We decorate the interior of the room with illumination of the plinth with EL wire
A slight illumination of the skirting board in the office makes working in the evenings more comfortable. Thanks to the backlight, you will save a lot of energy by not turning on the lights in the room. That is why you can find on sale a plinth with a groove for installing an LED strip.
Such savings are nothing more than a marketing ploy by the manufacturer. The fact is that a 120 LED strip is installed inside the factory backlit skirting board. The energy consumption for the operation of 1 m of such a tape is about 10 watts.
Disadvantages of LED strip skirting boards
If the perimeter of the room is 13 m, then the energy consumption will be 130 watts. This is 10 watts more than the power consumption of two LED lamps. From this it follows that the backlighting of the skirting board will be too bright. It will not be comfortable to work in an office with such illumination.
In addition, due to such backlight even a small speck will be visible on the floor. You will often have to clean the room. The disadvantages of skirting boards with LED strip are:
- high power consumption;
- too bright backlight;
- uneven illumination at the joints when the number of diodes is halved.
In order to adjust the brightness of the backlighting of the plinth, it is necessary to install a controller and a dimer, which will entail additional money and energy costs. In addition, additional equipment will need to be built into the wall.
Fluorescent wire for backlight
An alternative to the skirting board with LED strip can be a fluorescent wire. It uses a lot less power than an LED strip. This will make the backlight less bright.
The advantage of EL wire is its ease of installation. In order to install it, you do not need to disassemble the skirting board.
The disadvantages of EL wires include a shorter service life than LED strip. In order for the wire to last longer, it is necessary to install a motion sensor at the entrance to the office.
Installing EL wire
In order to install the EL wire, it is pulled under the skirting board and connected to the mains. Then the "plus" and "minus" wires are connected to the motion sensor, which is installed at the doorway. Thus, power will be supplied to the EL wire through the motion sensor, which is powered by an internal battery.
For a snug fit of the luminescent wire to the baseboard, you need to fix it with a glue gun.