Switch Board LED Lights: Dome, Diffused, Scenery and Foot

What a switch board LED light is

A modular LED light is a small light built as a switch board module: it clips into the same plate frame as your switches and sockets, takes up 2 or 4 module spaces, and glows from the face of the board. It is not meant to light a room. It marks a switch board in the dark, gives a soft glow by the bed, lights the floor of a passage or staircase, or adds a decorative picture panel to a living room board.

We make five kinds across our KEMPS and VIZA modular ranges: the dome light, the diffused light, the scenery light, the night lamp and the foot light, from ₹272 to ₹485 MRP. This page explains what each one does, which series and colour each comes in, how much board space it takes, and the one wiring point people miss: an LED module needs a neutral at the board.

Two of them have pages of their own. Our night lamp guide covers bedside and all-night use, and our foot light guide covers stairs, mounting height and wiring in detail, so here we keep to choosing between the five.

The five kinds and what each does

• Dome light, 2M: a small domed lens that glows, in every colour on the VIZA white range. Marks the board in the dark; a gentle glow in a child’s room.
• Diffused light, 2M: a flat, square frosted face that spreads a soft, even light. A board-side light in a bedroom or passage.
• Scenery light, 2M or 4M: a lit picture panel showing a landscape scene. Decorative, for a living room or a hotel room board.
• Night lamp, 2M: a round lens for a low, all-night glow by the bed; the KEMPS version has three LEDs.
• Foot light, 4M: a louvred face that throws light down onto the floor, for stairs and passages. See our foot light guide.

For the night lamp’s running cost and the zero-watt bulb it replaces, see our night lamp guide. For the soft square diffused light, our diffuse light page has photos.

“Every colour” in our catalogue means the light is made in a choice of glow colours rather than white only: the VIZA dome V414 and the foot lights V412 and V1314 are listed that way. A coloured glow suits a child’s room or a decorative board; a white or warm glow suits a bedside, where a strong colour can feel odd at night. Ask your dealer which colours are in stock when you order, and keep one colour per room so the boards match.

Our range by series and MRP

Each light belongs to a modular series, and it should match the rest of the board. Printed MRPs:

Which series: KEMPS, VIZA white or VIZA black

A module fits the plates of its own series, so start from the plates on your walls:

• VIZA white series: the widest choice. Dome V414: ₹272 in every colour, night lamp V406, scenery V408, and two 4M foot lights, V412 in every colour and the Royal V411.
• VIZA matt black and S. grey: night lamp V1306, diffused V1307, dome V1308, a 4M scenery down light V1312 and a 4M foot light V1314 in every colour.
• KEMPS: the 2M night lamp with three LEDs, K216 white: ₹280 or K616 grey: ₹315.

If your boards are KEMPS and you want a dome or foot light, that is a reason to talk to your electrician before the plates go up: the light you want decides the series. Our KEMPS vs VIZA vs VIYONA guide compares the series, and the VIZA gallery shows the plates.

Board space: 2M or 4M

Every light takes module spaces on the plate, the same as a socket. The dome, diffused, scenery and night lamp lights are 2M; the foot lights and the black-series scenery down light are 4M.

A 2M dome light on an 8M board, and the wiring behind it

Drawn by us, not to scale. Check the terminal markings on the module itself before connecting.

So a board that would have been 6M becomes 8M with a 2M light added, and the concealed box behind it must be 8M too. A foot light usually sits on its own 4M plate low on the wall. Decide the lights before the boxes go into the wall; our plate size calculator adds up the modules, and our 1 module and 2 module switch guide explains module counting.

The neutral: the wiring point people miss

A switch only needs the phase: it breaks the live wire on its way to the light. That is why many older switch boards have no neutral in them at all. An LED module is a load, like a lamp, so it needs both phase and neutral at its terminals.

On a new house, ask the electrician to bring a neutral into every board that will carry a light module, a USB socket or a smart switch. On an old board, check before you buy: if there is no neutral in the box, a light module cannot be fitted without pulling a new wire. Our switch board wiring diagram shows where the neutral sits in a board.

Most modules are wired through one of the switches on the same board, so the light can be turned off. A night lamp or a stair foot light can be left on its own always-live feed if you want it on all night; your electrician will decide which suits the circuit.

Where each light belongs

• Bedside board: a night lamp or diffused light, low and soft enough to sleep by.
• Main bedroom board: a dome light so the board can be found in the dark.
• Kids’ room: a coloured dome light as a gentle all-night glow.
• Staircase and passage: a 4M foot light at low height; see the foot light guide for heights.
• Living room: a scenery light on a large board as decoration.
• Hotel rooms: our VIZA catalogue lists the foot and dome lights under its hotel heading; see our key tag switch guide for the room switch.
• Pooja corner: a small glow on the board beside the mandir; see pooja room lighting.

Power use

Our catalogue does not print the wattage of these modules, so we do not quote a figure here. They are low-power LED lights meant to glow, not to light a room.

To estimate units once you know a module’s wattage from its carton, use watts × hours × 30 ÷ 1,000. As an example of the scale, our 0.5W LED night lamp left on 10 hours a night uses about 0.15 units a month; a module of 1W on the same hours would use 0.3 units. Our night lamp guide works these sums against the old zero-watt bulb.

Mistakes to avoid

• No neutral in the box: the most common reason a light module cannot be fitted.
• Forgetting the extra modules: a 6M board plus a 2M light needs an 8M box and plate.
• Wrong series: a VIZA module will not sit right in a KEMPS plate.
• Expecting room light: these glow; they do not replace a lamp or tube.
• Foot light too high: it lights the floor best when low on the wall.

When a module stops glowing, switch off the MCB before taking the plate off; our plate removal guide shows how.

Price on a board, and box quantities

A light module adds ₹272 to ₹485 to a board, plus the cost of the extra plate size. Our switch board price guide prices complete boards, so you can add the light to the board you are planning.

In a typical flat the lights are few: a dome on the main bedroom board, a night lamp on each bedside board, and a foot light on the staircase if there is one. That is three to five modules for a whole home, so they add little to the total electrical bill of materials while making every board easy to find at night.

Box quantities for dealers: most of these lights are packed 10 per box; the VIZA black-series 4M lights V1312 and V1314: 5 per box. We sell in full boxes only. The KEMPS night lamp comes as K216 white or K616 grey, ordered by code.

Where we supply

Everything on this page is made at our works in Marol, Andheri East and sold through dealers and distributors across Maharashtra and in many other states. See where we supply in Maharashtra and how we supply other states in India. Orders placed through our office are delivered all over India, in full boxes only. For a quotation, or the name of a dealer near you, contact our office.