For years I hated the overhead lights in my rental – harsh 5000K ceiling fixtures that made everything look like an office. I finally ripped them out and replaced every light source with WS2812B LED strips. Total cost: $180, 2 days of work, zero holes in walls.

What I did • 42 meters of 60 LEDs/m WS2812B (5 V, bought from AliExpress for $3.8/m) • 3 × 5 V 40 A power supplies ($22 each) hidden in closets • One ESP32 running WLED (took 3 minutes to flash) • Home Assistant integration for circadian lighting + motion triggers • Diffusers: $12 IKEA LACK shelf + transluscent acrylic from local hardware store

Surprising numbers Real power draw at full white: 180 W for the entire apartment (measured with Kill-A-Watt) That’s less than the three 60 W-equivalent bulbs I removed. Cost per year at 12 ¢/kWh: ~$30 even if I leave them on 24/7.

Biggest lesson: diffusers matter more than the LEDs. Without them it looks like a gaming PC exploded.