As Manufacturers of Lighted Mirrors, we are asked often about this . Distributors and consumers always want the brightest light as possible for their Led Mirrors, without knowing that in some cases, adding extra features or the type of LED strip may affect the result.
Choosing the right lighting specs for your mirrors can be tricky sometimes. This article is intended to set a guide and leave tips for consumers to know for a fact, whether their mirror selection will fit the lighting purpose or not.
The Light Source
Most Led Mirrors use LED Strips to give lighting on spaces, and you must know that there are several different types of Strips to be used for a mirror, the main factors that will influence the type of led strip to be used are the following ones:
Lumens: Ideally you want something in the range of 1350 to 1800 lumens at least in your mirror, this is bright enough to light your bathroom decently, but you'll still need an ambient lighting source. anything below 1050 lumens in a mirror may be only fit for decoration purposes but not ideal as a task lighting for makeup, grooming or shaving.
The total lumens in your mirror are key for your decision, as they are the main metrics for brightness in lighting fixtures, regardless of other features mentioned by sellers, if Lumens aren't enough, you may as well go for other option.
Led Chips per meter: Led strips used in mirror normally range from 30 to 500 chips / meter. Usually, higher the amount of Led Chips, higher is the brightness. But you should be careful in cases where 240 or more chips / meter are used on mirrors, light is so strong that it can make you dizzy or even blind for a few seconds especially when there is no other light source other then mirror lighting.
Lighting tone: Led strip may come in single tone , double or triple tone lighting. It's important to know whether we want maximum flexibility in lighting, brightness or both, because the type of led strip will be different.
For Single tone lighting, you can get the maximum brightness possible from the strip, but for double tone, the led chips are divided into two kinds, warm output led chips and cold output led chips, so when using the "Cold" lighting in your mirror, you'll only be using half of it's brightness capacity, same goes for the "Warm" lighting option.
For Triple Tone mirrors, the same concept is applied, but the difference is that you can get the maximum lighting output when using the neutral light of your mirror, when selecting the neutral light option, the mirror combines the lighting of all chips to achieve maximum brightness.
Backlit Lighted Mirror
If the mirror you are choosing is a backlit model then it's main purpose is to create a glowing effect on your wall which looks amazing, but they aren't the best option for task lighting. As mentioned in our previous article, Backlit mirrors are a source of accent lighting, more often used for decoration rather than to brighten up the bathroom space as most of the mirror light escapes to the sides, instead of lighting up your reflection.
On the opposite, Lighted Mirrors are basically made for task such as shaving, makeup or grooming. The models on this range deliver light with focus on creating brighter reflections. With addition of a back cover or a frame enclosure, most of the light gets blocked from sides and passes only out of the sandblast area, therefore creating brighter lighting effect.
Back Cover or Diffusers
Back covers on mirrors ensure that light doesn't escape to the sides, allowing light to pass from the sandblasted area of the mirror design, allowing for brighter reflections.
Diffusers on the other side, spread light or scatter it, in the case of led strips, where light comes at fixed angles from the LED Chips, and in some cases even creating visible dots on the mirror, Diffusers produce a smoother output and brighter lighting by increasing the light spread over a complete area of the mirror reflection.
Most mirrors on the market are quite simple, unfortunately for consumers, the lower range of led mirrors in most cases are without back cover or diffusers. Also it comes with the lower range led strips, making the mirror lighting not so bright.
IP Certification
Although for most cases we want higher IP certification for all components, in the case of Led Strips this may not be such good idea.
Currently, for most Led Strips, increasing the IP certification means adding protection, in most cases with a silicone rubber or plastic, which reduces the light transmittance, making it less bright.
In most cases for mirrors placed at Bathroom Zones 2 or non wet rooms, IP22 certified led strips will do just fine if properly isolated. At the same time, because of not having the additional silicone protection, brightness is slightly increased.
Our advice is to go for trusted suppliers that ensure an IP44 certification for the WHOLE mirror instead of marketing IP certification for led strips. You'll receive an equally competent mirror with a good quality insurance and a slightly brighter reflection.
Yoway Electric Technology Co. Ltd is a Professional Mirror manufacturing company based in North China.
We have been manufacturing and supplying Mirrors with LED Technology for the past 10 years to top distributors and importers worldwide.
For more information on what we do visit our website www.yowaymirror.com or drop an email at info@yowaymirror.com.