Morning all,
Hope you’re having a good week! I wanted to share a lighting project I tackled a while back, which involved some similar principles to what we often discuss, but took things a step further indoors: setting up a fully dimmable and colour-changing LED strip system in my living room. I figured it might resonate with anyone looking to do more than just on/off lighting.
My goal was to create some ambient, hidden lighting behind my TV unit and along a shelving alcove. I wanted full control over brightness (obviously!), but also the ability to change colours for different moods – think warm whites for cozy evenings and blues/purples for movie nights.
Here’s what I learned and how I approached it:
Choosing the Right LED Strips & Driver: Unlike 12V AC garden lights, I went for 12V DC RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) LED strips. This meant finding a compatible constant voltage LED driver (transformer), which is different from the AC types. I learned pretty quickly that for smooth dimming and colour mixing, a good quality, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimmable driver was crucial. Skimping here really affects the dimming curve and prevents flickering at low brightness.
The Smart Controller Challenge: This was the fun bit! To get the colour changing and smart control, I installed a smart RGBW controller (mine was a [mention a common UK smart home standard, e.g., Zigbee/Z-Wave/Wi-Fi] module like a Shelly RGBW2 or a Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus controller – pick one that fits the scenario) between the the 12V DC driver and the LED strips. This allowed me to control everything via my phone/voice assistant. The key here was ensuring the controller’s maximum current output could handle the total length of my strips without overloading.
Hidden Wiring & Power Injection: Because the strips were quite long (about 8 metres in total for both areas), I faced the old voltage drop issue that often crops up with 12V systems. To counteract this and maintain consistent brightness along the entire length, I had to implement power injection – running separate, shorter power feeds from the driver/controller to different sections of the strip. This was a bit fiddly, involving hiding extra wires, but absolutely worth it for uniform lighting.
Integration with Smart Home System: Getting it all talking to my [mention user’s likely smart home system, e.g., “Google Home/Home Assistant”] was surprisingly smooth once the hardware was set up. I can now create custom scenes (e.g., “Movie Night” dims the main lights and sets the strips to a deep blue), schedule them, and even control them from outside the house.
It was definitely more involved than just swapping out a light switch, but the end result is fantastic. The ability to truly customise the ambience has been a game-changer for the living room.
Has anyone else attempted similar smart LED strip projects, especially with hidden wiring or complex multi-zone setups? Would be keen to hear your experiences or any clever tricks you picked up!