Kitchen Accent Lighting

[Andi Licious]

Hi All,

I'm going to be installing some LED lights that mount in the base pelmet of kitchen cabinets and probably some strips under the cupboards.

How are they normally powered I.e. do you just run them off a plug top or do you tie them into the lighting circuit?

I have never physically had a look at the decent ones only the cheap ones from ikea a few years ago so I don't even know what they come with!

The kitchen isn't fitted yet so now is the time for me to do some chasing in if needed.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Evans Electric]

I've done a few,   just wired for some today,  along with a 1000 other things.  They come in kit form , all made up onto the flex and connected to  what they call a "driver"     ( Black box... don't worry about it)  just leave it under the units.

If I were you I would get a switched feed down under the kitchen units  from a switch  (obviously) above.    Just a 1mm/sq  twin/E cable will do , then you drill the correct size hole in the plinth and jobs a good 'un. 

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

French or german ? ]

 

[Evans Electric]

Can't remember  TBH...customer supplied .

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Can't remember  TBH...customer supplied .

Accent  ?    :coat

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

We have been promoting LED's a lot and i have recently been playing at home. Here are a few pics of  some kitchen 'accent' lights. I am using my new laptop running W8 which appears to have resized everything so not sure how this will come out

We have used top of the range stuff so to monitor this i have used the cheapest i could find on ebay, but not kits, parts , drivers etc sourced for my needs.  All these strips are 600, 3528 smd in warm white . Open type (not encased in silicon)  You will find for single colour the 3528  give a better spread. The 5050 are better for RGB (colour changing)  though



All these pics were taken at night & the strips were the only lighting in the room, in fact i think its too much and would advise to use the 300 for  the plynths & 600 for the pelmets.

To get it brighter over the worktops i stuck the strips round 2 sides. This is a 400mm wide cupboard. You can see  some of my hot sauce collection here



Not sure how this will show, on all the other surfaces the strips are stuck to the bottom of the cupboards  facing down, but on this run due to machines it had to be stuck on the plinth facing forwards. Suprisingly like this the LED's reflect on the floor & are visible but facing down you just get the glow. To stop any dark spots  the strips were only stuck on the machines in a couple of small places so they can easily be removed if needed. I use male & female Lucar connectors (car spade terminals) to joint the strips

 

[steptoe]

good post slips.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

For your info, the pic of the pelmet light has about 550mm of strip which is about 4 Watts ( with this strip)  Also we have found the plinth light show up every single piece of dust dirt ect. Someone here is not too pleased.

 

[Andi Licious]

HI

Thanks for the replies but I cannot open the attachement, it says I do not have permission to view it? Do I need to have more posts or something?

Thanks,

Andy

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Can you not see my pictures ?

And to clarify,  this project was a bit of a test, i bought the cheapest i could find !  They have only been in for a month so can not say anymore. We have used Collingwood, Aurora, Ecoled etc which all cost aprox £100 for just a 5m strip. These cost around a fiver if i remember correctly and appear to give just as a good light output.

Yesterday we fitted some RGB a client bought ( as we wont fit these really cheap ones on a job yet) These had a new chip i have not seen. Each chip had the 3 colours rather than sets of 3 singles. Have not got them powered up yet.

 

[a3]

HI

Thanks for the replies but I cannot open the attachement, it says I do not have permission to view it? Do I need to have more posts or something?

Thanks,

Andy

You should be able to now.

 

[binky]

the led strips all seem much the same as far as quality goes, but I have found cheapo drivers seem to only last 6 months, including mine, which I still haven't got around to changing or I would post some pics of colour change 5050 strip. Only issue with strips is heat from toaster seems to 'unglue' them - I use the m for task lighting over worktop.

 

[dannyr]

the led strips all seem much the same as far as quality goes, but I have found cheapo drivers seem to only last 6 months, including mine, which I still haven't got around to changing or I would post some pics of colour change 5050 strip. Only issue with strips is heat from toaster seems to 'unglue' them - I use the m for task lighting over worktop.

Poor quality construction can be directly attributed to "Made in China" phrase. Consumers want everything for a low price. They get what they paid for.