Advice on a shelf lighting product

[goldstar]

I'm doing some work for a home designer. She keeps coming up with weird projects and expects me to be an expert on everything she sees in a magazine and intends to use (electrically speaking that is). Anyway, attached is a (PDF) photo of a custom made shelf that has lighting (it seems) on the back edge of each shelf. If anyone knows of a lighting product I can use for this application I would appreciate your suggestion. Also, it needs to be installed in a way where it doesn't come out looking a hack job so, I would appreciate any suggestions in that area as well. Thanks.

 

[raberding]

Nice. A good quality 2700k tape would work fine here.
like https://tivolilighting.com/tivoli-product-cat/tivotape/

 

[goldstar]

Nice. A good quality 2700k tape would work fine here.
like https://tivolilighting.com/tivoli-product-cat/tivotape/

Thanks. Any advice on wiring this ? I've never used this product before. I'm guessing there's a plug-in driver.

 

[raberding]

check out the install sheets - I think that most pro-level tapes have hardwired power supply/drivers.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://tivolilighting.com/wp-content/uploads/Tivoli_Assets/Product_InstallSheet_Files/4313-Tivotape%20Elite%20Indoor_install_10-18-19.pdf

lots of good mfg products out there - here's another:
https://www.gmlighting.net/product/details/ltr_p_pro_series_4_5w_tape

 

[SceneryDriver]

It's LED tape. Likely single-color 2700K or 3000K color temperature. We install literal miles of this stuff each year. Environmental Lights is a good vendor with quality products; stay away from the cut-rate crap on Amazon. Go with 24V tape products instead of 12V tape. You have more voltage to work with; LED tape doesn't like voltage drop of more than 5%.

Learn to solder, to attach the leader cables to the tape. The "vampire" tap connectors are all garbage - we've tried them all. They are an almost guaranteed call-back for flaky tape, usually 6-12 months after install.


SceneryDriver

 

[goldstar]

Thanks for the info. I went to look at the house yesterday and the area where they plan on installing these "built-in" book cases. There is an open basement below so getting power to the location isn't going to be a problem. The problem I see is with the bookcases being "built-ins." They want the lighting to be on the back edge of each shelf and I'm guessing that once the shelves are installed and the case secured to the wall - that's it - it's in. If any of these LED strips malfunction, making repairs will be impossible. Looks nice in a magazine though.

 

[James L]

Looks like there will be a rabbet cut into the botton of each shelf so as to recess the LED strip

You need exact height for each shelf, and you need a separate cable (home run) from the driver location to each shelf.

I use in-wall speaker cable mostly, but in this instance you might consider oremade cables with 5mm plug/jack connection so you don't have to make a hardwire connection after shelves are in

Stub your cable at the side, right where the rabbet will be, and make sure they drill holes in cabinet to align ecactly so that you can push slack into the wall

 

[James L]

Look at this strip and you'll see there's a 5mm connector on it. Not every LED strip has it.

Amazon.com

There are two ways to handle to connector issue. Either buy a separate strip for each shelf, or buy conector cables that you can solder onto the strip after you cut it.

At $20 per strip, it's probably cheaper to buy separate strip for each shelf

 

[James L]

Here is a 10-ft cable with 5mm connectors on each end.

Amazon.com

You can get them in various lengths

 

[tepalia02]

Long LED strips can be a good option too.

 

[Todd0x1]

I wouldn't buy the 5mm DC power cables from amazon, too much 26ga copper in thick plastic, CCA cables, etc.

 

[James L]

I wouldn't buy the 5mm DC power cables from amazon, too much 26ga copper in thick plastic, CCA cables, etc.

Possibly. I couldn't tell you one way or another

But if you're only talking about 5 watts on each cable there's nothing wrong with it.

And I've used them in similar situations where I didn't have room to splice.

 

[Jerramundi]

It's LED tape. Likely single-color 2700K or 3000K color temperature. We install literal miles of this stuff each year. Environmental Lights is a good vendor with quality products; stay away from the cut-rate crap on Amazon. Go with 24V tape products instead of 12V tape. You have more voltage to work with; LED tape doesn't like voltage drop of more than 5%.

Learn to solder, to attach the leader cables to the tape. The "vampire" tap connectors are all garbage - we've tried them all. They are an almost guaranteed call-back for flaky tape, usually 6-12 months after install.


