New to these chats though I’ve been using SmartThings and several z-wave products successfully in my home as I renovate my little fixer-upper room by room.
I am now trying to finish the remaining electrical components of my kitchen project, and the last thing for me to complete before hanging drywall is figuring out the setup for our under-cabinet lighting.
I’ve installed several smart switches, outlets and dimmers throughout my home, but I haven’t been able to find the resources or guides/plans to copy in terms of using a z-wave dimmer switch, and strip LED lights.
I am specifically looking to use an in-wall dimmer switch, but I don’t believe that standard smart dimmers work with low voltage lights. Do I need a transformer? I don’t need any RGB lights… just going for a standard soft-white light… but again, I’m open to ALL suggestions.
I’ve read dozens of different workarounds or creative ideas that people have done… but I’m struggle to make sense of it all. Any product thoughts? (In-wall dimmer -> transformer -> strip LEDs?)
Any suggestions or criticisms would be welcome at this point in order to help me move along and solve this thing!
Welcome! Did you have a chance to look in the community – created wiki at the quick browse list in the project reports section under rooms? The “kitchen” list has a lot of different LED projects you might find interesting, and some of them are pretty detailed.
While there are a number of different ways to do this, if you don’t need color control but you do want to be able to dim, I think the most typical is to buy a “dimmable driver” which is a physical device that will let you add 24 V LED strips to a regular 110 V wall switch. The driver will typically cost between 75 and $100. Make sure you get one that is UL or ETL listed for fire safety. That’s your transformer, but you want one that can handle dimming.
Once you have that, you can connect it to a Smart light dimmer switch that works with SmartThings just as well as you can connect it to a dumb one. So then you’re all set.
The following model has been pretty popular in the community, but there are a number of other brands as well. Just make sure you get one Spec’d for the size of your project. And don’t try to save a few bucks by getting a cheap Chinese version that doesn’t have the safety certifications. This is going to be a really important part of your house’s electrical system, so get a driver with US safety certifications. ️
(Since you’re new to the community and we haven’t met yet, I should mention that I myself am quadriparetic and use voice recognition software for my posts. That means it can take me eight or nine edits before I get the post the way I want it, including with all the links. And of course fixing any weird typos that the software introduces. So when you see any post from me, it’s usually good idea to wait a couple of minutes because it’s probably going to change multiple times before I’m done with it. Anyway, welcome again!)
Did you have a chance to look in the community – created wiki at the quick browse list in the project reports section under rooms? The “kitchen” list has a lot of different LED projects you might find interesting, and some of them are pretty detailed.
️
So when you see any post from me, it’s usually good idea to wait a couple of minutes because it’s probably going to change multiple times before I’m done with it. 
Anyway, welcome again!)