DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi there,

In the last few months I've had a new kitchen fitted and during the fit I included plinth lights under the base units, cooker and dish washer (in a 'U' shape).

The plinth lights on one side of the kitchen (affecting 4 or 5 lights) have stopped working suddenly but on the other side they are still lit.

Does anyone have any ideas as to whether this could be a simple fix, i.e. loose connection and if so if this is something the owner could resolve themselves without the need to call back the electrician?

Or alternatively suggest other potential reasons for the problem?

I appreciate without actually carrying out a visual inspection behind the kick boards we won't know but I was hoping for some pointers/suggestions.

Thank you.

Most of the LED tape type lights use a power supply so that power supply may have failed. However there are two completely different types of power supply, constant voltage and constant current they are not interchangeable.

Testing is also a problem as many of the power supplies auto shut down if there is no load so a simple multi-meter test can give misleading results.

The easy method is likely to try powering the lights from the other power supply, or a simple battery, But in the main the tape is split into sections so unless the power supply was to fail likely you would lose on section at a time.

So likely needs new power supply, likely it will be a case of reading the info on the old one and getting a new one the same.

As the kitchen is new and I assume the electrical components installed are new also.
I would first be looking for a loose connection either at the supply side of the LED driver (power supply unit) or immediately to the load side (as it has taken a number of lights out)
If the connections are sound and you can prove that a 240V supply is present at the primary/supply side (This is a two pole test not a test screwdriver/non contact stick!). Then we can establish that the driver could be fauty.

I would be contacting the installer to diagnose/fix your issue!

If you have a true driver that's a constant current device, then one LED failing will stop all working. However the lighting industry tend to call all power supplies for LED's drivers even when constant voltage. With that type a single LED failing often means 3 go out assuming 12 volt supply.

I think kbrownie is correct to say, get the fitters back.