Everyone who at least sometimes stands at the stove knows how important good lighting is in the kitchen. You can also mount an effective illumination of the working area with your own hands. But, before doing this, it is necessary to understand some of the nuances.
Type of lighting
For additional lighting in the kitchen, different types of lamps are used. Often used, for example, fluorescent. And there are reasons for this.
Firstly, such lamps are universal and look good in almost any interior, while providing uniform comfortable lighting. Secondly, they have a long service life, and thirdly, they are easy to install.
But with all this, we must remember that their tubes are filled with mercury vapor, which, if the case is damaged, can pose a health hazard.
Halogen lamps are also popular. They provide high-quality, but spot lighting. Their disadvantage is the design features: “halogen” must either be built into the furniture, or mounted on a hinged rod. In addition, they heat up noticeably during work.
LED lighting can be ribbon or in the form of separate lamps. Today, this is the most popular way to make a place for cooking more illuminated. This is due to low power consumption, long service life and safe operation of LED elements.
Regardless of the type chosen, it is necessary that the sockets and switches are located no closer than 60 cm from the hob and sink.
Location options
The most convenient option for the location of the backlight is a headset under the hanging cabinets. Thus, you can get a uniformly illuminated surface without shadows.
If you install lamps above cabinets, for example, in a decorative cornice, not the entire countertop falls into the lighting zone. In addition, a person standing in front of the desktop will create a shadow.
Sometimes the option of placing lamps on the wall near the working area is acceptable. But you need to mount them as high as possible so that the objects standing on the table do not create shadows.
Installation instructions
To build the scheme, you will need:
- LED Strip;
- Power supply unit;
- Wires;
- Connectors (or soldering accessories);
- Isolation;
- Fasteners;
- Switch, plug, or controller.
Before starting the installation, it is necessary to choose the right equipment. The specifics of the room place increased security requirements on it. For this reason, you should choose an LED strip, as well as a power supply unit with a high degree of protection, which is indicated by the IP marking.
We determine the placement of the LEDs and measure the length of the surface on which we will mount them. For the kitchen, it is recommended to use elements protected by a silicone coating. They are not afraid of moisture and it is more convenient to clean them.
If it is necessary to make a backlight with a gap, or you just need to shorten the tape, you can make a cut only in special areas marked by the manufacturer. They are located between the sites intended for soldering.
Knowing the required length of the LED backlight, you should purchase the material with a small margin. There is always the possibility of a mistake or marriage. 10% of the entire length will be quite enough.
If silicone tape is used, the protective layer over the contacts must be removed. Next, we solder the wire to the cleaned contacts. To simplify the installation, you can use special connectors that allow you to assemble the chain without using a soldering iron. We close the connection points with insulation.
The LEDs can be mounted either in special aluminum boxes or directly on the surface. To do this, use adhesive tape, staples or special fasteners.
We install the power supply in a convenient safe place. It is needed to convert 220 volts into 12, necessary for the operation of lighting devices. We connect the circuit with wires. The output marking shows the installation location of the wires from the tape. Input – the place of attachment of the electric cable with a plug. This option is not very convenient for daily use, since it involves manual inclusion in the network.
To make the use of LED lighting comfortable, a switch should be added to the circuit, for example, a regular keyboard. In the circuit, it must be located between the power supply and the 22 volt source. To control the lighting using a remote control, a controller should be added to the circuit instead of a switch. It should be located in the circuit between the LED strip and the power supply.
From personal experience
To illuminate the work surface in the kitchen, we chose a three-color LED strip and were very sorry. The white glow is obtained by mixing three colors, and it cannot be called fully functional.
The light turns out to be cold and not bright enough. It is very uncomfortable to work in this light. If you need not decorative, but functional lighting in the kitchen, it is better to choose single-color LEDs.
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