LED system installation
Strips, profiles and drivers — properly sized, cooled and controlled, so the colour does not drift after a year.
An LED strip is the easiest thing to install and the easiest thing to install wrongly. The difference does not show on day one; it shows after a year.
Three things that decide its life
Cooling. The aluminium profile is a heatsink, not a styling choice. A strip stuck straight onto plasterboard or timber runs hotter, and roughly every 10 °C halves the life of the diodes.
The driver. Sized with at least 20 per cent headroom and mounted somewhere reachable — the driver is the part that fails first, and a driver buried in a ceiling means opening that ceiling.
Feed cross-section. Five metres of strip fed from one end through thin cable drops in voltage and shifts colour towards the far end. Feed both ends, or split it.
What we do
We calculate watts per metre and choose the driver. We fit a profile with a diffuser — the diffuser hides the dotted look of individual diodes, which is the single thing that makes LED strip look cheap.
The feed is routed so the driver stays accessible, and we plan the control up front: a plain switch, a dimmer, or integration into a smart system if the flat already has one.
For kitchen worktops and bathrooms we pick strips with the right ingress rating — moisture and steam are what kill strips in those rooms, not electricity.
Plan it before the ceiling closes
If you are planning LED in a ceiling or kitchen, get in touch before the plasterboard closes up. Profile and feed are planned at that stage; afterwards it means opening it again.
Common questions
Why does my LED strip change colour towards the end?
Voltage drop. A strip longer than five metres fed from one end sees noticeably lower voltage at the far end, so the colour shifts warm. It is fixed by feeding from both ends or splitting the run into segments.
Why did my strip burn out?
Almost always heat. A strip stuck straight onto plasterboard or timber has nowhere to shed it. An aluminium profile is not decoration, it is a heatsink, and it is the difference between two years and ten.
What size driver do I need?
Watts per metre times length, plus 20 per cent headroom. A driver permanently running at 100 per cent runs hot and fails first — as a rule, before the strip does.
Can an LED strip be dimmed?
It can, but the dimming has to happen on the driver side or the driver itself has to be dimmable. Dimming at 230 V in front of an ordinary driver gives you flicker.