We could instantly say that, of course, the 24 Volt one. With twice the voltage and the same Amperage, you can transfer twice the power.
What does this mean in practice for LED strips?
Advantages of 24 Volt RGB LED Strips:
- The maximum current load is specified for an LED controller.
- For example, if an LED controller is 12 Amperes, you can connect up to 144 Watts of 12 Volt strip to it, meaning you can connect 10 meters of a 14.4 Watt per meter RGB LED strip.
- In contrast, if your LED strip with the same power is 24 Volts, you can connect up to 288 Watts of LED strip to it.
- So, for the previously mentioned 14.4 Watt per meter, 24 Volt RGB strip, you can connect 20 meters. Yes, this is a basic calculation method, but the point is clear.
- This example also means that if you are indeed using a 12 Ampere RGB LED controller and want to install 20 meters of RGB LED strip, you will need 2 RGB controllers (or one controller and a signal amplifier) for the 12 Volt strip to operate 20 meters. In contrast, if you use a 24 Volt strip, one such RGB controller will suffice.
- The most important advantage of the 24 Volt strip is that for the same circuit cross-section strip with the same consumption, you will experience less loss on the LED strip.
- LEDs farther from the power connection point on a 24 Volt LED strip lose less brightness than on a 12 Volt strip.
- This means that an evenly strong light experience can be more easily achieved with a 24 Volt LED strip, as you need approximately half as many connections for the same illumination. (It is generally true, – obviously depending on the parameters of the specific LED strip – that usually 2-5 meter sections of LED strip need to be created to establish power wire connections at both ends. If you do this over longer sections, the middle of the strip may light up weaker – even visibly.)
- With the use of 24 Volt LED strips, connection points can be spaced out, meaning you can create 5-10 meter sections of LED strip and only need to establish power connection points at their ends.
- Moreover, along the LED strip, you need to create a power backbone wire to the connection points, which for RGB is 4-core. Naturally, with 24 Volts, for the same power transfer, you can use a thinner (half the cross-section) wire, which can make installation easier in tight spaces.
- Obviously, for smaller systems of a few meters, the advantage of 24 Volt systems does not appear. However, if you want to hide RGB LED lighting in a ceiling plasterboard cornice of a room, which may require 15-30 or more meters of LED strip, the advantages of 24 Volt systems are not negligible.
Disadvantages of 24 Volt RGB LED Strips:
- A disadvantage might be that 24 Volt RGB LED strips are rarer, so there is less choice and they may be harder to obtain.
- Another possible disadvantage is that 24 Volt power supplies are also less common, so the selection is narrower, and due to smaller production runs, they might be relatively more expensive. – Nowadays, however, we see that the 12 and 24 Volt power supplies of the same type and output are in the same price range. (We are not referring to cheap adapters here.)
- A disadvantage might be if numerous 12 Volt systems have already been installed in the given apartment or building; – and there is free power supply capacity available, then it is not really worth installing a separate 24 Volt RGB system. It might be more practical to stick with 12 Volts.
- If you are not routing the strip in a straight line and need to bend it on its edge – which it doesn’t bend towards – you will need to cut it at the corners and insert some connector element or solder a wire. When you want to install strips of a specific length, this can be a disadvantage for the 24 Volt LED strip compared to the 12 Volt ones.
- It is well known that 12 Volt LED strips can be cut every 3 LEDs. This means that a 30 LEDs per meter strip can be cut every 10 cm, and a 60 LEDs per meter strip can be cut every 5 cm.
- If a section is not divisible by 5 or 10, a few centimeters will be left out, so you need to be careful to stick the LED strip section in the middle to avoid a noticeably longer unlit spot.
- In contrast, the 24 Volt LED strip can be cut every 6 LEDs, so they can only be cut into 10 and 20 cm sections. It might seem unfavorable, but some can be cut every 5 LEDs and thus into 16.6 cm sections. The point is that with 24 Volt strips, you need to think more about the length of the sections and the cutting to ensure they look good at the corners. – (1)
Here are the specific comparisons:
The result of the comparative test is not necessarily about which one is better or worse (but we cannot ignore this), but about which one is more suitable for what purpose. Now, in February 2023, we compare the consumption and light output of 7 types of RGB LED strips from the LEDrex online store. The data presented in this article are not laboratory measurements and should not be considered official data. They merely help navigate the various RGB LED strips to place the presented LED strips in an imaginary ranking according to our installation goal.
It is also a fact that when sizing consumption, it is more practical to calculate with the actual installation mode consumption rather than the nominal consumption values provided by the manufacturer, as you will see that in many cases, we can significantly oversize, e.g., the power supply requirement, by using nominal values, resulting in unnecessary extra costs for the buyer.
Nominal and Measured Consumption Values
The following table shows the nominal consumption values provided by the manufacturer for 5-meter reels, the consumption values given for 5-meter reels connected from one end and from both ends.
