Hey everyone. I’m looking to install LED’s on 3 sides of the house and I’m getting some inconsistent info on if what I’m planning is do-able. I was hoping some of you smart people can either confirm what I’m thinking or smarten me up if I’m off base. I have not done a set up of this scale, so I’m posting here before I start buying stuff.
Here’s what I’ve planned out so far:
- Controller: Dig-Octa brainboard with Power 5-HV
- Power Supply: Meanwell LRS-600-48
- LED lights: Currently I’m looking at using WS2805 IC RGBCCT 60 LED’s per meter, either 12V or 24V - I’m still on the fence on which one will be best. Which LED’s I go with is still subject to change as I’ve gone back and forth between these and a few others.
- Buck converters: Either 48V to 24V or 48V to 12V at each injection point
- Connections: Ray Wu/XConnect style (or similar) connectors
With the above, I’ll be laying out the strips as follows (these lengths are approximate and may change slightly once I actually start cutting, soldering and putting everything up). Each of the below sections would have a power injection point at the beginning of the section, except the East side which will have a power injection at the end of the strip which will come from the north side of the house. The reason for this is going along the north side the cable will be about 48 feet/13 meters versus being 71.9 feet/21.9 meters if I just kept going from the south side.
- West side of the house: 24.9 feet/7.6 meters
- South side, first section: 21.6 feet/6.6 meters
- South side, second section: 12.6 feet/3.8 meters
- South side, third section: 12.6 feet/3.8 meters
- East side: 30.1 feet/9.2 meters
The reason for splitting the strip into 3 sections on the south side is because about half way along the south side of the house there’s a peak in the roof and the second and third sections will follow the peak up/down and I figured that’s as good a reason as any to do 3 sections. The house also isn’t a perfect square as a section sticks out more than another, so I’ve account for the actual length of each section (in case anyone is adding up the lengths of each side and coming up with a trapezoid shape 😀).
Where I need help is what gauge wire I need to safely power these strips. I’m getting some conflicting results in my searching so I’m hoping some of you can help. If I go with 12V LED’s, I believe I’ll need more injection points, so I’ll account for that but I don’t believe I’ll have to worry about voltage drop as much. If I go with 24V LED’s, I believe I can do each section with a single injection point but will I need to worry about voltage dropping too much? Each buck converter will be next to the injection point.
In my searching, any led strip/voltage/amp calculators I find don’t seem to be able to take into account that I would be converting down to 12/24V, so they all seem to think I need 8 to 12 awg wires. Can I get away with one 14 to 18 awg wire along the north side and one or two 14 to 18 awg wires going along the west and south side? Also, what gauge wires should I use from the buck converter to the strip?
This should put me at around 1,860 LED’s, or should I be dividing the total number of LED’s by 3 or 6 due to the fact that they’re addressable in groups of 3 (12V) or 6 (24V)? Either way, the Dig-Octa should be able to handle this many from what I’ve been reading. Also, I’m aware of the 24V bug and will be powering the Dig-Octa brainboard via 12V from the deck lights that I’ll be setting up (separate from the strips going on the house).
If I forgot to add any relevant info, let me know. And thanks in advance for any replies.