LED strip lights are the default linear light source for commercial interiors, retail display, offices, hotels, cabinetry and architectural detailing. They are also the product category where the specification sheet matters most, because two strips that look identical on a website can behave completely differently once they are 15 metres long, mounted in a profile, dimmed to 10% and expected to last five years.
This guide from the Senfey LED Strip Lights / SMD pillar is written for buyers, contractors, lighting designers and distributors who have to specify strip for a real project. It covers the decisions that are irreversible once material is on site — voltage and feed layout, density against viewing distance, profile and heat, and dimming compatibility — and the ones that only look important, such as chasing the highest LED count.
One framing point before the detail. A strip is not a fitting; it is a component in a system of strip, driver, dimmer, profile and diffuser. Most complaints about LED strip lights turn out to be complaints about one of the other four, which is why quoting only a price per metre reliably produces problems at commissioning.
What LED Strip Lights Are
An LED strip light is a flexible printed circuit board carrying surface-mounted LEDs at a regular pitch, supplied on reels and cut to length on printed cut marks. It runs on low-voltage DC from a driver, and in commercial work it is normally installed inside an aluminium profile with a diffuser rather than stuck directly to a surface.
Two properties of the format explain most of what follows. The LEDs are discrete point sources, so the strip produces a row of dots that only merges into a line at sufficient distance or behind sufficient diffusion. And the PCB is a thin copper conductor as well as a light source, so its resistance limits how far a single feed can supply before the far end runs visibly dim.
Neither is a defect. Both are constraints that a competent specification works around, and both are what buyers are actually paying for when they pay more per metre.
Types of LED Strip Lights and When Each Applies
Four categories cover almost all project work. The selection question is not which is best but whether the light source will be seen, and whether anything needs to change colour.
SMD LED strip
Individual LED packages — 2835, 5050 and similar — mounted at a set pitch. The workhorse: best cost per lumen, widest range of densities and voltages, easiest to stock and to replace years later. Correct for anything installed in a profile with a diffuser, or anywhere the fitting is concealed and only the effect is seen. The visible-dot issue is manageable with density, profile depth and diffuser choice.
COB LED strip
A continuous phosphor line instead of discrete packages, so there are no dots to resolve at any distance. Correct where the lit line is visible at close range — reveal details, handrails, shallow coves, joinery seen from a metre away — and where a diffuser deep enough to hide SMD dots would not fit. It costs more per metre, and in a deep profile behind good diffusion it buys nothing a dense SMD strip does not already deliver. Compare against the COB LED Strip pillar when appearance at close range is the governing requirement.
LED neon flex
The strip is inside a diffusing silicone or PVC jacket, so the product itself is presentable and sealed. Correct when the light source is deliberately visible — signage, facade outlines, feature lines — rather than concealed. For exposed and exterior positions see outdoor LED neon flex, which also covers the point most often missed on exterior work: an IP-rated product is not an IP-rated installation, because cut ends and joints are unrated until sealed on site.
Addressable strip
Per-segment control for chases, gradients and mapped animation. Treat it as a separate system rather than an upgrade: it adds a directional data chain, a controller with finite pixel capacity per port, and a requirement that all supplies on one chain share a common ground. Critically, animation cannot be retrofitted onto a plain single-colour or RGB run, so if there is any chance the brief grows to include movement, decide at design stage. See the Addressable LED Strip pillar.
A terminology note: “LED tape light” and “LED strip light” are used interchangeably in the trade and describe the same product format. If a specification and a quotation use different words, that is not a difference in product — see the LED tape light guide.
