LED Strip lighting

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Having a new kitchen this week - the old one did 25 years, 3 kids (including a rock band and at least 2 girls football teams) and 2 dogs, so does not owe me anything.

Have junked the fluorescent tube fittings for lighting above and below the wall units (they were well past their best) and am thinking of LED strip lighting (e.g something like this: http://www.strictlyleds.co.uk/cool-white-12v-5050-strip-light-60-led-s-per-metre).

Anybody on here got any experience/advice about the do's and dont's? I was going to have the showerproof cool white type above the worktops and the warm white non-waterproof above the wall units to add general ceiling lighting.

Thx in advance.....
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
I recently ditched all my old lights and bought ones like these. Mine were eBay specials. I went for slightly brighter ones and waterproof. They are simple to install once you have worked out the correct transformers. If you are not too handy with a soldering iron you can buy clip converters.
 

GM

Legendary Member
The electricians are installing these on the job we're doing at the moment. The only tip I can offer is make sure they're stuck to a flat surface, otherwise any ripple will reflect an uneven beam.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
I looked into this three years ago when we redid our kitchen, and after quite a lot of googling around ended up going for sub-unit flourescents above the work surfaces - but I can't remember why. Hope that's helpful!
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
I bought some from Wickes when I replaced our kitchen a couple of years ago. I would guesstimate 50% of the individual LEDs have failed in that time.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
I was struggling to get attractive and reasonably bright lights for my kitchen, and was somewhat constrained as it was in a flat, so ceiling spots would have been entailed a lot of buggerment to fit. In the end I replaced the rather council-office utilitarian striplight with a modern 2 x 28 watt modern chrome one (this one in fact http://www.universal-lighting.co.uk...lights/kitchen_ceiling_lights?product_id=5398 ). It is genuinely an attractive almost art-decoish looking thing, so Ok aesthetically. Super bright at 4700 lumens, and only 56 watts the pair. Looking again, some of the LED equivalents - you really need to look at the lumens. It's all very well being lower power, but if there's not as much light, it's all a bit useless. With modern bulbs I find I need a lot more lights on these days (my old eyes might have something to do with it too), and they are often mis-sold. In the rest of the house, I'm mainly halogens, which aren't that efficient, but are at least brighter than the older bulbs - but frankly I'd rather have a 100W or ideally 150W halogen rather than a 100W equivalent which is about 70 W as I'd like the extra light. The low-energy bulbs are pretty rubbish though, the older ones certainly, 100w equivalent my arse !
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Funny, isn't it? In homes, lumens would be useful comparisons, so makers advertise less meaningful watts, but on bike lights, makers advertise amps and lumens when watts (for power consumption and battery life) and German standard lux (for road illumination) measurements would be more useful!

It's almost like they want to confuse you into buying the wrong products so you'll want to buy more sooner ;)
 

subaqua

What’s the point
Location
Leytonstone
its not bad stuff , but there are pitfalls

we are currently going back on a 12 month defects liability on a project where the LED under pelmet strips for the toilets are failing at a depressingly quick rate. they were also a biyatch to secure back and it took lots of Isopropyl alcohol to clean the surfaces to get a satisfactory result.

they did look good when they were on though. if you can get the colour changing tape then do that for the under unit lighting as with the little remote you can change the ambience of the kitchen really well.
 

marknotgeorge

Hol den Vorschlaghammer!
Location
Derby.
I did similar in my bedroom. Make sure you get a decent transformer, and don't bother with those tiny little inline remote control dimmers. I'd have the walls and ceiling above the wall units white to spread the light better. Given that you're in the kitchen, I'd probably use the waterproof strips so you can clean them.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
Having a new kitchen this week - the old one did 25 years, 3 kids (including a rock band and at least 2 girls football teams) and 2 dogs, so does not owe me anything.

Have junked the fluorescent tube fittings for lighting above and below the wall units (they were well past their best) and am thinking of LED strip lighting (e.g something like this: http://www.strictlyleds.co.uk/cool-white-12v-5050-strip-light-60-led-s-per-metre).

Anybody on here got any experience/advice about the do's and dont's? I was going to have the showerproof cool white type above the worktops and the warm white non-waterproof above the wall units to add general ceiling lighting.

Thx in advance.....

We paid a lighting consultant to advise on our kitchen and vaulted roof extension and will be going for LED downlighters to replace halogens in kitchen and LED strips to replace fluorescent strips for ambient in a concealed pelmet in extension.

LEDs will be from Integral* LED - not the cheapest, but high quality

Some very good LED education/guidance on their website: http://www.integral-led.com/

*the computer memory people they have a new LEd division
 
OP
OP
andytheflyer
Location
South Cheshire
Thx to all for the help so far - particularly @PK99 - I am concerned about service life. I'd sussed the wattage/driver compatibility issue already - I was trying to see if anyone had any particular issues - as @subaqua seems to have! I've been changing some of my GU10 halogens for the LED equivalent in traditional spots - and can see a marked difference in my consumption monitor. Hoping I can do the same with the strip LEDs, but don't want to find a year in 50% of them have failed (@Hacienda71 ).

Keep the ideas coming!
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
I have had one bulb fail out of the hundreds installed in my kitchen. It flickered for a while and the eventually died. You don't even notice that it has gone because of the density of bulbs in the strip. I only used 8 meters for my installation and two rolls of 5 meters cost under a tenner. I actually have a couple of meters spare which I could replace the dodgy section. I have been surprised about how well mine have stayed stuck to the underside of the cabinets, even with steam from the kettle and sink.

I have cool white, but will probably replace with warm white eventually as the cool is a little bit too blue.
 

subaqua

What’s the point
Location
Leytonstone
I have had one bulb fail out of the hundreds installed in my kitchen. It flickered for a while and the eventually died. You don't even notice that it has gone because of the density of bulbs in the strip. I only used 8 meters for my installation and two rolls of 5 meters cost under a tenner. I actually have a couple of meters spare which I could replace the dodgy section. I have been surprised about how well mine have stayed stuck to the underside of the cabinets, even with steam from the kettle and sink.

I have cool white, but will probably replace with warm white eventually as the cool is a little bit too blue.

if it was one LED in the module I would get the client to accept that as natural failure rate. sadly it is the whole strip. the manufacturer has been great so far but i feel that the goodwill may rapidly wane.
there is so far no common factor in why they have failed. different sparks fitted them , different phase 9 not that that should ever make a difference. Incoming mains has correct polarity ( again not make a bit of difference on an AC circuit) utterly stumped
 
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