Kitchen Strip Lights Options

sirkuk

Hi everyone,

I was looking for some advice for some kitchen under cupboard and plinth lights for my new kitchen fit.

The kitchen is all fitted now minus the lighting and I’m a bit undecided on the best way forward. I’d like some colour changing strip lights for the under cupboard and plinth lighting but having not given it much thought before the electrician chased cables into the walls leading back to the light switch, it’s all two core. As there are breaks between cupboards and plinths, two core doesn’t quite lend itself so well without a controller after every break for RGBW strips.

I have Hue lighting already in other rooms so I think Hue lighting or a Zigbee Controller would be the way forward but want to keep things neat and minimalist, especially for anything mounted beneath cupboards.

I came across RGBW LED Controller with built in power supply. (ZigBee) - RGB Genie which would almost be ideal but is in the States so would start to become expensive as I would need five of them to overcome the breaks in plinths and cupboards from side to side of the room plus then shipping and duties. Else, I was thinking two 240V to 24VDC LED drivers and then send 24VDC down the two core buried in the wall and link to a Zigbee or Philips Hue striplight controller at each break point. The thing is, the Hue option quickly becomes expensive with the splices from the jack plug into the two core looking potentially nasty (rather than plugs as the lighting will be controlled from the kitchen light switch) and the inexpensive Zigbee controllers aren’t particularly pretty either with the wires on show going into the controller. The more costly Zigbee options start to look more attractive because of their neater termination into the controller but many aren’t exactly compact to hide beneath an eye level cupboard.

Any suggestions or advice from anyone that’s done something similar?

Chester

Whilst it's nice to have funky lighting in the kitchen, I'd leave that to the kick board and ceiling lights.  When you're preparing food or whatever, I think it's far better to try and find the highest CRI (Colour Rendering Index) from 4000K white light that you can find.  This is about light quality and the closer you can get to 100 the better.  That said, there's nothing stopping you having colour and a separate white!

Also my advice for your RGB lighting is to keep it all within the same ecosystem.  As you've already invested in Hue, I'd go with that, and stick with Philips for the colour lighting.  Other cheaper white lamps do exist but check the specs including CRI before you buy.  They can be worlds apart in terms of quality!

sirkuk

Thank you for the advice. Duly noted.

Jamie

I'll second @Chester advice.

im not sure if you can still get them but I used a Dresden Electronics FLS-PP controller in my kitchen.
the FLS-PP is an RGBW controller which means it has 4 channels (red, green, blue and white) which you could use with RGBW strips, however the FLS-PP actually shows as 2 individual lights with the white controlled separately to the RGB.

ive wired mine up so I have decent white strips over the counter and RGB on top of the cabinets, controlled individually but all powered off a single power supply and controller.

the picture is a bit crappy
                                                                                                                                                               

Fabien

@Jamie - Is that the vendor app? Looks nice

Fabien

Inked

Looks like the Philips Hue app

Jamie

Yes it's the official Android app.

sirkuk

Thanks for the advice. I never thought about strips on the top but it looks good. That’s food  for thought because there’s a gap behind the cupboards to poke a cable through. Might work out better to hide the controller. Is there any particular strips that anyone recommends? I may go with similar to what you have done with decent white strips at the bottom and colour up top if I can get the spur up tucked away nicely.