I am planning to install some under cabinet and under plinth lighting in my kitchen. I am looking for ways to do this. Colour lights are good, but not a priority for me. I mostly use 6500K lighting during day and 3500K in the evenings.
Below are some of the ideas I am considering.
Osram lightify strips. Currently I can get 4M with 2 adapters for £85. Can do RGBW and will integrate with ST.
FLS-PP ballast with 5M RGBWW light strips. My understanding is that this can only do either warm or cold white. I wont be able to switch between the two. This will cost me about £65
Fibaro RGBW controller with 5M RGBWW light strips. My understanding is that this can only do either warm or cold white. I wont be able to switch between the two. This will cost me about £60.
The last option I am considering is to get 5M Cold White and 5M Warm white strips along with the relevant power adapters to control them. Install a Sonoff Switch to each of the power adapters so they can be turned on and off from ST. This setup will be the brightest as I will be using 2 seperate strips for Warm white and cold white. This will be the cheapest with total expense around £30, but no colour.
Are you saying, with 1 fibaro, I can get 5M warm white and 5M cold white and be able to turn them on and off seperately? Also what is the max length that I can hook up to Fibaro?
Sounds like you’re off to a good start! If you’d also like to see what other people have done, there are a number of lightstrip project reports you can find using the quick browse list in the community – created wiki. You can either look at the list for lighting or at the list for kitchens.
Thanks for the link. I will have a look now.
I have considered hue and lifx as well. I ruled out lifx because of the cost.
I recently got rid of my hue bridge and all hue lights as I now use a mix of Ikea, Lifx and Osram. Didn’t want to get back into hue.
Ha yeah they are very good but I will add one con for them (for me) the color picker in the UI isn’t as refined as you’d get with something from lifx et al, but for white only that’s not an issue. They’re very good value and with great support & development.
Edit: yes they’re dimmable, I think they’ll work with non rgbw but you’d be best checking in that thread ️
I see that you have already said you don’t want hue.
I have 3 hue strips, one in my lounge behind the curtain pole and 2 in my kitchen (with extension strips) on the top of my kitchen wall units.
I do not use the hue hub as they integrate directly into ST.
If you still have yours it might be worth a try.
Thanks for the info Bob. I didn’t know that they directly integrate into ST. I will have a look now. But if they are around the same cost as Osram, I will stick with Osram as it is natively supported by ST.
I ended up ordering H801 and everything needed to setup RGB, warm white and cold white. Costed £50 including a 150W power adapter so I can add more strips in the future if needed.
I was a bit miffed to hear that with the Fibaro and the Dresden devices you had to choose warm or cold white at the start. I very much must have a variable white (full RGBW like the Philips B22 bulbs) so does that leave me facing a choice of only going for the official Philips Lighstrip Plus or the Lightify Flex?
we posted at the same time…
they are very good but I will add one con for them (for me) the color picker in the UI isn’t as refined as you’d get with something from lifx et al, but for white only that’s not an issue. They’re very good value and with great support & development.