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If you want to add some LED strip lights to a space in your home or your business, you might have some questions. Many people want to know what the difference is between these different kinds of lights. Knowing what these definitions mean can help you to be a more informed shopper, and it can also ensure that you get the right lights for your needs with ease.
If you have asked what RGB, RGBW, RGBIC, RGBWW, and RGBCCT LED strip lights are, you need to read this guide. We will discuss what each of these designations means and what these strip lights can do for your business.
LED Light Strips at a Glance
| Features | RGB Strip | RGBW Strip | RGBIC Strip | RGBCCT Strip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip | 3-in-1 | 4-in-1 | 3-in-1 and built-in IC Chip | 5-in-1 LED Chip |
| Color Changing | 16 millions | Magic 16 millions | 16 millions | 16 millions |
| Price | Most Affordable | Slightly more expensive | Most Expensive | Slightly Most Expensive |
What Does RGB Have to Do With Lighting?
RGB indicators are used to tell consumers about LED lighting because they indicate the base light colors that are used in each strip style. The kind of base colors that are used for an LED light strip has a big impact on the appearance of the light that is generated by the strip. Traditional incandescent lighting did not offer the chance to mix colors or change the brightness of the light itself, but LED strip lighting can do all of this and more.
RGB means that the lights use red, blue, and green to create combined colors and tones of light. This is important to remember when you are looking at the various kinds of LED lighting that you might want to use for your home or business space. You will have access to different color possibilities depending on the base colors that are included in the lighting that you have chosen to work with.
When there are independent chips included in a light strip, you can also control the warmth or the brightness of a light strip, which is a common complaint related to LED lighting. These kinds of lights are more expensive, but they can help you to create warmer light tones and more homey environments. There are benefits to each kind of lighting, and it might be entirely worth the investment to choose lights that offer warmth control depending upon your intended use of your LED lighting.
As a general rule of thumb to keep in mind, RGB lighting can only display one color at a time, while other light strips can display more than one color at a time. This can impact your choices in lighting, depending on the lighting goals that you have for your living or working spaces.
RGB LED Strip Lights
RGB strip lights are lights that render color through the use of red, blue, and green. RGB LED strip lights have a range of 0-255 for each of the three colors that they use for color mixing. There are 16,777,216 colors that these lights can be programmed to display.
RGB LED strip lights are made with 3-in-1 chips that can generate millions of colors when combined correctly with other lights. These lights are often known as color-changing strips and usually offer a DIY feature that lets you choose which colors you want to display. You can also usually program the lights to display custom colors or patterns of colors.
Best of all, these light strips are universal, meaning that you can change colors, cut, or even remote control these strip lights. These are the most classic lighting strips of this type, and they are also the most affordable and simple to use overall.
RGBW LED Strip Lights
RGBW LED strip lights use 4-in-1 LED chips that are comprised of red, green, blue, and white. These lights use the extra white chip to impact and improve color mixing. These strips will offer the same features as other LED light strips and can be cut, used with a remote control, and combined in various ways.
The white chip that is added to this light strip style allows for brighter color and a purer color tone than in RGB light strips. You will also be able to program more precise and refined colors with this kind of light strip due to the white chip.
RGBIC LED Strip Lights
This light strip style includes RGB and then has an independent chip as well. This means that it is a higher quality or level than the classic RGB light strip. These light strips can offer more than 16 million unique colors. RGBIC LED lights can also offer a rainbow-like lighting effect that other strip lights are not capable of.
This is also a classic light choice for home improvement because of how many colors these strips can display all at once. The only downside to this kind of lighting strip is that it cannot be cut like the other strip lights can. This means that you will have to think more about your placement of these lights, and you also cannot combine these lights with other stripping to create different colors. Lastly, this light style is the most expensive of the commonly-selected lighting strip styles.
RGBCCT LED Strip Lights
RGBCCT Led lights are comprised of RGB and CCT lighting. CCT stands for correlated color temperature, which means that the light strip can offer warm white and white. This is essentially just another name for an RGBWW strip light in most cases.
Some people prefer this combination of lighting depending on how they want to program or use their LED lights. There are benefits to picking LED lights that offer lighting arrangements that work better for your programming needs. Correlated color temperature offers light that is more like old-fashioned incandescent lighting, which can appeal to many people.
What Are the Benefits of LED Strip Lights?
There are many benefits to the use of LED lighting in your home or business. Strip lighting can be paired with other kinds of lighting to create color-controlled lights that can provide mood settings or offer custom light combinations. These lights do not get hot when in use like traditional bulbs styles, and they last for years of use.
Perhaps best of all, LED light bulbs are energy-efficient, which makes them a great choice for any kind of application. Nearly everyone is happy to save some money on energy bills each year, and LED lights of all kinds can help you to do so. Even if you leave your LED lights on all the time, every day, you will be saving money when compared to the use of incandescent bulbs and other kinds of lighting.
LED strip lights are also very easy to install, which makes them a good option for a wide array of applications and for DIY use. It can be tough to install traditional lighting styles due to the complexities of getting wiring set up and so forth. However, LED lighting can be as simple to install as plugging the lights in and placing them where you want them to offer up illumination.
Knowing More About the Differences Between These Lights Can Impact Your Purchase
If you want to add lighting to your home or business that you can make unique or that you can control with a remote, you will need to make sure that you consider strip LED lights. These are the most energy-efficient and effective lights that you can buy, and being able to create custom color combinations, as well as being offered the chance to control your lighting with a remote is very beneficial.
If you are ready to upgrade the lighting in any space, LED strip lighting is always a really good choice. There are so many reasons that you will save money and get major benefits from these lights that you really can’t afford not to select them. Picking the right LED strip lighting is easy with this guide in hand, and you will be prepared to get the perfect lights for any project.