To make consumption values easier to interpret, two additional percentage values are also shown in the table.
- The two-end connection ratio compared to the nominal value:
- This indicates how much the consumption of a finished product deviates from the manufacturer’s statement. It is well known that due to the resistance of the LED strip, the LEDs light up weaker the further they are from the power connection, so every meter further has lower consumption.
- However, manufacturers do not specify how frequent power connections are needed to achieve this nominal consumption. Since they do not state this, we must assume that if they sell a 5-meter reel, it must produce the nominal power without being cut or altered. If the deviation is significant, the product is less credible.
- We can conclude that the 24 Volt V-TAC is excellent. Yes, it is a clever construction, but this requires explanation. This strip is exceptionally available in a 10-meter reel. Just to compare it fairly with the 5-meter ones, I cut it at 5 meters.
- However, this also means that V-TAC dared to be more cautious. Generally, manufacturers indicate 14.4W/m for 60 LEDs per meter and 7.2W/m for 30 LEDs per meter. V-TAC anticipated this and only wrote 7W/m for the 60 LEDs per meter, making it the weakest among the 60s 🙂 – but it is a good product.
- It is clear that strips designed for lower consumption per meter (30 LEDs per meter + the previously mentioned) have better percentage values, and it is also evident that the 24 Volt strips represent a better percentage ratio.
- The single-end consumption ratio compared to the two-end connection:
- In order, it is nearly the same as the previous one. This actually indicates how undersized the strip’s cross-section is. That is, how well the power could travel through the 5 meters, or how much it lags compared to the two-end power supply. Poorer values indicate that the strip’s cross-section is undersized, so to achieve uniform illumination, shorter sections need to be created with both end connections.
- Here again, the outstanding performance of the 24 Volts is evident, as at double the voltage, half the current is sufficient for the same power.
Light Output Trends
“Relative light output values on a 5-meter reel compared to the strongest measured value” means that I took the highest value from all measurement points as 100% and expressed the measured values as a percentage relative to that. The highest measured value was at the power input point of the 24 Volt Pannon RGB LED with 60 LEDs per meter, measured when both ends of the 5-meter LED strip were powered.
This is suitable for comparing the strength of LED strips with each other, but the following table better represents how much the light weakens further from the power input point.
So the following table details how much weaker each section of the 5-meter strip performs compared to the 10 cm strip sections measured at the power input points, which are always the strongest. (Thus, the entire 4th column is 100% throughout.)
You can see that when connected from both ends, both 24 Volt Pannon strips are perfect, and even the 30 LED strip shows no visible difference when connected from just one end, suggesting that we can create continuous 10-meter sections from it. We only need to connect the two ends of the 10 meters to achieve uniformly strong illumination.
Actually, slightly behind this, we also see that the V-TAC 24 Volt RGB strip is perfect with its over 80% value. A linear measured light flux difference of around 20% is not really visible because the unit of measure is linear, but our light perception is logarithmic. Moreover, RGB lighting is predominantly used with some flashing light-changing effect. Thus, in a moving light strip, a 20% difference is unlikely to be noticeable.
In the V-TAC row, those who are observant will notice that in the single-end power supply, the far-end value is higher than the middle of the strip, which seems illogical. But it is real. If I had measured multiple identical strips and averaged the results, this anomaly would disappear, but I only measured 1-1 strip. The reason could be that on an LED strip, within the sections between the cutting points, the LEDs are connected in series, and the current passing through them is limited by resistors. Every electronic component has a variation within the same type, meaning that even if a resistor type has the same nominal value, there are differences within it (larger differences in cheaper ones). As a result, slightly different value resistors result in stronger and weaker light within the individual LED strip sections. These can be measured but are not visible. Here, I measured such a difference. If I had measured just 10 cm away, it probably would not stand out.
Let’s evaluate the measured RGB LED strips individually:
1. Optonica 150 RGB LED indoor 12 Volt 5-meter strip
- Cheap, simple LED strip, cuttable every 3 LEDs, i.e., every 10 cm.
- Among the presented LED strips, it has the lowest consumption and provides the least light.
- It is not worth creating a serious system from it, because with roughly the same labor input, you can install a stronger and more reliable LED strip.
- Reliability does not mean it is bad, but the manufacturer does not provide information on how many layers the LED strip has, so it should be considered single-layer, meaning the design goal was not long-term operation, but lower cost.
- Despite this, the strip feels quite strong, so even though it is single-layer, they did not skimp on the material (just used cheaper technology). This is quite evident in its parameters, as the 5 meters, powered from one end, still provides 2/3 brightness at the far end, and when powered from both ends, the middle is considered perfect.
