Home has a crawlspace that is about 100' x 40'. Bottom of floor joists are 3' above concrete crawlspace floor (foundation). Crawl space is "closed", i.e., it doesn't have any vents to the outside, the exterior walls of it are insulated, and it has a dedicated dehumidifier. In other words, it is part of the building envelope. All floor joists go in the same direction. There are quite a few pony walls supporting the floor joists, that kind of make "paths" to get to different areas. Think of the pony walls as short, "open", load bearing walls, i.e., they are 2x6's, one treated bottom plate, two top plates, and "studs" are 16" OC.
Trying to decide how to light the crawl space. Rather than putting light fixtures in various places in the crawl space, I am wondering if LED strip lights would be a good solution. I could attach them to the sides of the pony wall top plates so they wouldn't be in the way and less likely to be damaged. At about $2/foot, I don't think it would be terribly expensive. I don't have to deal with line voltages, except to the transformer(s).
One more thing... the pony walls pretty much all run in the same direction, perpendicular to the floor joists. Distance between pony walls vary between 5' and 10'. I need the strips (or whatever I end up using) to provide general lighting (and it doesn't have to be "daylight bright) to get around the crawl space. Additional lighting can be used when working on something in the crawl space, e.g., the dehumidifier.
What I don't know (I've never used them) is how many feet I would need, how much coverage/brightness a strip of a given length, e.g., a 5' strip, would provide, etc. Most of the youtube videros show them as being dim accent lighting under a cabinet, around the back of a TV, etc. I can buy some to experiment with, but I'm curious if any of you have tried to light up a large area with LED strips. Comments?
Trying to decide how to light the crawl space. Rather than putting light fixtures in various places in the crawl space, I am wondering if LED strip lights would be a good solution. I could attach them to the sides of the pony wall top plates so they wouldn't be in the way and less likely to be damaged. At about $2/foot, I don't think it would be terribly expensive. I don't have to deal with line voltages, except to the transformer(s).
One more thing... the pony walls pretty much all run in the same direction, perpendicular to the floor joists. Distance between pony walls vary between 5' and 10'. I need the strips (or whatever I end up using) to provide general lighting (and it doesn't have to be "daylight bright) to get around the crawl space. Additional lighting can be used when working on something in the crawl space, e.g., the dehumidifier.
What I don't know (I've never used them) is how many feet I would need, how much coverage/brightness a strip of a given length, e.g., a 5' strip, would provide, etc. Most of the youtube videros show them as being dim accent lighting under a cabinet, around the back of a TV, etc. I can buy some to experiment with, but I'm curious if any of you have tried to light up a large area with LED strips. Comments?
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