Lights in shelving, under or in cabinets is nothing new, but there is a new product for accomplishing it, and I thought you might be interested in how it worked for me. I came across this stuff on ePay (item no. 171440224418 ). It's a strip of flexible silicone rubber with LED's embedded in it every inch or so. It's pretty cheap, so I got some. I got the super-bright version in Warm White. It comes in a continuous 16' roll that you cut to the lengths you need. The strip is about 7/16" wide by 1/8" thick - takes up almost no space! It does require soldering to attach power leads to the cut pieces (the roll comes with leads already attached at one end). The places you can cut are clearly marked every 3". Then, use a razor knife to cut away the silicone covering the copper soldering pads and solder on your wires. The LED's are all in parallel, so you can make the strips as long or short as you like and each one sees the full 12V. I ordered just the LED strip, no power supply because I have a bunch of nice regulated 12V power supplies from dead computer monitors. I used nearly the whole 16', and the current draw is 2.4A, perfect for the common 3.3A supplies.
The sticky back on the LED strip is pretty good stuff, but I didn't think it would adhere well to the rough wood surface of my garage shelves, so I used some 1" strips of galvanized sheet metal left over from an HVAC project, welded a few tabs on and screwed it in place. This also gave me the opportunity to tilt the strips about 30 degrees inward so the light all shines on the shelves, not out into the room. The LED's beam spread is rated 120*, so the light is very even.
You could also mount it to a piece of nice shiny aluminum angle to form a reflector - or maybe you want to light up the floor some too.
It's hard to figure the actual light output from the fleaBay listing, but it looks to me like at least the amount you'd get from a 15W fluorescent, with a small fraction of the bulk - and low voltage wiring.
Take a look at the before and after fotoz - I'm happy!
The sticky back on the LED strip is pretty good stuff, but I didn't think it would adhere well to the rough wood surface of my garage shelves, so I used some 1" strips of galvanized sheet metal left over from an HVAC project, welded a few tabs on and screwed it in place. This also gave me the opportunity to tilt the strips about 30 degrees inward so the light all shines on the shelves, not out into the room. The LED's beam spread is rated 120*, so the light is very even.
You could also mount it to a piece of nice shiny aluminum angle to form a reflector - or maybe you want to light up the floor some too.
It's hard to figure the actual light output from the fleaBay listing, but it looks to me like at least the amount you'd get from a 15W fluorescent, with a small fraction of the bulk - and low voltage wiring.
Take a look at the before and after fotoz - I'm happy!
) is up to about 4 years now. I you only get into it a few minutes at a time a few days apart, could be fine. It's an idea - it might work well in that Safety-Kleen cabinet to the right, but it's so shallow it really doesn't need lighting at all.