The smart house makeover is one of the year’s biggest ‘home projects.’ Plugs, lights, and appliances all become part of a futuristic system that may be integrated into your home’s infrastructure. The smart light strip is one of the most popular smart home additions.
Your house will look better with it installed and the controls are more convenient. Is it possible to damage strip lights when you unintentionally stick a tack in them? A frequent practice among commercial and residential users is utilizing LED strip lights to form a boundary.
The big question is can you put tacks in LED strip lights? As it turns out, you can. But are there any alternative methods and what are the possible downsides of doing so?
First, let’s explain tacks and how they can be used in LED strip lights before discussing the pros and cons of using tacks in LED strip lights. Tacks are pins made of metal that are often rather small and are used to secure things in place. To keep things in place, tacks are used in a variety of places, including shoes and clothing. In several circumstances, tacks are used to add visual interest.
Pros Of Putting Tacks In LED Light Strips
There are many advantages and disadvantages to using tacks with LED strip lights. There are several advantages to using tacks in LED strip lights, so let’s have a look at them first.
- When it comes to getting light into the corners of your space, led strips are an excellent choice.
- There are no UV or heat emissions, so LED strip lights are perfect for lighting up an alcove where you may have a desk or bed.
- Low-maintenance LED lights are ideal for lighting kitchens and bathrooms. The light bulbs don’t need to be changed!
- LED strips’ ability to be attached to surfaces with metal clips makes them ideal for usage in art projects.
Running tacks in particular are one of the best features of these LED lights. To put it another way, running tack is substantially brighter than a conventional tack, with some of them reaching 300 lumens when all of them are on at once.
They also use less power, making them more environmentally friendly. To make them even more useful to everyone, running tacks come in a variety of colors and styles. The possibilities are endless when it comes to how you might employ them in your house or place of business.
There are many ways to personalize your home and make it genuinely your own. Tack lighting is a terrific way to brighten up any room in your house. This is a fantastic concept for your house for a variety of reasons.
The first is that tack lighting is available in a wide range of styles, so you may select one that matches your home’s aesthetic. Tack lighting systems with dark-colored tubes that look like metal are a good choice for homes with lots of dark wood. There are also plenty of designs with clear tubes or chrome tubes.
Put tacks in your led strip lights, and you’ll be able to easily upgrade and replace them. Simply place your new led strip light over the old one without the need for an electrician, saving you both time and money. Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a closer look at each of the points.
Good For Reinforcement
There are advantages to using tacks to attach LED strip lights to surfaces. Tacks aren’t ideal, but they’re useful for reinforcing a product. The led strip light will be less likely to topple over with its weight on its side.
To hang the led strip light behind something, you’ll need a counter or bar with the led strip light attached to it. In areas that a person or a ladder alone is unable to access, installing led strip lights can be of great assistance.
Tacks are often quite small and can be concealed from view if the led strip light is put behind an object such as a table or cabinet or below a piece of furniture such as a sofa.
Cheaper Option
There are a variety of led strip lighting kits available, and many of them include a do-it-yourself installation option; nevertheless, there are a few things to keep in mind.
If you want to buy tack lights on a budget, led strips are a good option. Using these lights has many advantages as long as you have access to a power supply and adequate floor space.
Aside from that, they’re a low-cost option that lasts as long as you do, can be turned on and off whenever you choose and don’t require any wiring. Because of this, they’re an excellent choice for residential areas. As a bonus, they won’t scuff or damage your walls or furniture. Moreover, You won’t have to deal with wiring when using the LED strip light in any location.
Available For Soft Material
Before deciding on the led strip light that you want to purchase, it is a good idea to do some research and comparison. LED strip lights that are easy to install are the ones you should ideally choose.
It’s also a good idea if you want to upgrade your LED strip light with tacks. Tacks make it possible to replace something without having to do any additional work. You have the option of choosing led strip light that is both flexible and soft led tape. Some tacks are designed for use with soft materials, and some tacks are designed for use with hard materials.
Easy Installation
Some individuals may choose to have tacks installed inside their strip lights to ensure that the lights are lightweight and straightforward to set up. Supporting the strip lights and distributing the light throughout the room is made possible by tacks.
Why tacks on LED strip lights are a good idea
a) It’s lightweight and simple to install
b) It’s suitable for installation
c) It aids in the light distribution provided by the strip lights.
