How to choose RGB strips

RGB strip is a hot-sale products in the market, it’s widely used in home lighting, signage lighting, facade lighting,etc.

If you are about to buy one as ambient lighting in your house, and confused about how to choose from various of RGB strips, this article helps.

Understanding RGB, RGBW , RGBWW, RGBCW, RGBCCT, RGBIC

These acronyms refer to different types of LED strips, Their primary differ from color composition, control methods, and lighting effects.

RGB: R stands for RED, G stands for GREEN, B stands for BLUE. Usually, it’s 3-in-1 chips, it could generate 16 millions of color by controlling its brightness.

RGBW: W stands for white, so it’s RGB+ white. It’s used to be separated as two chips, RGB and white chips, but it’s more popular made as 4-in-1 chips now. As we know RGB generate millions of color including white, why add an extra white chip? Because it gives more bright and pure white color.

For some factories, W also could be warm white or cool white, check with them or specify the color you need before placing order.

RGBWW: this strip contains five color channels, RGB+white+warm white. Akin to candlelight,warm white creates a cozy and inviting atmosphere which makes people feel warm, comfort and relax.

RGBCW: same as RGBWW with five color channels, it’s RGB+white+cool white. Cool white is more like daylight, it create a bright and crisp atmosphere which makes people feel energetic and excited.

RGBCW could also be RGB+cool white+warm white for a few manufacturers

RGBCCT: CCT stands for Correlated Color Temperature, instead of a fixed color temperature like RGBW, it can be adjusted in a range by controller, offers choice for different needs.

RGBIC: this strip only has 3 color channels just like RGB, but with a built-in independent chip. This chip enable strip change its color unit by unit to present different effect, such as water flowing, rainbow, color chasing,etc.

Here is a chart for you to understand it better.

Features	Color channel	Chips	Color changing	Brightness	Price
RGB	Red,Green,Blue	3-in-1	Single	Bright	Normal
RGBW	Red,Green,Blue,White	4-in-1 3-in-1 + White	Single	Ultra-bright	Medium
RGBWW	Red,Green,Blue,White,Warm white	5-in-1 3-in-1 + White + Warm white	Single	Ultra-bright	Medium
RGBCW	Red,Green,Blue,White,Cool white	5-in-1 3-in-1 + White + Cool white	Single	Ultra-bright	Medium
RGBCCT	Red,Green,blue,Warm white,Cool white	5-in-1 3-in-1 + Warm white + Cool white  3-in-1 + 2-in-1	Single	Ultra-bright	Expensive
RGBIC	Red,Green,Blue	3-in-1 + IC	Multiple	Bright	Expensive

Which one to choose?

Budget: price is the first thing we shall consider, RGB is a good start for limited budget, RGBW also is good choice.

White: worrying about brightness, RGBW, RGBWW and RGBCCT is the best choices.

Color changing: if you just need simple color changing, like color switching, brightness dimming. You don’t have to choose RGBIC, as it’s more complex and you need special controller.

Application:

RGB: the most popular one, widely used in different applications, such as signage lighting,

RGBW: brighter, for facade lighting, commercial display.

RGBWW: provides cozy atmosphere, such as hotel, bedroom.

RGBCW: not as popular as RGBWW, but it’s often used in living room.

RGBCCT: color temperature adjustable, for professional photographer, commercial lighting.

RGBIC: with fantastic color changing and addressable functions, the best choice for concert, TV backlighting.

A lot of factors should be taken into consideration, if you need our help, email us! signlite@signlite.com.cn