HitLights White LED Strip Lights 4000K, 10ft High Density 12V Tape Light, 360LEDs, 530 Lumens/ft, 4.6 Watt/ft, IP30, CRI 90+,Lighting for Cabinet, Mirror, Kitchen, UL-Listed(Power Source Not Included)

I was building a shelf fixture to house my figure collection and looking for a lighting solution. At first, I made the mistake of buying some inexpensive RGB LED strips ihomy 16.4ft LED Flexible Strip Lights, 300 Units SMD 5050 LEDs, 12V DC Waterproof Light Strips, LED ribbon, DIY Christmas Holiday Home Kitchen Car Bar Indoor Party Decoration (RGBW+ Color Changing) but they don't produce a good white light (being a mixture of separate red, green, and blue diodes) and weren't bright at all. That was just a bad choice due to inexperience. After returning those and spending hours doing further research, I settled on this HitLights strip because they actually listed the color temperature and brightness (surprisingly hard to find that information on a lot of LED strips) and the other ones that did offer that information were more like in the 250-300 lumens per foot range instead of 768.The color of the light is great and they're actually brighter than I needed, but I planned to wire it through a dimmer anyway, so I figured it's better to be too bright and turn them down than not bright enough. I turn them down about half way for everyday use, and turn them up to full when taking pictures. Works out great.Something to be aware of is that these are actually 6 pre-soldered segments of 20 inches apiece, so if you happen to want to cut the strip at the solder joint, you're probably not going to be able to do that with scissors. I didn't need to cut any of the joints, but since I was soldering wire anyway, I could have easily desoldered it if I needed to.Overall I'm very happy with the way these turned out on my shelf and would definitely use them again if I need more LED strips.I used this dimmer: TORCHSTAR DC 12V - 24V PWM Dimmer Knob ON/OFF Switch with Aluminum Housing, Single Channel 30A Dimming Controller for Single Color LED Strip Lights, 5050 3538 5630 light strips The most common LED strip dimmers are listed as 8 amp, but reviews suggested they were in fact 0.8A, which is definitely NOT enough for the 5A this 10 foot strip should draw, so this 30A dimmer covered my needs and just plain looks better.And I used this power supply: HitLights 8A LED Strip Light 96 Watt Power Supply, UL-Listed 110V AC to 12V DC Transformer, Low Voltage LED Tape Light Driver Actually only puts out 11.46V instead of 12V, but good enough to drive the lights when other options would be considerably more expensive or harder to work with (e.g. no wall plug included.)And one of these connectors to adapt the power supply's plug to bare wire for the dimmer: HitLights LED Light Strip DC Jack Connector - Female to Screw Terminal - For LED Tape Light power and DC connectionsI didn't even bother with the sticky backing that was included with the lights since I would be mounting the lights upside down on wood. I went straight for 10lb 3M double sided foam tape (which I also happened to use to mount the power supply to the shelves. Stuff's pretty strong.) 3M Scotch Heavy Duty Mounting Tape, 1-Inch by 125-Inch (314) holds up to 5 lbs. (The item title says 5 lbs, but the packaging says 10 lbs. Whichever!) If you're cutting your lights into more than one segment, two LED strips will actually fit side-by-side on 1-inch tape and you can split it down the middle with a utility knife. Works like a charm.

As many have commented on, these lights are very bright, almost too bright to look at directly and I love them...however... I am mounting them around a wooden bathroom vanity (which now looks AWESOME) and these lights get super hot, almost to the point of burning you if you should touch them. I am not worried about touching them, but rather that being so hot will shorten any LED lifespan.The solution: I purchased a roll of shiny metal duct tape. Don't confuse for Duck tape, the strong reinforced sticky tape, but rather the thin metal tape used on metal duct work (used in forced air heating). All big box hardware stores have it. Get one without any type on it (just plain shiny silver surface), stick it to the surface you want to put the lights on (it is very sticky and will not come off), then peel the back off these lights and stick it to the duct tape. The duct tape is the perfect heat conductor/dissipator so the LEDs stay quite cool and the tape reflects light very nicely and looks good if you apply it smoothly (you can press out any wrinkles if you get some). Hope this helps you!

The strips are rated 5.6 w / foot, and 828 lumens / foot. So you'd think 10-feet X 800 is about 8000 lumens -- as much light as ten old fashion 60 watt incandescent bulbs! You'd be wrong. Initially I was disappointed, I hooked up a 60 watt power supply to one end, the strip was not near this bright, and I measured only 40 watts being drawn. So I messed around. Turns out, if you drive the strip from the middle, it draws 50+ watts and looks much brighter. Short story: Don't drive from just one end if you want full brightness.Hitlights Tech support confirms that the total output, if driven from one end is 3600 lumens at about 40 watts. If you want brighter, you need to drive from multiple points, or cut up the strip and drive individual shorter sections. For me, with a center connection, I had plenty of brightness for my application. I do wish the sales listing was clearer on those points, but their email tech support responded quickly and clearly when I asked.Installation: Physical installation was easy, the sticky backing tape is great. Electrical was trickier, as I had to solder connect points to the middle of the strip and not break them off while hanging. After much cussing, I got it done, but I was wishing for some kind of snap on connectors.... if you can lay your hands on 10mm LED power clips use them. Next time I'll look for them for the decreased hassle. Also, driving from their original connectors at either end, you'd also be fine (didn't work for my space.)Geek Notes: The 828 lumen /ft rating is for a single, one foot section driven directly. That's impressive, but almost nobody is going to hook them up that way. The 9.8 foot (3 meter) strip measured close to 1 ohm from the connector at one end to the connector at the other. That resistance limits current and LED brightness. Do the math for average current over the length of the strip and you are talking about 1-2 volts of power sag. It also makes chaining them kind of silly unless you don't need much light. A 14 gauge wire run in parallel will have basically zero resistance in comparison. So if you need *bright*, then tie your power supply to the strip at multiple points, or cut the strips and power them in parallel. Also, if you decide to solder, note that the existing soldered points between sections on the strip will not take more solder. (Coated?) Solder instead to the exposed copper pads.Having worked out the issues, and the strip now works fine, all LEDs lit, seemed durable during install, and gives me light I need. I would consider using more for the next projects.