Homemade Kitchen undercabinet SMD LED lighting

Low voltage (12V) SMD LED strip undercabinet kitchen lighting with dimmer switch. All parts used in this upgrade were purchased on ebay, SMD LED strip, dimmer, and power supply. I soldered all the connections from the strip to the dimmer and power supply. These are warm white in color, and I highly suggest not to use bright white as it changes colors in such a way that it doesn't look natural. The LED's give great even lighting with no shadows since these strips have many LED's. A Bonus is that these don't get hot, and use very little power.
If you should search on ebay for them I would recommend to put "SMD LED 3528 strip warm white" into the search box and as of 4/6/10 they were going for as little as $35 for a 5 meter strip with 300 LED's. For the dimmer put in "12V LED dimmer" and they run about $10. Some strips come with the power supply, but if not they can be found pretty cheap.

Be sure to see my other videos for my custom LED tail lamps installed, and for my custom LED turn signal mirrors, and LED interior conversion.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Kitchen LED SMD LED strip
• kitchen LED
• cabinet LED
• LED

[MrsDowFire]

Hi larry, thank you for sharing your video. I've just started looking into undercabinet lighting and find that the led lights are running pretty expensive, then I saw your video and thought maybe this would be the cheaper way to go. I really don't want to spend $600 for undercabinet lighting. Did you install after your kitchen was completed? Are these direct wired? Did you cut the led strip to fit your application?

[larryo340]

@MrsDowFire These were installed after the ktichen was remodeled, and they are all low voltage LED's. They use a plug in 12 volt transformer to power them so you don't need to hire an electrician to install them. The strips are trimmed to fit, but if are easily connected with a soldering iron. The LED set up in the video cost me approx $150 in April of 2010, and have gotten even cheaper now. All parts were bough on ebay thru Hong Kong sellers.Click the "More info" to see search tips.

[jaanhua]

do u think we need waterproof or non-waterproof?

[larryo340]

@jaanhua I used the non-waterproof and it's been over a years since they were installed. They might have gotten a splash or two and they've been fine. I don't see why you would need waterproof ones in the kitchen, besides the waterproofing makes it hard to bend around corners and such. With that said the non-waterproof ones are most of us would need.

[jimlasalle]

nice video....thanks for sharing product info, now I know what to buy....Just one quick question.... Would it be possible to connect a motion sensor,,,,, so the lights turn on when someone walks into the room....THANKS

[larryo340]

@jimlasalle

I suppose it would be possible although I would have no idea if they have 12volt motion sensors. That would be pretty cool though :)

[dirtbikeridermat]

@MrsDowFire youtube isn't letting me post the url's to ebay for the under cabinet lighting. If you want me to email the links to you then send me and email: dirtbikeridermat@yahoo.com .

[dirtbikeridermat]

@MrsDowFire I figured I can always dim them but you cant make weak ones shine brighter. Anyway all together 5m of warm white led's, a dimmer, and a power adapter cost me about $46-50 on ebay. There are 2 types of strips 30 led/m (which produces about 300 lumen of light/ meter) and 60 led/m (about 650 lumen / meter) so 60/meter is twice as bright.

[dirtbikeridermat]

@MrsDowFire I don't know if you are still planning on doing your led undercabinet install, or if you have already done it, but you can definitely get what you want done for cheap. I'm doing to be doing an install in about 2 weeks, when my led's and dimmer come from Hong Kong. I noticed that Larry used the 3528 smd led's. I wasnt sure how bright these were so I went with the 5050 smd which I believe are the brightest, definitely brighter than the 3528.

[cyphear02]

@skammeh Agreed. I bought the 5050 SMD's but could have gotten 3528's if I had seen this video. 5050 is very bright.

[cyphear02]

@jimlasalle Run your lights to a regular wall switch, then use a motion sensing switch ($15) to turn them on.

My non-LED lights are wired this way and I couldn't live without it. Walking into the kitchen at night (especially with full hands) and...walla, I can see.

I just created a video similar to this, it might be worth checking out if you find this one helpful.