My family and I live in a 42 year old town home just outside of DC, and when we purchased it the lighting reflected the home's age. Before we moved in almost 4 years ago we had many improvements done to the lighting and electrical - except for the laundry/utility room.
This is an unfinished room, with exposed studs overhead and on 1 wall - cinder block on the back wall, and the back side of old wood paneling on the other wall (which has been painted on the finished side - a rec room.
Lighting for this approximately 12 foot deep/8 foot wide room is/was provided by a single overhead light bulb and a hanging fluorescent fixture. Corners where tools and 'stuff' are stored are dark and dreary - plus the 'junk' is hidden...that's a good thing and a bad thing.
So I decided to do something about it, and use it as my pilot LED conversion project.
Here's the room - not showing the entire room - embarrassed to:
Here were the light sources
So I ordered and received the following:
8 Indus Stars with Cree XPG R2 at 4000 CCT
1 Xitanium 17 watt 700 mA driver
Arctic Alumina
Various optics (for experimenting)
4 angle brackets - 3/4 inch x 36 inches
Various pieces and parts - wire, etc., to support the install.
First I drilled mounting holes in the brackets
Before
After
Then mounted the stars with Arctic Alumina, and let them cure over night
This morning, gathered all my 'stuff' in the laundry room - used the washer for a work bench :devil:
Mounted the brackets on the studs - emitters are covered with masking tape
1 of the 4 brackets mounted - 2 LEDs per bracket
The 31degree wide angle frosted optics - ended up mounting these on 3 of the 8 LEDs
Drilled holes to run all the wires
Ran the wires for series connection - (the white wires are unrelated)
People that build and do mods have a new level of respect from me! What a pain - soldering these joints. Doing it upside down and overhead was a real pain, too.
Made the full series loop and connected the driver
Checked all the connections - corrected a couple of mistakes, took a deep breath and fired it up - SUCCESS! Now you can see the major mess of a laundry room that will soon be better organized
I learned quite a bit doing this. To protect them I won't name them, but a couple of VERY well respected CPF members/builders/modders offered free advice. Cost of the project?
LED/Stars - 8x $6 - $48
Driver - $28
Angle Brackets - ~ $4 each for 4 or $16
Wire - about $20
Optics - about $20 total, although I didn't use 'em all.
So for a bit over $100 and a day's labor, my laundry room has nice, even lighting and we know just what a mess it really is!
What did I learn? Soldering is a pain. In this application, the best light is provided from bare LEDs, although 3 of the lights performed better using the optics. I'll likely need to move 2 of the LEDs slightly - I put them right near the doorway and a section of duct work overhead blocks the light - I think the light will be better utilized on the other side of the duct work. That will be done tomorrow.
So, thought I'd share. I hope to do many more home lighting retrofits, a la Don Mcleish (although my work doesn't even approach the quality of Don's!) It's fun, and the results are quite satisfying.
This is an unfinished room, with exposed studs overhead and on 1 wall - cinder block on the back wall, and the back side of old wood paneling on the other wall (which has been painted on the finished side - a rec room.
Lighting for this approximately 12 foot deep/8 foot wide room is/was provided by a single overhead light bulb and a hanging fluorescent fixture. Corners where tools and 'stuff' are stored are dark and dreary - plus the 'junk' is hidden...that's a good thing and a bad thing.
So I decided to do something about it, and use it as my pilot LED conversion project.
Here's the room - not showing the entire room - embarrassed to:
Here were the light sources
So I ordered and received the following:
8 Indus Stars with Cree XPG R2 at 4000 CCT
1 Xitanium 17 watt 700 mA driver
Arctic Alumina
Various optics (for experimenting)
4 angle brackets - 3/4 inch x 36 inches
Various pieces and parts - wire, etc., to support the install.
First I drilled mounting holes in the brackets
Before
After
Then mounted the stars with Arctic Alumina, and let them cure over night
This morning, gathered all my 'stuff' in the laundry room - used the washer for a work bench :devil:
Mounted the brackets on the studs - emitters are covered with masking tape
1 of the 4 brackets mounted - 2 LEDs per bracket
The 31degree wide angle frosted optics - ended up mounting these on 3 of the 8 LEDs
Drilled holes to run all the wires
Ran the wires for series connection - (the white wires are unrelated)
People that build and do mods have a new level of respect from me! What a pain - soldering these joints. Doing it upside down and overhead was a real pain, too.
Made the full series loop and connected the driver
Checked all the connections - corrected a couple of mistakes, took a deep breath and fired it up - SUCCESS! Now you can see the major mess of a laundry room that will soon be better organized
I learned quite a bit doing this. To protect them I won't name them, but a couple of VERY well respected CPF members/builders/modders offered free advice. Cost of the project?
LED/Stars - 8x $6 - $48
Driver - $28
Angle Brackets - ~ $4 each for 4 or $16
Wire - about $20
Optics - about $20 total, although I didn't use 'em all.
So for a bit over $100 and a day's labor, my laundry room has nice, even lighting and we know just what a mess it really is!
What did I learn? Soldering is a pain. In this application, the best light is provided from bare LEDs, although 3 of the lights performed better using the optics. I'll likely need to move 2 of the LEDs slightly - I put them right near the doorway and a section of duct work overhead blocks the light - I think the light will be better utilized on the other side of the duct work. That will be done tomorrow.
So, thought I'd share. I hope to do many more home lighting retrofits, a la Don Mcleish (although my work doesn't even approach the quality of Don's!) It's fun, and the results are quite satisfying.