Thread: Basic safe lighting and dehumidifying project

So here's the rough plan. In part posting to inspire others, but also hoping someone with more sparky knowledge than I will catch any problems with it before I put it all together

The plan is to wire a safe for light and reduce humidity. Would leave a 12v incandescent bulb running 24/7 in the bottom to raise the box internal temp to reduce humidity/tools rusting, and have the LED lighting kick on when the door is opened so I don't have to wear a head torch to see what's going on in there.

Have a roll of 12v LED strip lighting (3528 SMD LED, 4.8W/m) and am thinking of setting it up using a 12V 6A (72W) laptop power supply to power a small 12 volt (<33W) incandescent bulb (keep humidity in the toolbox down) and a bunch of LED strips (5m total (24W), with 14x 0.25m strips and 2x 0.75m strips wired in parallel) behind a micro switch or PIR to turn the lights on when the door opens and off when it's closed.

My thinking so far:

1) Power supply is 12V 6A = 72W. At 80% use to keep the power supply from overheating and dieing that's 57.6W

2) LED Strip lights are 4.8W/m x 5m = 24W

3) 57.6W - 24W = 33.6W maximum available for the incandescent bulb.


- Happy to change design, but still need to achieve the same end goals, preferably without spending a ton of money.
- I do want to make sure that I'm not overloading my power supply and it's safe to leave running 24/7.

Any input, comments, or modifications?