Of course, the following information is not only valid for LED strips but also for low-voltage LED spotlights, LED star ceilings, or other indicator or guide lights, or even for 12V LED floodlights, but the issue most commonly arises with LED strips.
First, you need to know the voltage, that is, the number of volts, required by the selected LED strip. Most LED strips operate on 12V DC, but there are also LED strips that require 24V or 230V power supply.
First, based on the location and method of application, it is advisable to read the article titled Adapter or LED driver?
There are power supplies called adapters and there are those called LED drivers. Which one is more suitable for a particular place can be found out from the article.
Once this is decided, the most important thing is to determine what power supply to choose for the length and strength of the LED strip.
The key is that the power supply must be able to continuously provide the total consumption of the LED strips you want to operate. How do we calculate this? – let’s recall our elementary school memories.
Every LED strip indicates how many watts it consumes per meter or for the entire reel. Add up the watts of the LEDs you want to operate from one power supply.
Once you have that, choose a power supply with a higher VA value from here.
VA = Volt times Amper, which is equivalent to Watt, and this is commonly referred to as, for example, a 100W power supply. But actually, this would mean that the power supply consumes 100 watts, but it is not capable of delivering 100 watts, i.e., we can operate 100 watts of LED strip with it, so the 100-watt term refers to what we can connect to it, not its consumption, thus the 100 Volt-Ampere expression is more accurate.
The big question is how much stronger should the power supply be than the consumption of our LED strip group. It is generally valid that the power supply should be subjected to continuous load up to 80-90% of its nominal capacity. This means that an 80W or possibly 90W LED strip should only be connected to a 100VA power supply if we want to operate the LED strip continuously and also want the power supply to have a sufficiently long lifespan.
There are manufacturers who stipulate that the warranty is only valid if the continuous load does not exceed 80% of the theoretical value, but there are also those who guarantee that it can be continuously loaded up to the specified value, meaning that for a 100VA power supply, 100W of strip can indeed be connected to it.
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IMPORTANT: LED strips operate on DC, so they cannot be used with iron-core transformers that output AC. Similarly, no LED, including LED strips, can be used with the so-called "electronic transformers for halogens" designed to output AC for halogen light sources!