LED strip wattage

[Boborc]

Anyone have any idea how many watts the LED awning strip lights are? Thinking of adding dimmer and the one I like is 4.2amps 60 watt rated at 12v. The strip is about 18ft since that's the length of the awning. 2021 coachmen

[cc102bob]

I just installed this dimmer switch for my LED awning strip lights:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Another forum member posted that he had used this switch for the same purpose so I just went with it. It works great!
EDIT: I thought I should mention that this dimmer switch does have an "OFF" position, so it can completely replace your current switch if you so desire. I wired it in series with my current switch so that I could leave the dimmer switch at the desired level and use the regular switch to turn the light on and off.

[Boborc]

That is the exact switch I was looking at. So I guess it is capable of handling the led strip. Thanks. I was looking around and there are so many different led strips with different wattages wasn't sure which one they use on these trailers. I cannot seem to get an exact wattage per foot some say 2 watts per foot some say 5 watts per foot.

[BriaBeck]

The wattage depends on the LED strip.



I used to be kinda up to speed on this stuff a few years back, but since that project finished I haven't touched a thing with setting up LED's.


I don't suppose you know what LED's you have on your strip, do you? Without knowing exactly what you have, there's no way to know what your power draw is. If you can find a specification sheet, it would be most helpful. If you don't have the spec sheet, you could always just measure the power draw as well with a multimeter. Pretty easy to do if you have access to the wiring, which obviously you do if you're installing a dimmer. Most multimeters will handle a 10 amp load, well within the power draw you should see with the strip lights.

Otherwise, for your calculations, you'll just have to assume an arbitrary number on the high side, so that you don't overload your LED controller. But you are correct in your estimate range of 2 to 5 watts per foot... it just depends on what you have.

[01tundra]

The one on our Mini Lite 2109s (14') pulls 1.3A according to our Victron BMV-712.

[Boborc]

Originally Posted by BriaBeck

The wattage depends on the LED strip.



I used to be kinda up to speed on this stuff a few years back, but since that project finished I haven't touched a thing with setting up LED's.


I don't suppose you know what LED's you have on your strip, do you? Without knowing exactly what you have, there's no way to know what your power draw is. If you can find a specification sheet, it would be most helpful. If you don't have the spec sheet, you could always just measure the power draw as well with a multimeter. Pretty easy to do if you have access to the wiring, which obviously you do if you're installing a dimmer. Most multimeters will handle a 10 amp load, well within the power draw you should see with the strip lights.

Otherwise, for your calculations, you'll just have to assume an arbitrary number on the high side, so that you don't overload your LED controller. But you are correct in your estimate range of 2 to 5 watts per foot... it just depends on what you have.

Think's, I will buy the switch since it seems it will handle the load but I will check the draw before I wire it in. That's the problem with RV's, not much technical information to be found from Manufactures.

[Boborc]

Well installed the dimmer. Just in case anyone is looking for amps and watts I measured it. I have an 18ft awning 16 to 17 feet of the LED stripe. Measured 1.4 amps which is equal to17.5 watts. I did the math at 12.5 volts to side on caution.