Interior and Exterior Lighting Mods

JanandDave

Hi Folks,

Here's a little mod that sort of snowballed into something more. I wanted to be able to dim the exterior porch light, so I ordered this switch from Amazon.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B081FC5BGH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Installed it here and it works great. One touch on/off. Hold to dim or brighten.



Of course, now I had an unused switch in the original double one below. Can't have that, so I made up a one-meter under cabinet LED strip light fixture and installed it up in the passenger side valence.



Works great wether the curtains are open or shut and adds some nice indirect lighting to the interior.

But, there was another window on the driver's side feeling left out in the dark. No way to get wiring from the switch to the other side of the T@B. Thought about using the air conditioner vent fan switch since we never use it, but came up with a different idea. Back to Amazon to get this...

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UC144M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Removed the vent fan switch and enlarged the hole to install the new double one. Made up another light strip and installed it in the driver's side valence to get this.






All the wiring is hidden, and since the switches were of various colors, I just painted them in oil-rubbed bronze to match the other hardware.

Really like all the extra available light. Hope we get to use it this summer. 

Bayliss

Nice work @JanandDave!

sqrpeg

Great job, @JanandDave! For the driver's-side light strip, can you describe how you routed the wiring from the switch to the valence?  Did you have to pull the A/C?

JanandDave

Thanks all for the kind words.

@sqrpeg Happily I did not have to remove the A/C. Initially I just removed the plumbing access panel thinking that would allow access to the void in the shower wall. No such luck, as there is some perimeter blocking behind that panel. The pic below shows the hole into the shower wall. I had several feet of wire lead from the LED fixture to work with. Between the slightly enlarged hole for the double switch and removing the Alde control panel, I was able to find the wire after fishing it into the wall from the valence area. Just DON'T DRILL UP!!! That's the A/C drip pan. Spliced into the A/C fan switch wiring for power and ground.

sqrpeg

Got it, thanks! I was hoping that's how you did it, but on ours I couldn't tell if the right-hand side of the framing around the shower plumbing went further up inside the wall. I'm not (currently) planning on using a 2-gang switch - so I won't have a larger hole to work with - but hopefully I can still fish it through.