Hello All!!!
I’ve finally gotten around to working on my staircase lighting project. (with pictures!)
Parts -
LED Lighting Kit from Amazon - $12.00
LED Track kit from Amazon - $51.00
12 VDC Adapters - Amazon $12.00 for 4
Tube of RTV - Home Depot $3.00
Spool of Speaker Wire - Home Depot $9.00
Heat Shrink - Harbor Freight #2.00
Step one - Gathering of parts
This is everything except the wire
Step Two - The Build
I cut the track and the LED strips to length. These are for accent lighting so I only needed 3 LED’s. Anything more and it would have been too bright. I soldered the speaker wire to the circuit, keeping in mind that the circuit does have a positive and negative side.
I cut 3 pieces of heat shrink for each light. This was to build up the wire passing through the hole in the end cap of the fixture. This provides strain relief. I also used Silicone RTV inside of the fixtures. I put a couple of blobs in the corners. This was mainly to ensure that the end caps stay tight.
Step Three - Completed products with size comparison
These lights are only about 3 inches long. Not very big, but very bright.
Step Four - Install
I mounted these lights temporarily using 3m foam tape. I wanted to make sure of the placement, make sure I liked them, and get WAF on the project.
When completed the wires will discretely run right next to the hand rail brackets, into and down the wall, where they will both join in one connector and be put into a smart outlet.
I am very happy with the quality of the LEDs, the track kit, and the overall performance of them.
My total cost in total parts was $89.00. I made two 3 inch lights for a total cost of $1.55 per light.
With this kit I can build approximately 60 of these lights. It took me about 30 minutes to build the two of them.
Once I get these installed I’ll get the cabinet lights completed!!!
Edit
So, I was thinking about if I should connect these to ST and I find my answer…
I connected then to my kill-o-watt. They pull exactly 1 watt each. After doing the math these things running 24/7 it would take more than 18 years to recover the cost of the smart outlet… Ouch!