Public Plaza Bench LED Strip Lighting for Six Seating Islands in Bilbao

The One Line in the Brief That Decided the Spec

Procurement asked for no visible dots when someone sitting on the bench looks at the strip. In public plaza bench led strip lighting that is a resolution problem with an arithmetic answer, not a preference. One arcminute of acuity is Approx. 0.29 mm per metre of distance, so at the Approx. 0.4 m from seat edge to source the eye resolves Approx. 0.12 mm. SMD 2835 at 120 LEDs/m has an Approx. 8.3 mm pitch — around 70 arcminutes, unmistakably a row of dots, and it stops resolving only past Approx. 28 m.

So in public plaza bench led strip lighting the split between SMD and COB is a sight-line map, not a budget line. Every surface a seated person sees directly gets COB, a continuous phosphor emitter rather than spaced packages. SMD 2835 goes only where the strip hides behind the channel lip, grazing granite, so the eye reads light off stone and never the source. The tempting arrangement — cheap strip on long runs, COB on short accents — inverts it, because on a bench the long runs are the seat edges.

Products Used, and Which Zone Sees the Source

Both strip parts are IP20 as supplied and reach IP67 by potting and sleeving on our bench — the honest reading of waterproof COB LED strip and waterproof SMD strip, so sealing is a process step with a test behind it, not a datasheet line. The two fountain-end corners turn 180° in the plane of the strip’s width, where a PCB strip cannot bend at any radius, so those go to natively IP67 neon flex — 12V only, hence its own supply and dimmer. One 3500K bin across every reel, bin ID in the handover file: six benches side by side show any mismatch immediately.

Power, and Why 6% Voltage Drop Failed Here

• Strip zones run 24V, neon corners 12V. Every circuit is SELV per IEC 61140, so nothing touchable exceeds 24V.
• Full-output load Approx. 1.15 kW, dimmed to Approx. 50% after 23:00 — working draw near Approx. 600 W.
• The 24V outdoor drivers are not ours — our adapters are 12V and IP20, wrong for this load and location. We supplied strip, injection layout and cable schedule; the contractor fitted IP66 enclosures in the pit.
• Segments capped at Approx. 8 m with injection at metre 4. Measured tail drop Approx. 2.4%.
• The 6% allowance in the early draft was rejected. Drop tolerance scales with viewing distance: at Approx. 400 m a 5% gradient is invisible, but at Approx. 0.4 m it reads as one bench dimmer and warmer at one end. Close-range work holds 3%.

Ingress, Heat and the Mallet

• Ingress, split honestly. Cut ends were immersed at Approx. 1 m for 30 minutes on the bench — the IPX7 procedure in IEC 60529. Site-made joints got a 12.5 mm jetting test, which verifies IPX6 and not IPX7. Two joints under bench three were re-potted after seepage; both logged.
• Heat, not frost. Faro does not freeze, so the load case is summer. At Approx. 34 °C ambient with granite radiating back, COB body temperature measured Approx. 58 °C at full output, drivers near 70% load.
• Salt and UV set the materials. The square sits Approx. 1.5 km from the Ria Formosa lagoon: PVC jacket on exposed neon, anodised channel, stainless fixings.
• Mallet test at 1 m intervals. The channel lip stands proud of the strip, so impact lands on aluminium. No fixing backed out — the council’s deciding factor.
• Risk Group 0 at seated distance under IEC 62471.
• Sequencing: cable stubs dropped through the granite joint before the final slabs, so no surface conduit on the finished plaza.

Four Notes if You’re Specifying Plaza Seating

1. Map sight lines before splitting SMD and COB. Public plaza bench led strip lighting puts people at arm’s length, where only a continuous emitter meets “no visible dots”.
2. Check whether the IP rating is native or reached by potting and sleeving, and price the sealing labour either way.
3. Hold 3% drop where people sit close. Loose tolerances belong to long viewing distances.
4. Immersion and jetting prove different ratings. A hose test is not evidence of IP67.