Advice on LED undercabinet lighting?

2020-12-02T03:59:16Z

For some years I've enjoyed the undercabinet lighting that I installed, a very simple arrangement of adhesive LED modules, an adhesive-mounted inline switch, and a 12 volt power supply. But the LEDs reecently started flickering and dying, possibly because the 12v supply has inexplicably turned into a 15v supply. Or it always was, and this is just a cascading failure in the LED modules.

I figure I have to replace more or less the whole setup, and I figured I'd ask if anyone had advice.

The cabinet frontage is about 7 feet, and the front edge of the cabinets are about halfway back above the counter. The bottom is recessed upwards, so long bar lights might be awkward.

Here are my needs and wants:

- About 7 feet of lights under front edge of cabinets (and maybe a little extra to fill in the corner)
- 12 volt DC, although I could be convinced of 24 volt
- Hardwired; prefer something I can link together with barrel connectors or wire nuts/snap-down butt connectors, but will solder wires to pads if needed (now that I know where my soldering iron is)
- 1000 to 1500 lumens, I think?
- Color temperature vaguely around 3000–3500K -- not too glaringly blue for evening use
- High CRI would be nice for being able to evaluate food and ingredient colors properly (would pay a bit extra)
- Dimmable would be nice -- again, would be nice for evening use
- 80+ lumens/watt, ideally 100+ lm/W
- Adhesive mounting preferred, since we rent (does not need to come with adhesive; I can apply something removable)
- Maybe resistant to moisture; we don't currently own an electric kettle or a rice cooker, but I've previously seen the undercabinet lighting subjected to a prolonged steaming from such appliances.
- I'd very much prefer to avoid Amazon, and will pay up to 20% more to avoid it. (For several reasons, including their monopsony status, their treatment of workers, and the high rate of fraudulent sellers.)

Here's what I'm considering so far:

- Ribbon Star 2835 (3 meter roll for $40): LED strip, CRI 90+, 2900-3200K, 1500 lumens and 14.4 W total (105 lm/W), PWM dimmable. I'd have to solder jumper wires from segment to segment or buy connectors. No water resistance.
- Hardwired PWM dimmer with clamps and higher max watts or inline PWM dimmer with barrel connectors and 24 W rating, both $10
- ES4 4-chip Modules (20 modules for $50): 8.4 ft of modules, unknown CRI, 3000–3500K, 1600 lumens and 19.2 W total (83 lm/W), PWM dimmable. IP65 water resistance.
- I guess some kinda 12 VDC power supply!

Anything else I should be looking at? Other sites, other products? How much should I worry about water resistance?

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Advice on LED undercabinet lighting?