Home lighting evolution had come a long way from Edison's first incandescent bulb to fluorescent lamps to today's LEDs. And LEDs have also come a long way from tiny indicator lights in electronic equipment and car dashboards. They're now in our flash lights, cars and now finding their way more and more into our homes. There are LED light bulbs and LED tubes to replace fluorescent fixtures but they're still quite costly - definitely more expensive than regular incandescent and fluorescent lights. BUT LED strips that come in 16 feet and bulk in rolls of 50 to 150 ft length are now widely available online and ...
More significantly they've come down in price and much more user friendly. Only tool I used here is a pair of scissors. Yes, they can be cut to length and more significantly, soldering is a thing of the past with the new breed of lighting kits. As late as a couple of years ago I had to solder cut joints.
Only negative, if I must come up with one, is that they are much too bright if viewed directly head on - too glaring for most folks to stare at directly. However, they're perfect for upward indirect lighting, counter lighting and desk lamps. What does LED have to do with woodworking? Some woodworkers are converting their shop lights, task lights for close up work are now mostly LEDs and, of course, they're perfect for custom desk lamps as I have done in earlier projects (check archived blog or open link below):
http://easywoodworking-tolerba.blogspot.com/2015/10/led-desk-lamp-30.html
Advantages of strip LED lighting: (a) very low power consumption and so efficient that most of the energy is converted to light and very little to heat (it is actually cool to the touch; (b) bendable to fit contours and can be cut to length; (c) no glass bulb to shatter or break; (d) long hours of operation many times over the life of incandescent or fluorescent bulbs.
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| One of the fluorescent lamp fixtures above the display/book shelves in the library had a burned out capacitor. Capacitors can be replaced (done them in more than one occasion) but this time I decided to replace the entire fixtures with LED |
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| I ordered two kits, each a roll of 16.4 feet with a low voltage 12 volt adapters, extra connecting clamp and a couple of plastic connectors. Each kit was $15 but you can order the lights only for half that ($7.50). |
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| If you did not throw away old and obsolete electronic equipment that accumulated over the years, some of those adapters can be used, provided their output DC voltage is 12 V, which by the way is a common voltage. 9 volt output adapters will work too but the light output will be diminished a bit. |
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| Instructions were very clear. Pictures speak for themselves. To cut, make sure to make them at one of many marked interval sections. |
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| One end of the strip has a connecting clamp that will plug into the adapter. |
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| Remove the paper backing to expose the adhesive. |
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| A pair of scissors easily cut away the extra length. |
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| The adapters are shown plugged into the power outlet. These adapters can handle AC input of anywhere from 100 to 220 volt outlets. |
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| With the strip light turned off |
Indirect lighting, as the term suggests, provide soft diffused illumination. In this case, the strip lights are hidden from eye level view. Once turned on, soft but ample lighting will illuminate the entire room.
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| Next project is to replace fluorescent fixtures by the ceiling in the living room area (on the off position). |
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| Fluorescent light fixtures are hidden from view but the bulbs and/or capacitors need to be replaced from time to time. |
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| The excess strip, about 1-1/2 foot long, will be part of a future desk lamp project. Here I just used one the several old adapters from obsolete electronic devices. |
Below are some of the previous desk lamp projects. In 2015 I was able to buy a few samplers from a manufacturer that provided various short strips of varying light effects and brightness to give consumers ideas on what to expect from LED. I will be revising the lamp designs so it's time to make some revisions (Next blog later)
