Cabinet lighting

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H

Hammertime

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Joined
Apr 12, 2016
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I am remodeling/rebuilding my 5th wheel. I'm building the new kitchen cabinets and trying to decide whether or not to install 12v lighting (12" LED strips) in them. I have a new 50 amp electrical panel with several 12v connections. I will not be boon docking so I should always have 110 power. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of this idea? Thanks, Marty
 
LED's use less power, give off less heat, last a lot longer, are available in a great variety of lumens (brightness), and Temperature measured in Kelvins that affects color (from a "warm" yellowish color to a "cold" bright, blue white).
 
I think inside the cabinets could potentially be a problem if things in the cabinets start moving around for whatever reason. Where would the switches reside in order to turn on those lights?
Seems like kind of a neat idea in that you'd only need to light up inside the cabinet to find something in case you didn't want to turn on a light outside of the cabinets. Oh, also could be really neat as accent lighting if any cabinet doors have glass in them.
 
Sorry Marty,
I misread your post. I thought you were asking about LED vs incandescent as a general thing. I could see where in some cases lighting in the cabinets would be handy. I would mount the lights on the front of the cabinets, shining in, and use switches that would be operated by the cabinet door. Something on the lines of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Directed-Electronics-8600-Magnetic-Switch/dp/B0009SUEZY

You could use two conductor thermostat wire to wire everything up.
 
Shop EBay and you will find 1-2 foot 12v led strips any color that run a few bucks, to longer pieces that have the remote and will change colors etc from the 15.00 range. The stuff is really cheap.
 
I recently installed strip LED lighting under my kitchen cabinets at home.  WOW!!  What a difference!

The strips come in MANY flavors.  The 3528 chip (LED) 60 per meter gives 119 Lumens / ft. (love mixed metric / english measurements!)
                                                  The 5050 chip, 60 per meter gives 238 Lumens / ft.

They both come in 120 chips / meter at twice the light output.  Both come in several "colors", i.e. Daylight, Cool White, Warm White, etc.

We used the 3528, 60 chip Warm White in the kitchen, and they are almost too bright.

These will work well under cabinets or inside cabinets.  Place near the front of the area. 

Here is a link to what I used.      https://smile.amazon.com/Flexible-Non-waterproof-Christmas-Decoration-Daylight/dp/B00HSF65MC/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1494645024&sr=8-13&keywords=3528+led+strip+lights

They run on 12V, either directly or from a transformer.  No reason your camper 12V supply could not be used.
 
Thanks guys, for all the replies. I will be doing this. I will mount them at the top facing inward (so on the backside of the cabinet face) I have assess to all my wiring and will be mounting switches on the wall in the kitchen. That way if a door did come open it would not be pulling on the battery while going down the road. I think that I will wire the top cabinets to a switch, the bottom cabinets to a switch and put the LED's that I can change the colors on under the cabinets shining on the counter tops with their own switch. That will only be 3 small switches on the wall. I have 2 overhead lights in the living/kitchen area, with another one over the couch and table in the slide. I have thought about wiring them to a switches also. The living and the couch on one and the the kitchen and table on one. You would still be able to turn them on and off one at a time with the built in switch on the fixture if needed. Any suggestion or ideas on this?
 
You can consider using LED Light bars which are a bit better compared to strip lighting. They can be screwed on or attached via magnets instead of using sticky adhesive.

Depending on the light mood you like you can get warm white, natural white or daylight white

https://www.amazon.com/LumenBasic-Under-Cabinet-12v-LED/dp/B079MRJ4VY/

These connect directly and can be hard wired with a 12v setup
 
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