New phase in lighting, cont

Here is the next installment of the LED lighting project.

This picture shows how all LED strips are being connected.

To remind you: I had a 5 meter-long LED strip (from ebay) that had to be cut to measure and then reconnected with wire that could go in notches between rooms. I had bought snap connectors, but my son-in-law thought they weren't neat enough so he soldered every connection! And he wasn't at all impressed that I had a soldering iron, as if it's something any household would own.

After we finished the basement, we led out the wire through the right top corner on the outside. Then P prepared the three connected strips: two with three strips for three rooms and one with four strips for four rooms on top floor.

 

Meanwhile I drilled holes, made notches and did other menial work. All the time we checked that the whole assembly worked.


Once we were sure that everything worked, we started attaching the strips to L-shaped plastic mouldings which we then glued on the edges of each ceiling and supported with masking tape. In this picture, two floors are finished and top floor still waiting. As you can see, the rooms are in complete chaos.

There were lots of small unexpected problems, but we dealt with all of them. The connecting wires between floors go on the outside, and after some thinking we decided to hide them within drain pipes:

These are of course drinking straws, and they will run all the way, and nobody will ever guess that they weren't part of the original design.

Yesterday evening we switched on the lights in the three floors and basement.

We saw that the light was good. We opened the fronts.

Then we went to bed, not sure that we would have time to do the attic. I hadn't even planned to do the attic because I didn't think the LED strip would be enough. But because of the wires between the cut strips, the 5 meters turned out to be just enough for the attic.

With the roof open:



As you see, the tape is still there, and there is A LOT of trimming to do, filling and painting seams and notches. But on the whole, we saw that the light was good.

Just two rooms where I've had the time to tidy up a bit. Servant room in the attic:

 

 And finally, warmest season's greetings from the reception room: