Glossary and Terms used on Flexfire LEDs, Inc.

AC- This is alternating current. This is the electricity that is used in your house in the U.S.

DC- This is direct current. Most LED’s on the market use 12vDC. To be able to make flex strip LEDs illuminate the electricity from the wall must be to direct current (DC). It must also be take from 115v (house hold) and transform it to 12v (flex strip or other LED product).

Transformer- Changes voltage from high to low voltage. The transformers on flexfireleds.com make the LED flex strips usable in the home by taking the 115volts from the outlets in the home to 12vDC.

IP – This is a rating system that defines the ability of a product to be able to work in different environments.    

Amperage- This is the amount of electricity moving. You can think of amperage as water in a garden hose vs. a sewer pipe. The amperage in a garden hose is much less than that of a sewer pipe.

Flex Strip- This is a flexible strip that varies in width and height with LEDs evenly spaced along this long thin strip. Flex strips have a number of applications including both indoor and outdoor, architectural, and artistic uses. Check out our catalog coming in Aug 2011 that will include images of many of the applications Flex Strip LEDs can be used for.

Color Temperature- The color of light can be quantified by referring to its color temperature. Most lights fall in a spectrum between 5,500K and 2,200K. The higher the number the whiter and more blue while the lower the number the more orange-red the light becomes.

Lumens (lm)- This is a quantifiable amount of light produced by a flex strip or other light producing product.

mA or mAmp- This is 1/1000 or 0.001 of 1 ampere. When using flex strip LEDs it is common that the current draw for the flex strip LEDs will be less than one amp. In this case milliamps are used to indicate the amp draw. An example of this would be a flex strip that has a draw of ½ amp would be equal to 500mA.

Watt- A watt is equal to the voltage multiplied by the amperage. This is how your electric company keeps track of how much energy you consume. On average Flexfire led strips use 15watts.