LED under the counter light

[songbird]

the past week, after being repeatedly told we were living like moles (in the dark) i finally got around to buying a replacement light for under the cabinets (and over the counter where we do a lot of prep work). it's the most frequently and most extensively used light in the house.

a replacement CFL bulb was about $9. uck! i've replaced enough of these bulbs over the past few years and even replaced the light too when the old one fried some component so it was time to look at LED replacement options. the battery operated stuff doesn't make much sense to me at all. why spend a lot of money for an efficient fixture and then waste the benefits by using batteries? i mean, what are they thinking??? the other options were the wire lines of LEDs and a direct wired type like the one i was replacing. $35 is a bit steep, but at new bulbs running $9 each i think i'll be ahead after a few years.

direct wiring, always fun, especially when you get the thing apart and realize the wire from the wall is short and the wire connectors inside the light are also not long enough. hmm, thought i was going to have to become more extreme to get some more wire length out of the wall, but it turned out i could squeek another inch on the wire and so it would hold long enough after i twisted it on. certainly did some choice wording about the process along the way.

however, once it was back up and the power turned back on the new light certainly is much brighter than what we had before. in fact, it is almost too bright. i'm sure we'll get used to it... :)

LED prices continue to fall. per lumen the least expensive non-dimmable bulbs are about half of what they were a year ago. picked up a three pack and used them to replace the useless lights over the sink with much brighter lights and the spare went in here so i can test it for a photography project. eventually the track lighting will get replaced, a lot of 60w and

75w bulbs getting towards the end of their time.

songbird

[DerbyDad03]

Did you consider LED strips that can be cut to length and also dimmed?

Just some examples...

LEDs:

Remote Control Dimmer:

Power Supply For System:

When we go camping, I run a string of LED's through the framework of my pop-up canopy and power it with a jump-start pack. A dimmer allows for full brightness while cooking and mellower light when desired. The full brightness of a 5M strip is actually more than we need, even while preparing meals.

When we get done painting the kitchen, I'm going to install strips and a dimmer control over the counters.

[Terry Coombs]

When light fixtures in the camper (12V) fried the bulb bases/plugs to the point they no longer made contact , I replaced a couple of the fixtures with LEDs . Liked 'em so much I ordered more for the other 2 most-used fixtures .

[songbird]

DerbyDad03 wrote: ...

i looked at them, but when i mentioned to the manager she said she didn't want anything like that and for sure not another remote control!

songbird

[Don Y]

We want to put (LED) "strip" lighting under the counters but have debated the wiring issue. In our case, we'd prefer to hide the power supply up behind the valence over the sink -- accessible (repair/replace) yet unobtrusive.

But, getting from there to the light strips leaves the cosmetics of the wiring up for grabs. Easiest approach may be to run it through the ceiling and walls to exit just adjacent to the strips (one on each side of the sink).

I think we've decided that we don't have to "remote" the intensity control -- just reach up behind the valence and adjust it to suit our needs, then just treat the lights as "on (at that intensity)" or "off". Already have too many friggin' dimmers around the house and they seldom find use beyond: off, on/full, on/dim (i.e., you could

*pick* a "dimness" for each and always resort to that intensity)

We've found any direct line-of-sight to the lamps is hard on our aging eyes (don't respond to changes in intensity as rapidly as when younger). So, want to make sure there's no/little chance of ever "looking into" a lamp.

We cling to commercial (130V) incandescents in most of the living areas. They allow us to turn the lights "almost off" and have the equivalent of a night light sort of intensity throughout the room (you'd never notice the lights as being "on" in any sort of daylight!). So far, the dimmable LEDs don't have that same low end intensity capability.

[DerbyDad03]

You can also get rotary dimmers, which is what I bought for our camping set up. The one I bought is "industrial" in nature, which is fine for camping or a workshop, etc. but probably not as an exposed unit in a finished room. That is why I suggested the remote. I'm sure that there are better looking dimmers available, but I haven't looked - yet.

[Don Wiss]

The problem is you get a dot effect. Especially on anything shiny. For example, if the head of your faucet is chrome and ball shaped, every dot in the lights will be reflected on the head.

Some have plastic covers to reduce the effect.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Art Todesco]

About 2 years ago I replace 3 - 7 watt fluorescent lamps with LED strips. I used 2 strips because cool white was too white and warm white was too yellow ... I know I'm a nerd. Anyway, I used a 12 volt switching power supply (like from a printer) to power the strips. I put a few regular diodes in series with each set of strips to adjust the brightness and overall color rendition balance between the cool and warm strips. There are actually 2 power supplies as it was not easy to get 12 volts from one string of cabinets to another, but as there was already

120VAC for the old fluorescents, it was easy to do. The old switch, which turned on all 3 original lights, now turns on the LED strips. Actually, the old switch was replaced, years ago, with an X10 wall switch, but I digress. I even put the LED strips under the range hood to light the cooktop area. The results are outstanding; extremely even lighting across all the cabinets. Because of the X10 thing, they go on at dusk and off around 11:30PM.

[Moe DeLoughan]

They're thinking rechargeable batteries. I have a number of motion-sensor LED lights around the house that run on batteries. The rechargeable batteries last for weeks and cost next to nothing to recharge. Obviously, I wouldn't use them where it would be inconvenient to access them for replacing the batteries, but I've got them where I want some lighting to automatically turn on when I enter the area. Great for quick trips to the kitchen or bathroom at night, or to my storage areas when I'm just going to grab or store something. Or to safely navigate the stairs even when the power has gone out.