runs you sometimes need to apply voltage at more than one point on the strip to counter voltage drop.
Much less of an issue with 24v units, and, ( as you show ) its not a major issue anymore with the better quality strips at 12v ( I am old and remember playing with the earlier led strips - a CRI of 60 would be classed as awesome back then, and 2 volts drop over 3m were common - they would get warm enough to soften the tape and peel off the surface they were stuck to. )
BTW - Your reviews and tests are very good, keep up the good work!
Hello, I recently installed some Wefomey COB strips. Multiple strips attached to shelving. Some are warm white as desired. While others are only on cold white and will not change to warm. Any possible ideas?
So...The Shelly RGBW2 can not handle individually addressable LED strips. But Shelly can change colour of all led's and also dim all. Is that correct assumption?
Correct, it is only for traditional non addressable strips.
BTF ARGB typically has a high failure rate if you read the comments.
Thanks for collecting all this data. Have you ever tested the RGB saturation/color accuracy of smart bulbs? There have been certain ones I've bought with really weak, washed-out colors. I'm curious if there is anything on par with Lifx for color saturation.
Did you happen to measure the energized but turned off efficiencies of the addressable strips? IIRC some of those on strip controllers aren’t very efficient when off
What’s the best 12v RGBW LED strip that works with WLED?
Great comparison but... What about the rest of the world that absolutely hates the dingy yellow 3000K color. Makes your house feel like you are in a smoke filled bar. Some of us prefer a white light closer to daylight color.
2700k-3000k is the most popular color temp, but a bunch of the strips in this video are either tunable or available in many different color temperatures.
Another great review video - thanks Rob!
Hi, I really enjoyed your review. I was wondering if you would consider doing the same kind of review for undercabinet LED puck lighting, such as Ikea's MITTLED LED spotlights and other comparable brands. CRI, brightness, efficiency, etc.
Also, it would be great to see a review of which drivers and dimmers work the best for these LED strip and undercounter puck lights.
Thanks very much. 👍
I'll put it on the list, but I think pancake (recessed low profile) lights and smart bulbs will come before that.
@@TheHookUp Thanks so much.
How do these compare to the Hue strips? Their pricing is downright embarrassing, but they do seem to perform well in my experience. Would be interesting as a comparison. Also really impressed at the CRI for the WS2814, I remember the older chips were awful at white.
I didn't test Hue because even if they were 98 CRI (which I'm sure they are not) it wouldn't be worth $99 for 6ft.
when testing SK6812 there is an option in WLED that let you prefer the brightness or the accuracy. you traded the brightness for accuracy, you could have tried the other settings too ;)
Nah, I was using the setting that doesn't combine RGB into W, it just had a separate white channel slider. The CRI measurement was for the white channel alone and adding RGB does not increase that CRI value.
@@TheHookUp ah ok. Thanks for the explanation. Very interesting.
Great great guy the best reviewer ever❤
how does one use less length of a strip? can they just be cut off?
Awesome as always Rob!
I'm going to guess that somewhere within your existing videos, you covered what to look for and/or recommendations for 12V or 24V power supplies, and the Shelly controller?
Is the Groove Alexa controllable?
Would like to have see an an RGB category. You could probably do a whole video on RGB, RGBW and RGBWW.
The issue with RGB is that the CRI is always terrible. RGBW/RGBCWWW are a different story.
Can 2 JOYLIT 24V (5mt) strips be solder?
Awesome video as usual! Thanks a lot!
Are you controlling all these LED’s with the same controller? On your phone? 9:17 Thank you
Yes, using a shelly RGBW2: amzn.to/3R28JSO
@TheHookup which strip would you recommend for lighting a bookcase? I am going to put them on the door frame facing inward.
Any thoughts on which would be best for a hyperion ambient light project?
I get that you would go bankrupt if you did everything, but I would have loved to have seen CCT/TW/WWCW DIY strips. You did tunable for kits, so I was hoping/excited you would do tunable DIY.
Even worse than going bankrupt I feel like at a certain point the videos just get too long. Too much testing, too much data to report, etc.
How to make huge "circle lamp" from these? like they have in malls / pharmacies giving out soft light like a soft box. Or are there any led strips that would have leds on the side instead, so it would be much easier to install without cutting it to small pieces first?
There are definitely side firing LEDs, but you'd probably need to order from the manufacturer on AliExpress.
Hei 48V... they started to appear.. huge market is waiting for it
Are there any aluminum channels or diffusers you recommend using?
I would like to know the efficiency difference between a pwm and spi controlled led strip: BTF FCOB CCT strip. I find it hard to find reviews like yours on the cct efficiency's.