- I recommend it for retrofitting, meaning places where we don’t want to carry out a major renovation but just decide ad hoc to buy an RGB set because it would be nice to stick something colorful on the shelf, around the mirror, behind the TV, on the curtain rod, etc.
- In my opinion, it looks good when powered from one end up to 5 meters, and even for 10 meters, it’s sufficient to power both ends.
2. Pannon 150 RGB LED indoor 12 Volt 5-meter strip
- Similar to the previous one in that it can be cut every 3 LEDs, or every 10 cm. However, it is one level brighter and has higher power consumption.
- This is a 2-layer circuit strip, meaning durability and reliability were prioritized over cost. However, it still has 30 LEDs per meter, making it the cheaper among the more durable options.
- Thus, we can build more serious systems with it if the lower LED density, that is, the lower light output, is sufficient.
- The 5-meter strip, when connected from both ends, provides a practically uniform light output.
- Moreover, we can even create a 10-meter section by powering both ends of the 10 meters. As with the previous one, more serious installation can be done with this one due to the likely more durable quality from the 2-layer PCB. However, if we want to create 10-meter sections, we should check before sticking if the 1/3 light output drop in the middle is noticeable or not.
- Furthermore, since this strip has a 24-volt version (the next one), it is evident that even when powering a 5-meter roll from one end, no light output drop is noticeable. Thus, when creating 10-meter sections powered from both ends, no light output drop is noticeable in the middle, making the 24-volt version a better choice. Unless… any of the factors detailed at the beginning of the article arise as a disadvantage of the 24-volt version.
- But beyond all these, it may have another advantage. When such a large system, such a long (many) LED strip needs to be installed, and its total consumption promises to be considerable. Despite LEDs being economical, there is a 30% consumption difference between the two. If we need to install 100 meters of LED strip, distributed across several controllers, the 12-volt one consumes 550 watts (in white), and the 24-volt one consumes 710 watts. Additionally, not only is the consumption higher, but a power supply with higher pass-through capacity will also be needed.
3. Pannon 150 LED (5050SMD) indoor 24V LED strip 5m, RGB
- I covered its advantage when describing the previous strip.
- Suitable for installing larger professional systems, but this is the lower-light (sparser) version, which can be cut every 5 LEDs, or every 16.6 cm.
- A 2-layer circuit strip, meaning durability and reliability were prioritized over cost, and being 24 volts, it provides completely uniform light even when creating 10-meter sections and powering both ends. There will not be less light in the middle than at 5 meters, as I measured only a 6% difference.
- In my opinion, below 24 volts, there is no LED strip with which we can create LED strip sections longer than 10 meters with two-end connections, with such minimal light output difference in the middle of the strip.
Related useful information: When comparing 24 Volt RGB LED strips, the V-TAC performed well even at 10 meters, but it would also be good to know what the Pannon 30 LEDs per meter would produce over 10 meters!
4. V-TAC 600 RGB LED indoor 24 Volt 10-meter strip
- This is an odd one out, but it’s completely fine!
Not only does it perform well in terms of consumption and light output despite having 60 LEDs per meter, competing among the 30 LEDs per meter category, but it also comes in a 10-meter roll instead of 5. To compare it fairly with the others, I had to cut it in half.
- So V-TAC has done something great here. The 60 LEDs per meter look better on the strip compared to 30 LEDs.
- But to ensure the single-layer strip (which otherwise appears of normal thickness) can handle it, they reduced the power to match that of a 30 LEDs per meter strip. The manufacturer prices it like a 30 LEDs per meter dual-layer PCB, but V-TAC can claim theirs is more attractive.
- And V-TAC was right, I like it. Provided they maintain this parameter in the future because it’s known that both V-TAC and Optonica tend to change their products frequently. They actually source the same product from several no-name manufacturers, so the parameters can vary. I hope this product variant will be supplied by a single manufacturer. It’s quite tiresome that the 12 Volt strips from Optonica and V-TAC show such variety like women’s fashion.
- There is no experience with this product yet. I would recommend it for longer systems where a denser LED layout is important but we definitely don’t want the consumption to increase significantly. Also, it’s convenient that it’s factory-set to 10 meters, making it easy to install 10-meter sections, and with 60 LEDs per meter, it’s enough to deal with power points every 10 meters instead of every 5 meters.
- From the above tables, it’s evident that the 5-meter cut version has parameters nearly as good as the 24-volt 30 LEDs per meter Pannon. The strip shows somewhat greater power loss, but it also has higher light output.
- Since the strip is factory-made to 10 meters, it’s fitting to repeat the measurements with the 10-meter roll. The following values were obtained, considering everything from the 10-meter perspective.
