Industrial or Consumer Grade LED Strip Lights: How to Choose

Heavy-duty LED strip lights provide reliable operation in the most challenging environments, including high-pressure washdown and all kinds of weather. Their housing is built with rugged construction for dependable performance in a variety of tough applications, including food and beverage, packaging, and automotive assembly. LED technology saves energy and minimizes replacement costs. 

Advantages of industrial strip lights over consumer grade strip lights:

• Durability: Industrial strip lights are built to withstand harsh conditions, making them ideal for environments with moisture, washdown, variable temperatures, dirt, and grease. Housing materials are far more robust than those on consumer grade lights. For example,  industrial strip lights commonly use silicone-encapsulated housing, which ensures resistance to water, shock, and vibration. This rugged housing with some UV-resistance allows for use outdoors and in industrial facilities. Not all consumer grade lights have industrial approvals, such as CE and UL. 
• Flexibility: Bendable industrial strip lights enable users to wrap them around curved surfaces, corners, and angles. You can cut RGB LED strip lights to the needed length and customize them into unique shapes.  Mounting clips allow users to create unique shapes. 
• Higher IP Ratings: Ingress Protection (IP) environmental ratings indicate a light’s level of protection against water and dust. If a strip light is rated IP69K, for example, that means it is dust-tight and can withstand a wide range of temperatures and high-pressure washdown. Knowing the IP rating is important when choosing where to install a strip light, with a higher environmental IP rating giving confidence to install an industrial strip light in a broader range of locations. 
• Customization and Programmability: Programmable industrial strip lights allow users to configure color, animation, sounds, and intensity for advanced indication, illumination, and inspection applications. These devices are ideal for those who are looking for advanced capabilities not found in traditional lights. 
• Longevity: While the up-front costs of industrial LED strip lights are typically higher than consumer grade options, they often have a longer lifespan. Their rugged housing, quality components, and advanced circuitry make them more likely to survive impact and unstable electrical conditions, and have a much greater everyday durability, requiring less frequent replacement. The reliability of these lights, combined with their advanced control capabilities, can help reduce downtime by providing clear status indications and facilitating quicker responses to issues.
• Easy integration: RGB LED strip lights with industrial protocols can be integrated into existing industrial control systems, making them easier to manage and control within the large industrial setup. They typically support industrial architectures like IO-Link and discrete I/O, allowing RGB LED strip lights to be synchronized with other equipment and processes. This can be used for signaling, status indicators, or automation.   

Consumer grade strip lights serve as a cost-effective alternative for those who are looking for basic functionality. They are widely available, which makes purchasing and replacing simple. These strip lights are ideal for residential use and in spaces where durability is not a necessity. 

Advantages of consumer grade strip lights over industrial strip lights:

• Price: Consumer grade LED strip lights typically have lower initial costs than industrial strip lights. This makes them a more budget-friendly choice for general lighting applications in which advanced features and rugged housing are not essential.
• Flexibility: Like industrial strip lights, basic rope lights can be bendable and cuttable as well. Some soldering may be required. 
• Availability: These lights are readily available online and in-stores. Their straightforward designs can be manufactured in bulk for quick turnaround, though components and performance may vary.
• Installation: Consumer grade strip lights are commonly designed for installation in residential areas and other settings in which harsher environmental conditions are not a concern.