Shine a Light on It

It doesn't happen often, but on our last trip, BJ mentioned she'd like to have a light in the storage area in the loft, and one over the sink in the bathroom. I could have installed more strip light in the storage area, but instead we headed to the big blue box store to see what they recommended. We quickly honed in on the Striberg lights complete with switch and sensor. I was going to use the Dioder set, but they didn't look as clean.

The light that I installed under the communications shelf a couple years ago was in the right place but not the right light. As long as I was installing two, I might as well install three, even if it did mean I had to take the shelf down first. I'm making my 12 volt connection behind the original light.

The 14" long Striberg lights (the shortest version) have five LEDs housed in an aluminum housing. The light assembly uses 12 volt DC making the included transformer unnecessary - it makes for an easy installation. I practiced with the one mounting to the bottom of the shelf with the wiring running up through holes in the top and bottom of the hollow shelf to tie into the stock light.

Looks pretty clean - even better than the previous battery operated light. In this installation we'll use the manual switch, bypassing the sensor that is designed to tell when a closet door opens.

It's hard to get pictures showing how bright the light is since the phone I was using for photos was adjusting for the lighting conditions. This light works very well, reflecting off the bathroom door. It will really help to see in the coat closet, and more importantly, provide a better light for shaving, but that's a different story.

For the upper storage area, the light replaces the little battery operated light puck. Once again, with the phone it was hard to get a picture of how dark the cupboard was, but I was too lazy to go in the house to get the "real" camera.

In this installation, the light is set to come on automatically when the cabinet door opens. It seems to work very well, and just barely fits on inside upper rail of the face frame.

It's time to test. BJ says she's camped enough this summer, so I'm off chilling in Colorado and testing the latest improvement.