# LED Cove Lighting



## Walnuts240 (Nov 16, 2014)

I have a customer that wants to add some lighting to the top side of some exposed beams. She has a T8 strip light up there but wants something dimmable and nicer looking. I am looking into the 2700K WAC lighting LED strip. I also noticed Lightolier and Cooper make a low profile cove fixture. Unfortunately they seem to come in 1 foot sections and I will be doing about 32 feet worth of beams. I think the price would get out of hand pretty quickly. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am leaning towards giving the LED trips a shot unless there is a good dimmable 2700k alternative. Thanks.


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## dielectricunion (Nov 29, 2012)

I'm looking forward to some opinions on this too. I haven't done any cove lights at work yet, but I'm planning some in my own house when I get to it.


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

No way I'd put strips up there. Way too much work. Ribbon all the way. make sure you buy top quality. There's alot of cheap junk out there.


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## gmihok (Apr 29, 2013)

*LED tape*

Check out http://nslusa.com/


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## Walnuts240 (Nov 16, 2014)

I'm looking into the NSL lights. Leaning towards the the eStrips. There will be 4 separate lighting sections so I will need to provide each one with a driver. I'm lloking at about $1300 in materials. Then there are of course the cheap Chinese made 120v rope lights that don't need a driver for a third of the price. I am really trying to avoid something like that. Right now leaning towards NSL or WAC. Does anyone know of any other decent companies? I found one from Maxlite, never heard of them though.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

If Mcclary's ''ribbon'' is the led lights built into a strip that comes packaged looking like an old reel of 8 millimeter film, with sticky back tape, then I second his suggestion. I did an alcove fluorescent strip replacement job that was around 500 feet in total length and it worked out way brighter than the strip fluorescents that were there to begin with, plus it all worked fine using ordinary lutron dimmers, and the total amps dropped by 40 when everything was turned on at the same time. Terrific stuff.


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## Walnuts240 (Nov 16, 2014)

macmikeman said:


> If Mcclary's ''ribbon'' is the led lights built into a strip that comes packaged looking like an old reel of 8 millimeter film, with sticky back tape, then I second his suggestion. I did an alcove fluorescent strip replacement job that was around 500 feet in total length and it worked out way brighter than the strip fluorescents that were there to begin with, plus it all worked fine using ordinary lutron dimmers, and the total amps dropped by 40 when everything was turned on at the same time. Terrific stuff.


Sounds like the WAC ones I've been looking at. Do you remember what brand you used?


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

mcclary's electrical said:


> No way I'd put strips up there. Way too much work. Ribbon all the way. make sure you buy top quality. There's alot of cheap junk out there.


You can't over emphasize that. Things may "look" the same and appear to work good and still fail measured tests. Production yield is not 100% and LEDs are "binned" like computer processors. I seriously doubt functional factory seconds get tossed in the trash. 

http://www.tradeshowproducts.com/article.php?aId=21

Imagine the embarrassment for Philips (just using as an example) if a randomly purchased product was to fail an audit instead of just a labeling hiccup. If you bring in some crap from China and slap your name on it, your brand takes the slap if it performs sub-par. 
*Remember, acceptable(within brochure specs) quality LEDs are expensive. *

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2009/09/philips-makes-its-own-lighting-facts-labels.html




macmikeman said:


> If Mcclary's ''ribbon'' is the led lights built into a strip that comes packaged looking like an old reel of 8 millimeter film, with sticky back tape, then I second his suggestion.





> Terrific stuff.


I take reviews on LEDs with a grain of salt. Reviews on LED products within a month of install weighs about half as much as reviews on a case of brand name spent F32T8/835 lamps you found next to the dumpster. Many of them will be indistinguishably bright as brand new lamps since the lumen loss is under 10%. A good 70-80% of them will light up if they were from a well scheduled re-lamp. Your dead-on-arrival lamps will be less if you test every lamp and pick out the 20-30% that are actually burned out. 

You can't expect the entire box of them to last as long as a box of new lamps. Making them work as well as brand new lamps for a month is most probable.

LEDs conceal inadequate performance better, because they can fade without completing failing.


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## 3DDesign (Oct 25, 2014)

LED Rope light


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

3DDesign said:


> LED Rope light


Home Depot. At least they take it back for 90 days.


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## 3DDesign (Oct 25, 2014)

Electric_Light said:


> Home Depot. At least they take it back for 90 days.


From what I've seen, Home Depot LED rope can't be cut to specific lengths like every 2 ft. They sell rope that can't be cut.


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## aktrapper (May 28, 2013)

Good quality rope light will be 1-3$ a foot. I put some quality USA made stuff we ordered off the internet atleast 6 years ago, under a outside parking railing in rainy cold southeast alaska. It is on a pvc cell and has worked all this time flawlessly. We always used heat shrink due to moisture issues and yes its on a gci circuit. And it can be cut in 12" increments.


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## Texas_LED_Guru (Mar 1, 2013)

CabLED makes the best strip lights IMO.

The problem is they aren't widely sold or marketed. Home Depot carries them, but only in one color (3500K) & its not their double density light strip. Its also a very small run of 8 feet.

For their higher lumens (over 80 lumens per ft.) & longer spools (50 ft.) you'll want to contact them directly.

Chips are of very high quality (Cree) & the connections inside the tape are solder less. This stuff is bullet proof...you could literally run over it or bend it to smithereens & not harm the circuit board inside.

http://www.cabledlighting.com/


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