Kitchen under cabinet lighting?

Kim_kim

I’ve got 5 x T5 13w under cabinet strip units in my kitchen.
So I’m thinking that’s 65W?

I’ve seen some new LED ones, that are like flexible tape, their wattage is incredibly low - yet they claim to be very bright. They are also pretty cheap to buy!

One of my strip units has failed (the one with the kettle underneath it).

To buy another is about £15.

Should I consider changing the lot to those super low wattage LED tape lights?
I’d only need 2 bits totalling about 3.5 meters, so not loads.

scottishblondie

I installed LED tape lights under some cupboards about 7 years ago. They were good at first, but after about 2 years the plastic covering over the LEDs discoloured and the lights started to be quite dim. I'm not sure if this would be a common issue, or if I just got rubbish ones. I think you can also get strips without plastic covering which wouldn't have the same problem, but I wanted them covered as there was the possibility for food and liquid splashing up under the cupboards.

I ended up replacing them with rigid LED strips from Lidl and they were much better, they were actually brighter right from the start. As far as I know they're still working great (sold the house last year). I installed the same lights in the kitchen of my new house several months ago. Lidl have them in their offers quite often, but you get similar ones from Ikea all year round and I expect plenty of other retailers have them too.

EssexExile

Make sure you get the right colour lights, warm white LEDs about 3000k, or cool white LEDs at about 5000k, depending on your preference.