Can I place a 60w transformer below kitchen cabinets?

Hi all,

I am hoping to install colour changing LED strips under my kitchen cabinets at floor level. At worktop level there is an FCU connected to the 32a ring main which currently has old mini fluoro tubes connected to it under the upper cabinets. It will be relatively trivial to extend this circuit behind the plasteroard and down to floor level but there is no space down there to put the LED driver. However, if I put the driver under the top cabinets then I am concerned that the long run of cable down behnd the wall at 12 volts will be too far and I will get voltage drop.

My plan was to remove the kickboard and conceal the wiring under the cabinets - and I am now wondering if I could install the transformer down there?

The cabinets are MDF and sit about 4 inches above the floor. So if I installed the LED driver under there then I would effectively be running it inside an MDF 'cupboard' with a concrete floor that is about 120 x 60 x 10cm high. It could be accessed for repair/replacement by removing the kickboard but is this a no-no due to the heat building up?

My calculations indicate I will need a 60w driver on each side of the kitchen. I was planning to buy the 'inline' transformer that just wires straight into the circuit but an alternative would be to buy one of the brick-type transformers with a plug and put a hole in the side of the cabinet to plug it in - but the brick part that gets warm would still need to be under the cabinets. Would this make any difference?

Thanks in advance for any guidance or specific regs regarding this

One moment you are calling it LED drivers and the next transformers. It is a LED driver and will be perfectly OK under the cabinets.

Thanks. Yes I've seen both used interchangeably. If you search through this forum there's an argument somewhere with someone saying they aren't transformers really. So to clarify - I want to put the little plastic box that connects to the 240v AC circuit on one side and the 12v DC LED lights on the other side - underneath my cabinets.

A-ok to crack on chap? Or time to check I've got a fire extinguisher nearby?

Yep crack on

MrGeezer said:

If you search through this forum there's an argument somewhere with someone saying they aren't transformers really.

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Some PITA pedant no doubt.

MrGeezer said:

If you search through this forum there's an argument somewhere with someone saying they aren't transformers really.

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More than one argument, actually. @MrGeezer the perp is our friend above.
Its not a real person. Its actually an automated robot response that reels out the same boring response if the transformer word is typed anywhere on the Internet.

Yes OK crack on, it seems some people have a problem with English and do not understand what to transform means, they seem to think a transformer should only transform voltage and isolate and that transforming frequency is not transforming just because traditionally it was only used to isolate and transform voltage, this is the problem when the trade uses an existing English word, they seem to forget its real meaning.

The same of course applies with driver, it was traditionally the name given to a current transformer often used to drive air craft ground lights so all the lights were the same brightness, then again a constant current needed to drive LED's which without being in a package as current dependent not voltage, but today it seems driver simply means a DC power supply even when traditionally it was AC. The list goes on, as when a new device is invented it is named after what it replaced some times with a word in front, so a street car in USA is what we would call a tram.

I am too busy hoovering the lounge to read this thread. Best hoover I ever bought is my Samsung, it has transformed the way I clean the house.

I’m planning on vegetarian sausages for supper

Think I would get a complaint using an air velocity cleaner at 7:50 am I was told off as an apprentice for calling a road sweeper a vacuum cleaner, and had it explained to me how it uses air velocity. Trade names Hoover, Bendix, have been used a lot in the past, but Samsunging the carpet does not sound right.

Good Old LED driver and transfer issue.

bernardgreen said:

I am too busy hoovering the lounge to read this thread

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Did you plug it into the socket in your loft which is off the lighting circuit? That's the danger with those.

denso13 said:

Did you plug it into the socket in your loft which is off the lighting circuit?

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No, I changed the plug, fitted one of these.