I was thinking of using some blue LED's as highlighting in the bathroom - maybe a strip of LEDs behind the glass shelf below the mirror, one shining on the bottom of the glass tumbler to light that and some behind the plastic corner shelves to light them.
The wiring would be buried into the plaster and I would use flexible strips of LEDs which are very thin and commonly available on ebay.
Has anyone done something similar - what were the results.
I have done a few things that are similar and your intentions sound cool, however, I learned from a Custom Outdoor BBQ Mfg when I saw how they were installing some LED rope lighting under glass blocks that were rapped around the outer edge of the $10,000 bbq , is that you need to be able to take them out if they burn out.
My Landscape and interior lighting designers like to put the leds in a channel first, so just in case 50,000 hours later when they may start fading in color and you want to change the look, you can easily slide the LED's out.
I carry LED ribbon light and LED channel lighting which will give you about 4' of great light and then start to fade, you do need a 12V DC transformer to operate them. I would recommend going to home depot or lowes for the aluminum U Channel, I believe it comes in various sizes and small enough to accomplish what I think you are going for.
If you would like a sample of the Blue LED's in a small Aluminum U Channel I can send you a foot, this would at least prove your theory and give you enough information to move forward. www.americanillumination.c= om
Good luck
I have done a few things that are similar and your intentions sound cool, however, I learned from a Custom Outdoor BBQ Mfg when I saw how they were installing some LED rope lighting under glass blocks that were rapped around the outer edge of the $10,000 bbq , is that you need to be able to take them out if they burn out.
My Landscape and interior lighting designers like to put the leds in a channel first, so just in case 50,000 hours later when they may start fading in color and you want to change the look, you can easily slide the LED's out.
I carry LED ribbon light and LED channel lighting which will give you about 4' of great light and then start to fade, you do need a 12V DC transformer to operate them. I would recommend going to home depot or lowes for the aluminum U Channel, I believe it comes in various sizes and small enough to accomplish what I think you are going for.
If you would like a sample of the Blue LED's in a small Aluminum U Channel I can send you a foot, this would at least prove your theory and give you enough information to move forward.
Good luck
Slight advert (ok blattent!) I have used some LEDs from these guy (brilliant)
Using there IP rated downlighters and their wired controller in a bedroom, looks ace!
Use a decent 12V regulated low current supply, LV lighting trafo dont like the very low load.
Adam
LEDs are current operated - not voltage. At the most basic you use a series resistor to limit the current and for normal use the voltage of the source isn't that critical. If you're driving them hard you'd normally use a purpose LED driver - and that again isn't terribly voltage sensitive. That's for if you're using your own power supply.
Indeed but presuming the OP is using ready made LED strips which are commonly wired as 2 or 3 LEDs in series with a resistor then paralleled along the length of the strip, commonly for a 12V supply.
12V LV lighting trafo looks like a good choice but isn`t, electronic ones probaly won`t start or will flash below minimum load, typically 20W , wound lighting trafos have terrible regulation with low load and might easily see 17V, after rectification, on a 2W 12V LED strip.Thats where current driven nature of LEDs bites, increase V supply by little, current can increase by a lot comes in. 1V increase could double the current the LEDs are actually taking, they get only slightly brighter and their lifespan gets a LOT shorter. Blue tends to change to an angry shade of cyan in extreme overdrive.
High power LEDs are almost always driven by a constant current supply as fractions of a volt can be enough to increase current consumption and shorten life dramatically.
Adam
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