LED flexible striplights and drivers

[LadyM]

Hi, we have fitted a new kitchen and wanted to install LED striplights inside a couple of wall cabinets, as plinth lights on base units and under a worktop on the island. The wiring has been put in place by an electrician but we are installing the lights.

Can you buy one large roll of striplights and the drivers separately and make them up? I've looked into kits (which is what the electrician buys) but they would work out quite expensive as we would need at least 6 because of the way the kitchen is set up (2 x 1.6m run either side of cooker, island, separate 1.4m run tall cabinets, 2 separate wall cupboards). I'll post some photos up, any advice on best way to do the lights or opinions on whether we are going a bit overboard with them. There is also a dining/seating area and we wanted to be able to have soft lighting for relaxing in the evening!

 

[LadyM]

Photos of kitchen layout

Kitchen 1

• LadyM
• 15 Apr 2017

Kitchen 2

• LadyM
• 15 Apr 2017

Tall units

• LadyM
• 15 Apr 2017

 

[nickjb]

You can buy a big roll (usually 5m) cut it to length every third led then wire it up. You can either have one driver for each section or connect a couple of sections up in series and run from one driver as long as it has enough power. Easy stuff to work with. Only issue is that the self adhesive doesn't always stay stuck. For long life its better in some aluminum extrusion or at least augmented with a few saddle clamps

Can't see the point of plinth lights myself but each to their own. Its nice to have a few different lights for different uses and moods though

 

[winston1]

You can either have one driver for each section or connect a couple of sections up in series and run from one driver as long as it has enough power.

Wrong. You must connect the sections in parallel not series.

 

[nickjb]

OK pedantically speaking its a parallel circuit. But I meant one segment follows on from the next. Connect the end of one to the start of the next and so on

 

[Iggifer]

I would second using some profile. Particularly for plinth lighting. If you have shiny floor tiles you can see the reflection of each LED and it looks terrible. If you have stone/slate etc not so much of an issue

 

[Doggit]

Having just fitted a set of under unit leds that have just fallen off after just a day, I'll attest to needing a better fixing method. I got them off ebay for a test, and it was £19, for 5M of RGB strip, and there was a driver/power supply, and a control unit and a remote that's labeled wrongly. The white light is made up from 3 colours, so isn't very bright, but the colours seem reasonable. The RGB strips use 4 cables, and the white ones just 2, so if you've wired a standard 1mm lighting cable to each point, then you'll need a driver/pwer supply at each point. There are companies on eBay that sell strip lighting connectors, and if you've just got interconecting cables around the kitchen, then you could convert the ends to link into the white strip lights, but not the RGB ones.

 

[Iggifer]

I don't remember off the top of my head, it might be Ledridge (will have a look when I go to the van) but they will make you LED tape of your choice cut to length, with your choice of length of tails soldered and heatshrunk on.

Obviously more expensive than buying a 5m roll but saves all of the hassle.

There's bound to be other people out there that do it, but they're just one company that springs to mind

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The white light is made up from 3 colours, so isn't very bright, but the colours seem reasonable.

RGBW would be better.

Use RGBW.

use RGBW strips.

 

[Iggifer]

It is Ledridge. They're definitely worth looking at. There's almost 60 pages of aluminium profiles in their catalogue. They do RGB(+W) and all sorts of standard white. There's also a whole host of, undoubtedly rebadged, drivers and controllers etc.

Never used them myself but have heard plenty of people rave about them

 

[ianniann]

Can you buy one large roll of striplights and the drivers separately and make them up?

Yes you can, subject to the technical details of having the right driver (voltage and power), connectors or soldering. You can connect cut strips end-to-end from the same single power supply, but better to run separate wiring to each piece. Or multiple power supplies, depending on how you need to wire them and have the switches.

 

[eddiewakey]

I've done this. I have 3 sections of tape / powered independently of each other.
Plinth & under different units.

I've got wifi controllers on each one and they are grouped together in the app. So I change the colour of the group and they all change together!

 

[davelx]

All sorts of options here that you can fit the LED tape of your choice into:

https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.uk/led-strip-lights/led-profiles-extrusions.html

 

[LadyM]

Thanks for all your help, there is certainly a lot of different options and the costs can soon rack up.

I like the idea of the profile as it will give a more diffused light but it does add quite a bit so I might reduce the number of areas I have the plinth lights. I'm sure I will need a power source for each section as they are separate from each other. How does the LED tape connect to a driver, do I anything else, each area has cable available for the input power.

 

[^woody^]

I've got wifi controllers on each one and they are grouped together in the app.

What app?