The Brief, and the Coping That Could Not Be Drilled
This case documents a poolside waterproof LED strip lighting retrofit at a private villa in Ghent, Belgium. The owner wanted a warm, glare-free glow around the deck, pergola and lounge, with no exposed joints and no new fixings drilled into the stone coping. Approx. 62 meters went in across three IP-zoned runs, fed from one plant-room cabinet. The coping was already being lifted for the deck works — the only reason the source could be hidden without a bracket. It sits inside our wider architectural landscape lighting range.
The Three Water Zones We Split the Deck Into
Not every meter sees the same water, so poolside waterproof LED strip lighting was specified zone by zone before quoting. Ingress classes follow IEC 60529:
- Zone A — splash line, 0–0.5 m from the waterline. Constant splash, direct hosing at deck cleaning. Sealed PVC neon in a drained relief groove under the coping overhang, never standing in water.
- Zone B — deck edge and step nose, 0.5–2 m. Wet feet, sunscreen, wind-blown spray. COB tape in a potted, gasketed profile, mouth angled 45° down so the diffuser sheds water.
- Zone C — pergola beam and soffit, over 2 m. Rain and humidity only. Same profile, higher density, because guests look straight up at it from the loungers.
Everything touchable near water runs at 12V or 24V SELV low-voltage per IEC 61140. No mains crosses the deck.
Products Used, and Where the IP Rating Actually Lives
| Zone | SKU | Specs | Approx. Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| A — splash line | ES-NEON-SIGN-03 | PVC Neon Strip, 120 LEDs/m, 12V, 6/8 mm, CRI 80, IP67 sealed | 22 m |
| B — deck edge, step nose | ES-COB-480-24V-8MM | COB, 480 LEDs/m, 12V/24V, 8 mm, CRI 90, IP20 tape | 26 m |
| C — pergola, soffit | ES-COB-528-10MM-24V | COB, 528 LEDs/m, 24V, 10 mm, CRI 90, IP20 tape | 14 m |
| Zone A power | ES-PA-12050A ×4 | DC12V 5A 60W adapter, IP20 | 4 units |
| Deck dimming | ES-LC-DIM-004 ×2 | Inline single colour dimmer, 12V/24V, IP20 | 2 units |
The splash line went to the IP67 outdoor PVC neon rather than COB, for a reason worth stating plainly: our COB and SMD tape is IP20, and the rating comes from the finished assembly — potting, gasket, end caps. Sound at a deck edge. At a splash line hosed weekly it stakes the zone on two field-made caps, the first thing to fail. Extruded neon has none to make. Zones B and C keep COB, sitting above the splash line where guests see them close up and dots show. Both routes are compared on our waterproof COB LED strip page.
Zone A’s neon is 12V only, so 22 m cannot be one run. It was split into four segments of Approx. 5.5 m, each on its own 60W adapter — short feeds, no injection tap sitting in a wet groove. Zones B and C run at 24V constant-voltage from the same cabinet, sized by the villa’s electrician. Whites were bin-matched against CIE 13.3 and TM-30: a CRI 80 neon meeting a CRI 90 COB at the step nose shows any mismatch.
Signing Off Poolside Waterproof LED Strip Lighting Before Refill
- Immersion. Zone A samples held in 300 mm of water for 30 minutes, then opened. Dry inside — the IPX7 condition, verified not assumed.
- Voltage drop. Approx. 4.8% at the far end of the 26 m Zone B run after mid-point injection at meter 13, inside our 6% target.
- Photobiological safety. The deck-edge line sits Approx. 0.3 m from a swimmer’s eyes at the loungers, so exposure was verified as Risk Group 0 under IEC 62471.
- Thermal. Case temperature Approx. 36–39 °C after 3 hours at Approx. 28 °C ambient. No derating.
Two coordination notes. The stone setter cut the 12 mm relief groove into the coping underside on his bench, before re-laying — removing every surface bracket from Zone A and keeping the source invisible from in the water. And because this pool is drained each winter, the groove was given a fall to the deck drain rather than a flat bed: water freezing in a sealed groove lifts neon out of its clips, a Belgian problem rather than a Mediterranean one.
Five Notes if You’re Specifying a Similar Poolside Deck
- Zone the deck by how much water each metre sees. A blanket spec costs more and still fails at the wrong place.
- Ask whose IP rating you are buying — the tape’s or the assembly’s. On a hosed splash line, use sealed neon and skip field-made end caps.
- Keep drivers in a serviceable indoor cabinet. Never bury one under paving.
- Check voltage before length. A 12V product over 20 m is several short runs, not one.
- Cut the relief groove with the stone setter before the coping goes back down, with a fall to drain if the deck freezes.
Senfey supplies poolside waterproof LED strip lighting as one kit — neon, COB tape, drivers, dimmers, sealed profile and pre-terminated leads. Send your deck outline and plant-room location through the Senfey contact form for a wiring layout with the IP zoning marked.
Senfey is a Chinese LED strip manufacturer based in Shenzhen, producing COB, SMD, addressable and LED Neon Flex strip alongside sealed profiles, controllers and power supplies. Our monthly output runs to hundreds of thousands of meters for contractors delivering architectural facade and landscape lighting projects.