The big difference is that an SPI (addressable) strip is never truly "off", it always has power running through the strip's busbars and each addressable IC is waiting for data to know whether to turn on.
@@TheHookUp Thanks for your reaction! I get that an standby power is used, but I can easily fix tgat by switching tge power supply on and on when required with automation. Is there no real difference in lumen per what? with pwm vs spi?
Wow what an amazing review!!
Do you believe that these results hold up across the different temperature options for these lights? I am more of a 4000K person which is why I am curious. Thank you!
They should, in fact generally speaking CRI tends to be the highest around 3500k.
Edit to clarify: CRI is independent from color temperature but 3500k seems to be easier to produce with high CRI.
Thanks for a very informative video. I am looking into using LED strips as main light source so flicker (and CRI also) is very important to me. The 23% flicker percentage (at 50% brightness) of RGBW2 seems not that much smaller than the 32% of the Daybetter kit, which you described as unusable for long term - do you have any idea if this is on the RGBW2 or can be attributed also to the used power supply? I have even seen in a post from Shelly Facebook Group dated a few years back that the Shelly had then PWM at just 400 Hz.
800hz at 99% brightness, 1kHz at 50%.
Another great video. Thank you for continuing to produce informative content. DIY LEDs is something I have been interested in getting into. I'm thinking about building some floor lamps and I have been gathering information on how to go about it. @ChrisMaherDIY has some great content on his channel about DIY LED projects. This video really supplemented some my research for this project. Based on what I have already learned and your video, I'm now pretty confident that the WS2814 are the best strips for the results I want. Question for you, what colorimeter (spectrometer) are you using for your measurements. For some reason the quality of light if very interesting to me and because of that I'm also interested in spectrometer.
I think I answered my own question by pausing your video. Looks like the Hopoocolor OHSP350C Spectrometer
Yep, that's what I'm using.
I have a question for you do you have any wireless HDMI recommendations?
i loved this review, but i'd like to see something in the range of USB powered lights, too.
There was a USB powered kit from Pautix in this video.
@@TheHookUp I guess I just focused on the DIY portion in the video. Thanks, I'll review the kits again.
Great great video! Does anybody know about the CRI of BTF 5in1 RGBCCT analog/pwm led strip? 12 or 24V version, I hope they use the same LEDs and are just clustered differently.
Thank you!
Is there a set for dummy's that includes everything so I can set it to turn on when dark and off during the day? I really don't want the advanced set up.
Yes
1. get one of the kits from the first section of the video
2. use the included remote to set it to the brightness/color temp that you want
3. Get a normal timer plug and set it for whatever schedule you want
I have a question for you about cri values. Since coldwhite and warmwhite might have slightly different peaks does a mix of them create a higher cri?
No, CRI is independent of color temperature, so if you had a mix it would measure the CRI at whatever overall color temp was being produced, and it would be somewhere in between the CRI of the WW and the CRI of the CW chips.
There is something wrong with those lumen per Watt efficacy numbers. They are all at exceedingly high levels. The theoretical maximum efficacy is just shy of 700 lm/W with green monochromatic light matching peak photopic sensitivity.
I hear ya, however they are accurate for illuminating the inside of the testing cooler that I used. In real life a 22in section of LED strip would likely be illuminating a much larger space. My colorimeter measures lux which is lumens per square meter, so multiplying by the square meters of the projected surface gives lumens from lux, but doesn't take beam angle into account and even though sensor position was accounted for it's likely that there was some direct illumination of the sensor rather than pure reflective. The raw lux measurement is also given for each strip on the overview section if you would rather see those.
That said, the values for each strip were calculated in the exact same way, so they are all relative to each other if you want to just call them modified lm/watt.
For the analog strips -- are you running an analog controller? I'd love to run an analog controller that is WLED compatible, however these are really hard to find. Quindor has a reference analog design but its DYI. Just wondering how you're controlling the analog (non all in one ) strips.
I use the shelly RGBW2. It's not WLED compatible though.
thanks. You mentioned that in your video but jeez I guess I just wasn't aware the Shelly was an actual controller and not just a relay. Thank you. I'll see if Shelly does cct strips as well
just what I needed, thank you
Wonder if the kit , Pautex flickering would go away with plugging in 220v?
It would definitely go away. 220v would kill them!
Great review, cheers 👍
Good timing, I am getting ready to purchase some LED light strips for my Kitchen!
I have an extra 12volt power supply that I used to power low voltage outdoor lighting. Would that work with these 12 volt LED strips.
Make sure it is 12V DC, most outdoor lighting is AC. Other than that it just needs to be rated for a high enough amperage.
Thank you!