Solution for indirect lighting from top of bookcase
Hey all. I have a room that's currently lit (during the night) by two light fixtures attached to the same wall and on the same switch. Each fixture has two LED lights with a 2700K or 2800K color temperature (don't remember exactly), 230lm brightness, 3.9W power consumption, for presumably a theoretical total of 920lm and 15.6W. These bulbs are angled some 45 degrees forward aimed at the (white) ceiling in order to reflect diffuse light for the rest of the room.
I'm going to add two tall bookcases to that wall which are going to cover where the lights currently are, so I need to figure out another solution for lighting. I don't want to damage the ceiling. Currently, my idea is to extend the wiring from the walls up behind the bookcases and place lights at the top of the bookcases, similarly angled forward so they reflect off the ceiling closer to the middle of the room.
But I'm not finding appropriate fixtures, devices or anything else that I can place on a horizontal surface in order to angle a directed diffuse light forward. The closest I have right now would be something like these outdoor waterproof floodlights.
They have a number of problems, though, chief of all the temperature being 3000K (that's the lowest available; you can get them a lot colder). For some reason, no one seems to be making 2700K/2800K versions of these. I'm afraid if I buy these, the light in this room will be noticeably different from the rest of the house. They are also very bright at 1000lm each (these are the darkest available; they make them even brighter) for a total 2000lm, more than twice the current brightness. I'm afraid if I sit in a room lit by these, it will affect the quality of my sleep.
Does anyone have any ideas that might yield something closer to what I currently have, but which can be placed atop the bookcases and directed forward and up, as desired? It's also important that replacements don't require waiting for a 6 week cargo ship voyage from somewhere in China, that the power consumption isn't significantly higher, and that there won't be some huge monstrous device on the bookcase visible from the ground.
I just finished a project putting under-cabinet lights in my kitchen, and I think you could follow a similar approach.
because I wanted wet rated, UL listed drivers and had several shorter strips to power in different parts of the kitchen (so one driver for each bank), but you might want a single higher wattage driver to power everything. You want to make sure you get something that can provide enough current for the strip you want to use. I noticed when I connected the whole LED reel to these drivers there was an awful flicker because the LED driver was over-driven. That went away with the shorter lengths and my kitchen looks great.
These are useful for the AC side and the DC side too if you are not comfortable soldering.
Just make sure anything using mains voltage is inside a junction box or whatever your local codes require.
Interestingly, I have something like that in my kitchen, installed before I moved in. Most of it stopped working very quickly and I'm not quite sure why. I think the power supply here is too unstable and spikes may have burned things out (all my networking equipment, TV, VR and PC is behind surge protection, and the bits with UPS do beep at random times). I should probably buy replacement parts for all of that at some point and try to figure out a way to rig it with surge protection too.
You may want to look at whole house surge protection. I don't know much about the details, but I believe they can put it in at the breakers now.
Yep, they're installed directly in (or beside) the breaker box. (E.g.)
We had an electrician install a whole-house surge protector for us a few years ago due to frequent power outages, which often have accompanying surges beforehand. And if you're having issues with random things shorting out around the house, I would definitely recommend looking into getting one installed in your house too, @Protected. They're relatively inexpensive ($100-200 + labor).
p.s. Even though I'm sure the whole-house protector is more than enough, I'm paranoid when it comes to that sort of thing, so we still have all our electronics hooked up to surge-protected powerbars, and my PC has a dedicated UPS as well... but the added peace of mind is nice. :P
Be aware that these floodlights usually flicker. It's not directly visible in any way, but when you for example move your hand quickly in front of them, you can see the strobe effect. And some people find this kind of light quite tiring. 3000K is not a big problem imo, the difference is not big and it's still going to be quite yellow, but I'd personally avoid this type of lighting.
I'd be wary of LED light strips for this reason as well. Maybe some good quality ones exist, but there seems to be a lot less care for quality in them. You may not be sensitive to it at all, in that case it probably doesn't matter, though I've heard that some cheap LEDs have a blue spike in their spectrum (even if they're 2700K) that is not best for your eyes and may disrupt sleep.
There are some cables with multiple standard E27/E26 sockets that look basically like oversized christmas tree lights. A long cable with big normal sized bulbs. That may work, but it should probably still have some DIY stand so that the lightbulbs are standing upright on the bookcase, and not lying on the side, due to heat. They're not nearly as hot as incandescent light bulbs, so they should not damage the bookcase, but overheating can make them dimmer and shorten their lifespan.
