Easy "factory" under sink light

[Denny and Angie Miller]

My wife lost something behind a drawer in our center island in our 2017 HC 353RL, so after (finally) figuring out how to remove the drawers to retrieve her item, I stumbled across a great place to get power for a light...the 12VDC connection to the propane detector!

[Denny and Angie Miller]

I am picky about how things are done, and I found the same motion sensitive lights that are used elsewhere in our rig on amazon. This is what will be installed under the sink...happy wife, happy life!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

If the link wont work, copy and paste or search amazon for "Dream Lighting 12V DC LED Pancake Light for RV "
Be sure to choose the motion sensitive one...

I also installed 2 of these in the garage area, and have plans to add 1 in the basement. I will also be installing these under each shelf in the pantry, but that is a bigger project and I will post those pictures in another thread.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Propane detector removed with new wire ran through the hole...

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Ready to solder, then heat shrink a new pig tail for the propane detector while connecting the new wire to the 12VDC supply...an old cookie sheet is used to prevent an molten solder from accidentally ruining the floor should any drip while soldering

[Denny and Angie Miller]

All connections finished, ready to reinstall the detector and move to the other side of the island...I taped the wire nuts after this pic was taken

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Propane detector is reinstalled, with the new wire ran up the left side....

[Denny and Angie Miller]

....and up and over the partition, utilizing other wiring and the sink clamps as cable restraints. This pic is looking up at the underside of the counter.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Mounting holes and hole for the wire to pass through have been drilled. Using the draw slide as a sort of guide to ensure both mounting holes where level. I chose to use 10-32 machine screws with nylock nuts on the back as this flimsy paneling would be all a wood screw would have to grab onto...not very secure.
Drilling from this side allowed me to mount the light higher, giving more light and keeping it up out of the way.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Light has been mounted under the sink and wire connections made

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Light connections finished, and held out of harms way by a cable clamp. Using 1" long screws allowed enough extra to locate the cable clamp without drilling any new holes.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Finished! Now the light comes on automagically when the under sink doors are opened and the light senses movement, then turns itself off after the doors are closed.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Look what else I found under the drawers...another hole to seal up! I used great stuff expanding foam to fill this hole...luckily I had other holes to do at the same time...I wanted to get this done while the drawers where removed...it would be a waste to open a can of foam to seal just this one hole.

[mjammersc]

Looks good. We tapped into the same power source for LED lights we wrapped the island with and while I was at it, I put a strip across the inside back wall of the island cabinet so we have it well lit when needed. We tied it all via a double switch mounted on the island.

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Great idea!

[jeff_banning]

This should have been an obvious solution to adding LED's around the island, we all know the propane detector is 12V but until you showed this the "light" did not come on in my head. Great idea.

[Lenny K]

Two thumbs up for this mod.

[DQDick]

Great job! Thanks for the ideas.

[Rondo]

Some great ideas here and looks like I'll have to do a few more mods. I like the idea of the light under the sink and also the ideas of using LED strip lighting both under the sink and around the island and running it all off the propane detector power. I also have two outlets on the island ends so may tap off of those too.

[PackerFan]

I wanted to do this light thing under the sink too but couldn't figure out a 12 volt power source. Brilliant idea using the propane detector power, that didn't even dawn on me. Thanks!!

[Denny and Angie Miller]

Originally Posted by mjammersc

Looks good. We tapped into the same power source for LED lights we wrapped the island with and while I was at it, I put a strip across the inside back wall of the island cabinet so we have it well lit when needed. We tied it all via a double switch mounted on the island.

Do you have any pics of your led install? I have some ideas, but i like to see what others have done before starting a project like this. Someone always has a better mousetrap! Also, did you run into anything unexpected during your install?