Tell me about LED Tape...

[Matt Meiser]

I bought LED light fixtures for under cabinet lighting in our kitchen but I think we are going to add some accent lighting above the cabinets as well. I'm thinking LED tape would work great as I could cut to exact lengths and stick it to the back side of the crown molding to light both the "stuff" that will be on top of the cabinets and bounce off the ceiling. In searching, it seems like I can pay anywhere between tens and hundreds of dollars. I'm not clear about the differences. I just want warm white light.

Because there's three sections of overhead cabinetry, I'll need run 3 separate power supplies that will plug into existing outlets above or inside the cabinets (depending on the height of the cabinet where the exisiting outlet is.)

Can anyone recommend a good source?

[Erik Loza]

Matt, check out these guys...

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-strips-and-bars/

I've been satisfied in buying from them. Best,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Brian Kerley]

Well, prices on that stuff can vary greatly, depending on what you are after. Single colors are cheap. Red is dirt cheap. As you get to white/warm white, the price will tend to go up as the white is usually 3 RGB LEDs, and that is more expensive. Then, the tapes can go up in price depending on how many LEDs per foot. More density, the greater the price. Then, you can also start getting into real fancy stuff, like fully-addressable LED strips. You don't need anything crazy like that though. But of course some of those prices you see are for "commercial" applications, where the price is ridiculous. And of course some of it is marketing. Most of that stuff all comes from a small handful of factories in China, re-packaged/branded and sold at varying costs.

[Jerome Stanek]

I buy rolls for about $25.00 Ebay it takes about 10 days to get it.

[Brian Elfert]

These days I see whole rolls of LED tape from American suppliers for under $20 shipped on Ebay. If you want it shipped straight from China/Hong Kong you can usually pay less. The American suppliers just import whole container loads from China. I paid a lot more for a roll of LED tape a few years back.

I was able to order replacement LED light bulbs for my RV for $1.35 each shipped from China. USA suppliers want $12 to $15 each for the same basic thing also made in China.

[Jerome Stanek]

how many feet are you looking for

[Matt Meiser]

I'll probably need more than 5M but not 10M. It will depend somewhat on how bright they are and how bright we want the lights.

[Matt Meiser]

I ended up ordering 3 kits from an Ebay seller. Each kit has a power supply, a dimmer, and a 5M roll of warm white tape. That's way too much tape, but if I started buying everything separately it wouldn't have been any cheaper. I like the idea of the dimmer so we can fine-tune the look.

[Matt Meiser]

The kits showed up yesterday. They are nice and bright--in fact we could have used the same for under cabinet lighting. 1 row probably would be plenty bright, two for sure. The dimmers aren't real smooth operating, the lights can flash as the dial moves, but since we will be setting them and forgetting that won't be an issue. I need to get some thin lamp cord for interconnecting between sections and rough that in so my wife can start loading cabinets.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, we decided we don't need this above the cabinets after all as we aren't getting the shadows we expected. However I'm thinking about using it in our old pantry closet. There's no power in there, but it would be easy to poke a low voltage wire in. I'd need to switch it somehow though and came up with the idea of using a switch on the door so that when you open the door the LEDs would turn on. Any suggestions on a suitable switch? I was thinking about a set of magnetic contacts like an alarm system but can't find any ratings on those. We're only talking mA at 12V.

[Jamie Buxton]

They're called "jamb switches". Google will get you a bunch.

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks Jamie. Though now that there's a fresh coat of paint and light maple shelving in there its not nearly as dark and LOML said to skip the lights.