Now, normal LED lightbulbs are generally diffuse, they don't project light in any direction, so you will lose some of the light that goes into the corner, but that may be acceptable since LEDs aren't expensive to run anyway. But this will only work if your bookshelves are tall enough or deep enough so that the bulbs standing on top aren't too visible from the room.
Thanks for all the advice! For a fully custom made solution I could use this type of holders which take the directed type of bulbs (the same in use in the current fixtures, there's a picture in that product) and wire them myself. Then maybe prop them up with some kind of wedge shaped ramp thing? 3D printed, or perhaps made of wood? I'm really bad at visualizing this stuff.
I've never used reflector bulbs, I use diffuse bulbs everywhere, but it seems like it should work as you describe. Only, depending how far away they are from the ceiling and how strong they are, they may create bright spots that are uncomfortable to look at. Probably not an issue if you already use them that way.
A wedge-shaped thing seems okay, but the fixtures would probably have to be glued to it so that they don't fall over. I usually try to make a model of something in Blender until I make it, or at least a paper drawing, that helps find the worst nonsense, but often you find problems only after you build it.
It is also possible that I just care too much about the theoretical quality of light that would not affect you in any way and just putting an LED strip there would be completely fine, cheap and easy.
If you’re handy, it seems like it shouldn’t be too hard to make a stand for the lights you have that sits on the bookcase? I’d 3D print something, or maybe build it out of Lego.
Alternatively, a couple of desk lamps that can be pointed at the ceiling might work?
What do you think a 3D printed stand for this might look like? I don't have access to a 3D printer so I'd have to figure it out first and then order it from a printing business. I see the lamp holders themselves are cheap and I can do the wiring.
We didn't find any desk lamps that wouldn't stick out on the bookcase and look ugly.
I don't actually recommend 3D printing if you don't have a 3D printer and haven't done it before because there's a learning curve; typically you have to try it, adjust, and print again. It wouldn't work very well if you have to wait days for it it be shipped.
But I did a Google search on "adjustable desk lights" and there seem to be a lot of them? Maybe there's one you can point upwards or sideways?
I have something like this for our built-ins on each side of our fireplace, and I used color-changable LED strip tape. I only really leave them on white, but you can adjust the brightness and color temperature. They're z-wave compatible as well, so I have them turn on and off automatically.
I did a similar indirect lighting installation on either side of a fireplace on the top of some tall bookshelves. I bought a pair of dimmablee 1' x 2' panel LED lights (pretty sure I used Lithonia brand) to serve as the light. They came in multiple color temperatures, so i was able to get the right tone for the room.
I've got a background as an electrician, so I bought what I needed to hard wire them into a junction box mounted on the back of each light. Those boxes also served to tilt them forward a bit. I then wired them both to a surface mount switch box I installed on the back of one bookcases with the dimmer installed.
What about something like these can style spotlights?
https://www.amazon.com/Catalina-Lighting-18775-012-Hollywood-Spotlight/dp/B074PGWGTF
Maybe not exactly these but something like this. I happen to have these exact lights and they're sitting on top of some tall shelves, angled up toward the ceiling with LED bulbs in them. They take A19 bulbs and I've set mine up with 40 watt equivalent 2700K LED bulbs. I get the indirect lighting that I prefer without having to mount anything or mess with the wiring, as these particular lights have a cord. The shelves hide the cord so it was an easy setup for me.
Spotlights like those should work nicely, especially since the wire doesn't have to be behind the base, which is a problem with lamps designed for wall mounting. Unfortunately those don't seem to be in stock in europe and I'm not quite sure how to find something similar in other languages (searching using english keywords on amazon sometimes works, but I'm not hitting anything using keywords from that one's name).
Ah sorry, I hadn't viewed your link and missed that you're in Europe. I went to the anazon.es website and typed in "spotlight" and got some similar results. Maybe a variation of that might yield some results
I was thinking the same. I'm doing something similar with my shelves, though my shelves are fully open to the front. These LED strips are old and aren't color or brightness adjustable, but like you said, modern ones definitely are.
(If the Imgur link prompts "are you over 18?" I have no clue why; I promise it's SFW).
Thanks for the photo!
Could... could it be the thumb?
Haha, I mean, it's pretty sexy right?
I guess if I put my mind into the gutter (as if it's not there most of the time)...I could see how it might resemble a certain appendage...
Thanks for the suggestion. What worries me about undirected solutions is that the light might not reach the other side of the room properly, which is where I actually sit. There is an indentation at the top of the bookcases which can be useful for partially hiding wiring and such, but if I just plop something in there the bookcase will kind of function as a flashlight aimed directly upward.