LED Lighting
LED lighting is a great way to introduce a new visual aspect to a room and create a more contemporary look.
These are many positive points to using LED strip lighting in a space. From practical dowlightling in a workspace to spotlighting on items of interest on a shelf.
This project will look at a task that can be done in a day in most cases. The project will go through step by step the task of replacing under cabinet lights with led strips and also installing new led light strips in front of kickerboards to give a modern, contemporary look to a kitchen.
Many kitchen have under cabinet lighting already but this can be inadequate sometimes or use older fluorescent tubes which can be expensive to replace and be very bulky under a cabinet. The same method explained in the project can be used to add accent floor lighting sitting on the underside of floor cabinets, in front of the kickboards. This project will only deal with simple white LEDs. If you wish to use RGB LEDs then the wiring of these LEDs will be different.
Simple LED strip lighting
Safety First!
As with all electrical projects, there is always an element of danger and the chance of electrocution. If you do not feel confident with working with electrical wiring then please consult an electrician. Always turn off the power from the fuse board and test before working on a circuit.
Materials list
5m LED Strip
These are the non waterproof cool white LED strips I've used in the past.
They come with an in line dimmer and power adaptor. Nice simple set up if you have a power socket near by. If you want to use them at 100% brightness all the time you can leave the dimmer out of the setup and connect the power adaptor directly to the LED strip.
Inline Transformer
If your current strip lights are running on 230 volt and you want to use their existing wiring, then you'll either need to disconnect them and add a socket to take the adapter that comes with the LEDs or you can get an inline adaptor like this one.
LED strip joiners
If you would like to avoid soldering strips together then the link below is for you! these are LED strip joiners that allow power to be transferred between the copper pads on the LED strips.
wire to barrel plug adaptors
There may be a need to connect the end of the LEDs that does not have a pre wired plug, to a power supply. to make this as easy as possible, these adaptors may help.
Wire to barrel plug adaptors on Amazon
Alexa control module
As we are all about smart home integrations here, the link below is to an inline control module which connects to you wifi network and allows for the connected LED strip to be controlled via Alexa or via the app.
Planning and Installation
Now it’s time to plan your new LED lighting. Measure with a tape measure where you want to place the LED strips. This doesn’t have to be precise but it’s always worth over estimating how long you want your LED strips to be. At this time, it is also worth thinking about how you are going to power the LEDs and where the power is going to come from. If you have a socket on you work surface then maybe you are happy to run the cable from there to the led strip or if you already have some power feed under the cabinets, you ran reuse the existing wiring. if you are going down this route, you will need to test the wiring with a multimeter to check what voltage is being supplied. if you are not comfortable doing this then please consult an electrician to do this for you.
Once you have planned out where you LED strips are going to be placed and how you are powering them, next you need to think about if you need to join any strips together in a chain. This allows you to power multiple strips from a single power supply but you will need to think about how you can run a small wire between the end of the first strip to the start of the second strip. sometimes it’s just easier to use two or more power supplies. This will obviously increase the cost of the project but this is an option to you.
You don’t need to have a new LED strip and power supply for each place you want to install LEDs. the strips are able to be cut in marked locations along the strip. once cut, the remainder of the strip can be used in another location, however this is slightly more difficult as a plug or wire will need to be soldered to the copper pads on the LED strip.
Now that you have planned and ordered all your parts it’s time to install the new lighting. In the past, I have found it easiest to start with running the power to where the LED strips will start.
The LED strips linked in the materials list above come with adhesive backing which can be used to secure the LED strips to the underside of the cabinets. They come with a plug that will allow you to plug in the power adaptor on one end. The other end has 2 wires. These wires can be used to power the LED strip from the other end. The wire can either be fitted with a simple barrel connector from the material list above or fitted directly to the inline power adaptor, like the listing in the materials list.
The led strip can be cut at set intervals along the strip, usually every 3 leds. The places the leds can be cut is where there are 2 copper pads and usually a line running through the pads, across the strip. Sometimes there is also a pair of scissors printed on the strip to indicate they can be cut at that point.
If you need to join 2 cut strips then i have linked to some LED strip joiners in the materials list above.
once you have made all the connections and ensured that they are all connected correctly go ahead and power on the strips to make sure they work as expected. If all is wired correctly then all the LED strips should light up at this point.
If you have decided to connect the strips using the Alexa model as well then go ahead and follow the instructions to connect the model to the app and alexa at this point. I won’t go into detail on this in this project as each model is different. These modules are especially useful if the socket is in a hard to reach location or if you want to automate an always on power supply.
I hope you enjoyed this project. if you have any problems, use the contact us page to drop us an email.
Happy automating!
