LED Strip Lighting

[Dave A.]

Thanks for the reply. Must have missed the lumen info but that sounds not quite as bright as what I've got. Was doing some youtubing meanwhile and found some more info. There's flexfire which has some much brighter ones (not residential) that vary up to over twice as bright per foot as what I have. Didn't see the cost, though.

Another place showed special pigtails for where you cut off but didn't show installing them. So maybe they do have to be soldered -- would like to avoid soldering if possible.

Edit: checking again, looks like they all have special clip on connectors for attaching at a point on the LED strip where the contacts are, so soldering should not be necessary.

The only problem I have with the linked ebay ones, is their dimmer, doesn't look like it can be mounted in a wall box, like others. Still not sure whether I could get by using a regular rotary dimmer controlling the outlet where the power supply plugs in to do the dimming.

 

[FanMan]

If I can show off a bit, I just finished making a desk lamp with LED strips (I bought a 15' strip on ebay). This lamp is made from reclaimed American Chestnut from renovation work I did on my cabin a couple of years ago, and a mountain laurel branch from the same area. Powered by a 12VDC wall wart, it could also be used for an RV or off grid cabin:


With four rows of 5050 LED strips (18 LEDs each), it puts out about 1000 lumens, roughly equivalent to an 18W fluorescent or a 60W incandescent bulb.

More pix and info on my website.

 

[Former Farmer]

Nice work FanMan!

 

[jebatty]

Beautiful, and IMO you are welcome to show off. The LED strips offer a lot of versatility in efficient lighting. An electrician friend of mine says he has installed these under banister railings for stair lighting. Since they are bright to look at, installs where the LED is not in the line of sight would be important where that is an issue.

 

[maple1]

Wow - that's a very cool lap there FanMan.

So for the 4 strips - did you have to do some wiring/soldering between the strips?

 

[FanMan]

Yes, when you buy it on a bulk spool you have to cut them (only at the marked points, every 3 LEDs or approximately 2.25" intervals), cut away the clear plastic cover to expose the solder pads, and solder lead wires to them. Unless you use the whole 15' strip; it comes with leads soldered to one end.

I stuck the four strips to a copper plate and wired them together, then mounted the copper plate into the lamp after it was finished.

 

[maple1]

Hmmm, now I'm coming up with more ideas. Maybe use one transformer plug in/power source, scatter some strip sections around my cabinets here & there, and wire them together with some small guage wire that will be easier to string & hide. Anything special needed for the connecting wire? Thermostat wire? Or does it even need to be that heavy? I assume they would all need to be wired in series.

 

[Dave A.]

IKEA sells these too.

If so, I couldn't find them -- i.e. the strip lighting you can cut to the size you want. All I saw were much more expensive made up fixtures on the ikea site. This ebay site looks pretty good, if you spend some time figuring things out and going through all 7 pages or so of items. Their strip lighting comes in about 3 different brightness ranges, the rather dim ones 3528 (which might be good for the top of cabinet near ceiling -- valance/cove type accent lighting), the 5050 that jeb got, and a new professional type that's double the 5050 lumens.

All three types come in cool white and warm white. Some youtuber suggested using only warm white in a kitchen. There are different ratings on the power supplies based on how many watts or feet you've got. They also sell the clip on leads in bags of 5 (with clips on each end) for joining sections and they suggest speaker or bell wire for splicing or if you put together an order with different length pieces (by the foot) they'll supply the number of leads you need for joining. Another site suggested crimp connectors vs. wire nuts, former making a neater run, for joining your thin gauge wire to the spliced pieces.

I'm a little hesitant to glue these strips to the bottoms of my cabinets directly. One youtuber used thin aluminum strips with holes drilled to attach to the cabinets gluing the lighting to the aluminum -- which would make attaching and removing (if/when necessary) less of a problem. He liked the idea for heat dissipation.

 

[FanMan]

Hmmm, now I'm coming up with more ideas. Maybe use one transformer plug in/power source, scatter some strip sections around my cabinets here & there, and wire them together with some small guage wire that will be easier to string & hide. Anything special needed for the connecting wire? Thermostat wire? Or does it even need to be that heavy? I assume they would all need to be wired in series.

You can wire them in parallel from one central point or you can connect them end to end, it doesn't matter. Wire size according to the current (which depends on how long the strip is), google will find wire gauge vs current charts.

 

[begreen]

If so, I couldn't find them -- i.e. the strip lighting you can cut to the size you want. All I saw were much more expensive made up fixtures on the ikea site. This ebay site looks pretty good, if you spend some time figuring things out and going through all 7 pages or so of items. Their strip lighting comes in about 3 different brightness ranges, the rather dim ones 3528 (which might be good for the top of cabinet near ceiling -- valance/cove type accent lighting), the 5050 that jeb got, and a new professional type that's double the 5050 lumens.

All three types come in cool white and warm white. Some youtuber suggested using only warm white in a kitchen. There are different ratings on the power supplies based on how many watts or feet you've got. They also sell the clip on leads in bags of 5 (with clips on each end) for joining sections and they suggest speaker or bell wire for splicing or if you put together an order with different length pieces (by the foot) they'll supply the number of leads you need for joining. Another site suggested crimp connectors vs. wire nuts, former making a neater run, for joining your thin gauge wire to the spliced pieces.

I'm a little hesitant to glue these strips to the bottoms of my cabinets directly. One youtuber used thin aluminum strips with holes drilled to attach to the cabinets gluing the lighting to the aluminum -- which would make attaching and removing (if/when necessary) less of a problem. He liked the idea for heat dissipation.

Correct. Ikeas are preconfigured packages ready for mounting under a cabinet, etc. Here is a 4 strip kit:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20119418/
and a one strip kit
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30180778/