In the kitchen area here at Zoom HQ, we had under-cabinet lights which helped us see the food we prepared for lunch. There were nine 10 watt halogen puck lights. They had a few problems. First, they were always falling apart. Just bumping a light would make the innards fall down and dangle from the short wires. Second, the bulbs were very expensive, hard to find in stores, and only seemed to last for a few weeks before burning out. It was a rare occasion to have all the lights lit at the same time. Also, they were hot. Not fire-hazard hot, but hot enough to be uncomfortable if you get too close.
So the first high five goes to Tim for asking Kurtis to look into replacing the under-cabinet lights with LEDs.
Then the next four high fives go to Kurtis for finding, sourcing, purchasing, and installing the perfect solution. Kurtis was able to find a five meter ribbon of LEDs for a mere $25, including shipping, plus two 12 volt power adapters for $3 each.
The ribbon of LEDs consists of multiple sections of three-LED circuits. Each trio of LEDs connects in series and has it’s own resistor. Each of these sections is connected in parallel. This design allows the ribbon to be cut between any of the sections to have a shorter string of LEDs. And it has adheasive on the back for sticking it anywhere you need a string of lights.
We simply cut the LED ribbon to length, spliced the wires from a power adapter to the contacts on the LED ribbon, stuck the ribbon to the under-side of the cabinet, and plugged it in. It’s energy efficient, nice looking, easy to install, and a lot cheaper to maintain (no mantenance) and opperate. Nice going, Kurtis. Now I’m going to install these in my house.
Tags: LEDs, zoom creates, Zoomers
