LED lighting for buildings

Mike - is this what you're looking for ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DD04W...047675.c100752.m1982

You can get them on the bay with less lights per strip if you want.

I've used them to light up an area under a bridge on my layout.

Mike, Forum sponsor Evans Designs, quality goods, fast shipping.

Is that 14 v AC or DC?? If DC you can likely use 12v strip 3528 leds directly from the power supply without worry. These strips have 3 leds every 2" and are self adhesive, and can be cut to length in multiples of 2" (50mm actually). Very easy to use.

If the supply is Ac I would use grj's constant current modules which rectify the ac and limit the current to the strip regardless of the supply voltage. One module will handle up to about 30 leds, or 20" of strip.

Rod

Thanks everyone for all the great information! I will pass it on to my friend and heck might even save it for myself! Thanks again!

Thanks guys, I'm the friend! Never thought of asking here! Thanks Bro! Richie C I looked those up and they should work, I want to install in Korber buildings and some of the older Woodland Scenic structures that don't have lights! From your experience, what do you think? Would one strip of 10 be enough in a building? I did not see an offer for strips with less lights than 10. I want to hook them to a terminal block and from there to the 14 volt terminal on my Z 4000. Thanks guys love this forum!

play trains posted:

Thanks guys, I'm the friend! Never thought of asking here! Thanks Bro! Richie C I looked those up and they should work, I want to install in Korber buildings and some of the older Woodland Scenic structures that don't have lights! From your experience, what do you think? Would one strip of 10 be enough in a building? I did not see an offer for strips with less lights than 10. I want to hook them to a terminal block and from there to the 14 volt terminal on my Z 4000. Thanks guys love this forum!

These are some that come with only three (3) LED's per strip.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DD01W...047675.c100752.m1982

Please note that they are both AC and DC compatible.

My experience is that they are bright - of course, it depends on whether you get bright white, warm white, yellow, etc., but the bright whites are definitely bright. I used a strip of 10 under a bridge to light up a hobo village and had to change the hook-up from the 14v accessory port on my Z-4000 to the 10v port because it was just too bright.

For medium size buildings, I generally use the three light strip and for smaller buildings, like a yard office, I use one of the single lights or two of them wired together. I think you're going to have to experiment to see which are the right ones for your structures, but, unless you have a huge building, I'd probably buy a package of the three strips and a package of the individual ones and see how that works out. If one three light strip is not enough, you can always wire two of them together to get six (6) lights and with the Z-4K you can also vary the voltage input. 

These are the single ones - https://www.ebay.com/itm/DD00W...047675.c100752.m1982

Richie, can't thank you enough! Good to know these are AC, DC compatible and great idea about the 10 volt port! I forgot it was there! I know very little about electrical stuff! But I am getting educated slowly! Has anyone put lights in the older Woodland Scenic  bldgs? How big a job is it?

You can also purchase strip leds in rolls 5 meters long, or 16.4 feet. Then you just cut off strips as long as you want, in multiples of 2". So you can cut a strip 8", 10", 12" long, whatever you need for the particular building. Then simply solder light gauge wires to one end and go.

I have never used an AC supply for strip leds, so it is interesting to see that some folks have done this. The only issue with this is that you are using only one half of the ac sine wave, so you will have a 30 Hz flicker, which some may find objectionable. With dc you dont get this flicker. 

Rod

Maybe my eyes are too old to catch it, but FWIW I have not experienced any noticeable flicker in any of the buildings or structures I've installed using any of the above LED strips with AC power.

From my reading, if they are AC DC compatible you shouldn't, but not all are I guess and you have to be sure they are!

All this information has sparked my interest! Now I am going to have to do some testing this weekend! Sure would save plugins all those small power packs!

Warm white has a yellow tint to it. If it just says white, it will most likely be the cool white that has a blue tint.

The warm white is more like standard incandescent lighting.

The cool white is good for buildings that use fluorescent lights.

You may see "bright white" as well. That's the same as the cool white and has the blue-ish tint.

There are also variations of strip SMD (surface mount) LEDs that affect brightness and power consumption. The numbers for SMD LEDs indicate the surface area of the luminous material. So the 3528 is 3.5mm x 2.8mm in dimension while the 5050 is 5.0mm x 5.0mm. There are other larger dimensions as well. The larger they get the more power is required to drive them.

In addition, where you mount the LED strip inside the building as well as how the windows are coated - clear, dullcoated, frosted, etc. - will also affect how bright the lights look from outside the structure.

Also, in terms of mounting, even though the strips are adhesive backed, I always apply a couple of drops of CA glue to make sure they don't come off. 

Richie, I noticed that the LED strips Menards uses on their bldgs are very similar to the ones you suggested which by the way I'm ordering! Thank you!

The E Bay listing referenced here looks like a simple 3 light section from a strip roll with two wires soldered on.

LEDs require DC to work properly.  They will work on AC for a while but will fail.

Use our forum sponsor "Evan Designs" or buy an adjustable converter on the same site referenced here and convert your AC to DC.  The strip LEDs usually work at 12 V DC.  The converters being adjustable can be tuned simply to any voltage you want in DC.  You can choose less than 12 Volts to lower the intensity of the lighting if you choose to.