- Based on all this, it can also be calculated that if we solder two 10-meter strips together and connect both ends of the 20 meters, the middle of the strip will be 40% dimmer than its ends. In fact, we can say only 40%, since it is still 20 meters in one piece. If someone surrounds a room with 20 meters, they can save the hassle of 4-core backbone wiring along the LED strip, and thus in a 5×5 or 4×6 meter room, a single power point in one corner is enough, from where both ends start. In return, the opposite corner will be 40% dimmer. If this is noticeable, the user might say – it’s worth it for the simpler installation. Such things always need to be seen before making a judgment. (UPDATE: according to a recent measurement, since the strips show variation, as described in this post, the light flux reduction is only 35%: HERE)
5. Optonica 300 RGB LED indoor 12 Volt 5-meter strip
- In the comparison test from two years ago, this RGB LED strip was almost as good as the 12 Volt 60 LEDs/m Pannon LED. Now, it’s the worst.
- It’s a shame for Optonica, as the brand name holder, to fall for the cheapest offer from competing noname manufacturers. It should be 60 LEDs, strong, not malfunctioning, and cheap. Yeah, right, and the cheapest one wins. The unsuspecting retailer orders the same item number, but instead of the previous good design, they get a “CHEAP” product in the packaging.
- This product falls the most short of its nominal consumption in terms of measured consumption. You might say, why wasn’t it as clever as V-TAC to write less on it. This is not enough. It’s a world record for light flux reduction. If only one end of the 5-meter roll is connected, nearly 80% of the light is lost at the far end. If both ends are connected, half the light is lost in the middle. We can see that all other LED strips are at or above 83%, but this one only manages 53%.
- Conclusion. I strongly advise against using this strip to create large systems because, for even and strong light, you would need to create 1.5-2 meter pieces and make two endpoint power connections. The LED strip is so thin that it cannot handle more substantial power. The table shows that at the connection points, it provides as strong a light as the 24 Volt Pannon 60 LEDs, and even beats the 12 Volt Pannon by 6 percentage points, but after that? – nothing. So they didn’t set the LED performance properly with the resistors on the strip but under-dimensioned it nicely, as the strip’s resistance will significantly reduce the performance anyway.
- What is it good for then?
If you are making lighting with shorter sections from the start. For example, for shelf lighting, this could be perfect, as you will need to cut the strip more frequently due to the shelves anyway. If your shelves are shorter than 1 meter, you can only connect one end of the strip. If you have shelves that are 1-2 meters long, it’s advisable to connect both ends. I wouldn’t create longer sections, at most I’d go up to 2.5 meters. So, if you cut it into pieces like this, you’ll achieve the same strong light more economically than if you were using the most expensive strip. Since you’re creating shorter sections, there will be dense connection points, so the light flux reduction over longer strips won’t be significant.
6. Pannon 300 RGB LED indoor 12 Volt 5-meter strip
- I’ve considered this the best LED strip for years. It was double-layered PCB, bright, and due to the strip’s performance, I always recommended creating connection points every 2.5 meters instead of 5 meters if possible. But due to its brightness and reliability, it was preferred.
- Then Pannon introduced its 24 Volt version, which provides even stronger light and more uniform illumination. Essentially, its own double Volt version renders it unnecessary. Henceforth, it’s appropriate to use this instead of 24 Volt where there’s already a 12 Volt system to expand and there’s no need to add a 24 Volt system alongside.
7. Pannon 300 RGB LED indoor 24 Volt 5-meter strip
- I praised the previous product already.
- Ideal for creating large and bright systems.
- Double-layered circuit strip.
- It has the brightest light, and even with power supplied at both ends of the 5-meter section, I measured only a 1% light flux reduction in the middle.
I didn’t mention it earlier, but it applies to all products that while adhesive is sufficient for 30 LED RGB strips, for 60 LEDs, good heat dissipation is essential. This can be achieved with glass, metal surfaces, or some DIY store metal profiles, but the best appearance is provided by LED aluminum profiles with diffuser covers. These profiles come in transparent and frosted versions. The frosted variant is suitable where you would otherwise see the LEDs directly, as it reduces dazzle from the LED points, spreads light at a wider angle, and provides a more uniform strip and less dot-like appearance. Obviously, this latter part applies not to the 30 LEDs per meter, but to the 60 LEDs per meter strips.
(1) – An unconventional method for cases where you always want to lead the LED strip to the corner, but the corners come out in such a way that you can’t cut it off. With 24 Volt strips, it can look quite bad if you can only cut it every 10 or 16.6 cm, leaving a dark gap at the corners.
First, we fold the strip in the opposite direction as desired, and then folding it completely at the corner, we get the right-angle fold:
Of course, with a little practice, we can create acute and obtuse angle folds:
Attention, this is not a standard method! Only bend gently, firstly to avoid breaking the PCB (do not flatten the fold, keep the arc), and secondly, be careful not to bend at the solder joints, as breaking a solder joint will cause the entire LED group (between cut points) or only one color not to light.