SceneryDriver

Environmental lights has a really cool continuous tape. It might be more common now, but when I first saw it it blew my mind, lol. It's a straight line of what I guess is still considered to be a single diode or just really closely spaced diodes? lol. Not really sure. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

 

[James L]

Environmental lights has a really cool continuous tape. It might be more common now, but when I first saw it it blew my mind, lol. It's a straight line of what I guess is still considered to be a single diode or just really closely spaced diodes? lol. Not really sure. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

It's probably COB (chip on board)

Like this...

Amazon.com

 

[Jerramundi]

It's probably COB (chip on board)

Like this...

Amazon.com

Yup. I just hate the strips where either (1) you can see them from a certain angle and can see the individual diodes or (2) the individual diodes cast obvious negative spaces. So when I saw this for the first time years ago, I fell in love with the idea... then I got quoted on the product at like $13-$15/ft, lol. Probably down in cost now or just what they TRIED to charge me, but yeah, no dice.

 

[James L]

Yup. I just hate the strips where either (1) you can see them from a certain angle and can see the individual diodes or (2) the individual diodes cast obvious negative spaces. So when I saw this for the first time years ago, I fell in love with the idea... then I got quoted on the product, lol.

I use that Pautix and I really like it.
One great thing is it has a 180ﾟbeam angle.
It likes the entire space inside of a cabinet from behind the face frame

 

[Jerramundi]

Anyway, attached is a (PDF) photo of a custom made shelf that has lighting (it seems) on the back edge of each shelf. If anyone knows of a lighting product I can use for this application I would appreciate your suggestion. Also, it needs to be installed in a way where it doesn't come out looking a hack job so, I would appreciate any suggestions in that area as well.

Ahh to be wealthy and have money to spend on accent lighting that serves literally no practical purpose, lol.

Looks like there will be a rabbet cut into the botton of each shelf so as to recess the LED strip

Just brainstorming here...

It appears she wants the lights on BOTH the TOP AND BOTTOM of the shelves.

So either the channel goes on the back face and casts light against the wall, both up and down, which requires the whole of the shelving unit to be slightly spaced off the wall, which is questionable...

Or just the individual shelf itself to be slightly short of the wall, which is more plausible because if you look at front face, it's slightly inset from the outer framing, which could also be the case in back.

Either that or you've got 2 strips on each shelf, top and bottom.

But if you do the channel, it's gotta be shallow enough to not restrict the beam angle and cast light.

 

[Jerramundi]

I say 2 ft fluorescent fixture on the back side of each shelf like I've seen some people do for crown molding on cabinets, lol I kid, I kid.

 

[kwired]

Thanks. Any advice on wiring this ? I've never used this product before. I'm guessing there's a plug-in driver.

Big box store units mostly just plug in drivers. More professional product lines have both plug in drivers and hard wire drivers.

The problem I see is with the bookcases being "built-ins." They want the lighting to be on the back edge of each shelf and I'm guessing that once the shelves are installed and the case secured to the wall - that's it - it's in. If any of these LED strips malfunction, making repairs will be impossible. Looks nice in a magazine though.

Work with whoever is building it to make it more friendly to replace strips when that might need to happen. Shelves that can be removed, even if need to remove a couple screws to do so could maybe work, or maybe make the entire case not too difficult to remove from wall and gain access to back side to make such repairs.

 

[James L]

Ahh to be wealthy and have money to spend on accent lighting that serves literally no practical purpose, lol.


Just brainstorming here...

It appears she wants the lights on BOTH the TOP AND BOTTOM of the shelves.

So either the channel goes on the back face and casts light against the wall, both up and down, which requires the whole of the shelving unit to be slightly spaced off the wall, which is questionable...

Or just the individual shelf itself to be slightly short of the wall, which is more plausible because if you look at front face, it's slightly inset from the outer framing, which could also be the case in back.

Either that or you've got 2 strips on each shelf, top and bottom.

But if you do the channel, it's gotta be shallow enough to not restrict the beam angle and cast light.

I probably didn't look at the shelves in the OP well enough. But the space behind would suffice.

No channel, just a flat aluminum bar

I have a job on Tuesday, a basement finish with a glass-wall wine room. I'll be installing COB strip on the backs of floating wine racks.

The idea is similar to OP - light the whole wall behind everything.

I'll try to remember pics, and post here