more LED stuff - work bench lighting

[plant.one]

so i've been looking for an efficient way to replace my 54w T5 i had above my workbench. again gearing towards LED's - both for longevity and efficiency. settled on this stuff - again more amazon bargains, but cheap enough to take the risk. a year ago a strip like this would have cost more than $75. total cost for the power supply and 5 meters of lights - $20 (delivered, prime)


http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00HSF66JO (LED ribbon)
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00DKSI0S8 (power converter)
(stock photo)


LED Flexible strip lighting (self adhesive). you can cut to length. runs at 1.5w per foot. so even with a full 5 meter roll,you're looking at around 25 watts. These are usually used for ambient lighitng

i originally tried recessing it under the shelf where the T5 used to be, but that ate up a bunch of the available light. It was a real letdown.

by suspending it below the front shelf board, it totally lights up my whole bench. this is a single 8' strip lighting up my work area. this is the only light source in the room for this photo.




for those that have a safe with a power port - omg these would be amazing. and since they can easily be cut/joined and can be extended on 20 gauge 2 strand. even without a power port, the cord diamater is pretty damn small, so you could probably sneak the cord in via a small drilled hole in the back bottom corner or some such, or use one of the pre-drilled rear mounting holes. use your creativity. a single power supply is rated to power up to 36w (24' of led)

[InMyHumbleOpinion]

I see the power supply drops the voltage to 12v. If I were to put some in a safe rather than drill a hole I would opt to use a 12v burglar alarm battery or some other 12v battery. But then I tinker a lot that's why I reload blk.

[Zapp]

These look very similar to what I was sold to light my safe, by the safe installer. Needless to say, it was a bit more than that.

Thanks for posting this link! I will be getting some of these to see if it really is the same one or not. And probably use them for a bunch of other projects around

[smustian]

Nice idea. Might have to try some for my bench.

[plant.one]

I see the power supply drops the voltage to 12v. If I were to put some in a safe rather than drill a hole I would opt to use a 12v burglar alarm battery or some other 12v battery. But then I tinker a lot that's why I reload blk.

for my safe it would be worth the hole and a small grommet. the output side of the 12v converter i have is only ~0.4".

you could go even smaller by splicing the wire and getting down to just the wire gauge to make the pass. you might be able to get away with a ¼" grommet or smaller then.

it would all depend on your particular safe too.

when i actually own a house and get a more permanent safe solution, i'll make sure it has power inside of it.

[Jim Timber]

Thanks for the heads up on these. I've been looking for something to put inside my cargo container and these are just the ticket!

[plant.one]

I see the power supply drops the voltage to 12v. If I were to put some in a safe rather than drill a hole I would opt to use a 12v burglar alarm battery or some other 12v battery. But then I tinker a lot that's why I reload blk.

for those who arent tinkerer's... it looks like they have a couple battery pack offerings ready to go, with built in on/off switch.

http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00U2PVX36 <--- 6000 mAh
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B007RQW5WG <--- 3800 mAh

[jwb47]

everything is going led . I took a maintenance call at a power house and lighting is an every day issue . we are swapping out to led lighting as we relamp.
I have long since replaced every lightbulb in my house with led lamps they are much more effecient and alot more durable.

[plant.one]

everything is going led . I took a maintenance call at a power house and lighting is an every day issue . we are swapping out to led lighting as we relamp.
I have long since replaced every lightbulb in my house with led lamps they are much more effecient and alot more durable.

i started using CFL's long before they were popular. and if not for the cost factor, would have gone all LED long ago.

very excited that the prices are coming down to somewhere near reasonable - or reasonable enough that you dont have to have them installed for 12 years (or however long) before you recoup your installation cost.

[cdynaco]

i started using CFL's long before they were popular. and if not for the cost factor, would have gone all LED long ago.

very excited that the prices are coming down to somewhere near reasonable - or reasonable enough that you dont have to have them installed for 12 years (or however long) before you recoup your installation cost.

I refused the CFL's. Honestly, I can't believe the Power companies subsidized those. If they had put that money behind LED's, they'd be dirt cheap by now.

Costco had (still has?) a deal on LED's that with some kind of instant rebate from a utility made them $3.66/bulb. So I dropped $80 last March for enough for my current house and my unfinished addition. Love the light! I don't have many lights on at night, yet my bill went down about $5/mo. So that $80 is now recovered and allegedly the LED's last many years.

But... I still need incandescent bulbs for my pump house because the so-called wasted energy is a heat source.
Moron government! Energy is not lost - it's converted! And a few bulbs in well aimed spot lights use much less energy than buying an over-wattage electric heater. Idiots!