Cons Of Putting Tacks In LED Strip Lights
Short-Circuiting
There are a few drawbacks associated with installing tacks in your LED Strip Lights. When you’re trying to install them, it can be difficult to get the tacks to properly align with your walls in the way that they should.
This can result in a messy and time-consuming installation process compared to other lights that don’t need tacks. Short circuits can occur if tacks are used in LED Strip Lights. LED strip lights are becoming increasingly popular and can now be found in a variety of settings.
Using this type of lighting not only saves money on electricity but is also better for the environment. Although it appears to be a simple task, it is not. Using LED Strip Lights with tacks, for example, increases the risk of an electrical short.
When it comes to LED lighting installation, it’s easy to forget about the importance of security. If you have an LED strip light in your window, you should also be concerned about the safety of individuals who may be in the vicinity of the light, especially if you have a tripping hazard. Using tacks to mount the lights is a common practice, but it is a dangerous one. Plastic tacks can reduce the risk of a short circuit.
Fire Risk
An electrical spark from the tacks to the LED light can start a fire because of the low voltage of LED lights. An unattended fire can do extensive damage to your house.
Removes Waterproofing
If you’re planning to use the lights in a show or other project that requires a specific pattern, this is a wonderful option. Installing LED strip lights can save you both time and money. That’s a great idea, isn’t it? Not if you want to use tacks or nails to fasten the strips of light to the surface.
There is a problem with the waterproofing coating on these strip lights, which can be damaged by nails and tacks. So, if you’re planning to use these strip lights in your business or house, then it’s strongly recommended that you avoid utilizing tacks or nails in the installation process.
Breaking LED Light Strips
Another important consideration to keep in mind is that the force of the light that is allowed to pass through can cause the nails themselves to break. If you’re putting the lights in an area with a lot of traffic, this can be a problem. If you strike a tack too hard, it may bend or break, just like ordinary lights.
It is also possible that some tacks will not be able to fit between the LED lights and so will not work. LED Strip Lights should never have tacks in them since the tacks could damage the LEDs. Eventually, the strip illumination may dim or possibly go out. LED Strip Lights shouldn’t have tacks in them unless you have no other choice.
Alternatives
A lot of people use tacks to hold their LED Light Strips in place. But they are not doing this because they have to. Instead of using tacks, there is a better way to put up LED light strips.
Use a professional LED Strip Light heat gun to do this. It is made just for LED Light Strips and can soften the glue along the edges of the LED Light Strips so that you can easily stick the LED Light Strip light to the wall or any other surface.
If you are tired of using tacks to hang your light, you can use the glue on the back of the LED strip light instead. Before the LED light strip is sent to the customer, the glue that comes with it has already been put on.
The glue is very sticky, so the light strip will have no trouble sticking to the wall. Putting the light strip on the wall is quick and easy. Take off the paper tape from the back of the light strip and stick it in place.
Can you put pins in LED Strip Lights? Once you have the pin, you just need to carefully stick it through the plastic. After that, you’ll need to cut off the extra plastic and put a pin header in the hole. But if you plan to keep these lights for a long time, you might want to find a way to keep the pin from falling out of the hole.
Gluing the pin with epoxy or hot glue is one way to do this. Then, you can use a hot glue gun to glue the pin header into the hole.
Most lighting pins have wires coming out of the top or bottom of them. Most of the time, they have 3 wires. One has black, white, and green, and the other has black, green, and red. Also, the pins usually have a metal shell and are made to last a long time.
A lot of the lights also come with double-sided tape or adhesive tape which is another great alternative if they are not being applied on paint or a material that will peel easily. Remember to check the packaging for tape or LED strip mounting clips which can be used instead of tacks.
Final Answer – Can you put tacks in LED strip lights?
It’s a common question we get, and the answer is both yes and no. Yes, you can use tacks with your LED strip light if your light cover has a top and bottom edge. But if the cover of your light is flat, you can’t use tacks with your LED strip light. I’ll tell you why.
LED strip lights come in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and materials that are easy to bend. Because these lights can be used in many different ways, they are the best choice for many different situations. For example, you can put them on the bottom of a counter to light up the bottom, or on the top of a counter to light up the top edge of your counter.
You can’t use tacks with LED strip lights, though. Why? Because tacks are made to be used with strips that are not flexible. Tacks are made for light strips with a hard surface that can be used to hold the tacks in place.
Using tacks has several advantages, the most obvious of which is the ability to place them virtually anywhere without cutting the LED Strip Light.
