Rock Unique Find An Imaginative Use For Our LED Strip Lights

Rock Unique, a UK-based natural stone supplier, approached Wholesale LED Lights recently, with a rather unusual project in mind.

The company from Sevenoaks in Kent, which normally specialises in the sale and supply of natural stone paving and interior stone tiles, had a large Quartzite monolith that a client had requested they illuminate as part of a special commission.

Quartzite, for those who don't know, is a type of white, semi-translucent metamorphic rock that’s formed from pure quartz sandstone, and the company’s mandate was to drill a hole through its centre, before placing a light source inside.

The good people at Rock Unique were very specific about the type of light they wanted us to use. They needed something long, flexible and quite bright - at least bright enough to illuminate the rock.

Fortunately, we had exactly the right product for the job, in the shape of LED strip lights!

LED strip lights are long, flexible strips of LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) with a 3M self-adhesive backing.

They’re most commonly used for under cabinet lighting and other similar applications, however, there’s such a wide variety of LED strips on offer, and they’re so versatile, that you could install them just about anywhere, either indoors or out.

Following some consultation, we eventually decided upon a 14.4W Single Colour LED Strip, which incorporates 60 LEDs per metre, in the cool white (6000K) colour temperature option.

This is one of the brightest strips that we have on offer, and the cool white version gives a clear, bright white light, which we felt would complement the colour of the quartzite.

The company had been quite concerned that any light source placed inside the rock might overheat. We were able to reassure them that our LED strip lights produce very little heat, and wouldn’t be in any way adversely affected by being installed in the tight, confined space.

The fact that the LED strip generates hardly any heat also means that it will illuminate the quartzite monolith for some 50,000 hours, or 17 years in real terms; a much longer life-span than could be expected from a traditional incandescent or fluorescent light source.

To round off the installation, we advised on an IP65 Ingress Protection Rating which would protect the LED strip light from water damage that might otherwise have occurred were the rock to be placed out of doors.

As you can see from the images, the project was a great success. Thank you to the folks at Rock Unique for taking the excellent photos!

If you can think of any interesting and unusual uses for LED lighting, why not leave a comment below, or on our Facebook or Twitter pages?