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Discussion Forum

Lights for kitchen ceiling

DanH | Posted in General Discussion on March 29, 2016 08:27am

Here are some shots of our kitchen ceiling —

It’s an oak grid with acrylic panels.  Above the panels are currently 3 dual-tube 40w T40 4-foot fixtures, mounted to the ceiling.  The ceiling is 7 inches above the acrylic panels and 5-7/8″ above the top edges of the wood grid.  The panels are 2 feet by 2 feet, making the overall setup about 6’3″ by 13 feet.

As can be seen, the middle fixture is not working properly, and replacing the lamps did not fix it, so presumably the fixtures are at end of life.  (They’ll be 40 years old this fall, and are on their 3rd-4th set of lamps.)

At this stage is makes little sense to replace the fixtures with new fluorescents — makes more sense from an energy and maintenace standpoint to go with LED.  The problem is, I can’t find suitable LED-ready fixtures.

I was thinking that one would be able to buy some of the rectangular area lights used for offices and the like.  Their lenses would probably spread the light a bit more evenly, but the only units we can find have a “cool” 4K-5K color temp, and we want a “warm” color closer to 3000K.  (The existing T40s are “warm” units.)

Likewise, most LED units made to be fluorecent fixture look-alikes run 4K or up.

About all I can find is to replace the existing fixtures with new fluorescent fixtures, bypass the ballasts, and install LED/fluorescent replacement tubes (which are available with a roughly 2700K color temp), but that seems kind of silly (and I’ve never liked installing those lamps in their sockets).

Another wild idea would be to install “dresser light bars” designed to hold 6 incandescent lamps (alas only 3 feet long), then screw in regular LED Edison base lamps.  This would actually be closest to the cheapest option, but I’m afraid we wouldn’t like the “hot spots” from the individual lamps (though of course the current setup is not all that great in this regard either).

Any ideas/comments?

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Replies

  1. calvin | Mar 29, 2016 09:32pm | #1

    Dan

    I did three jobs where we pulled the grid, panels and lights.  On one we used cans, another we laid LED strip lights within a dropped open crown, and last was a single bulb fluorescent strip above an angled valance  ( The last two an uplit indirect lighting ).  

    All were customer spec'd and very much liked by them.

    since switching is there, all that was left was maybe dimmers and drywall repair.  Some of the original installs had two switch legs for the single then remainder banks of fluorescents.  Find the lead wiring then abandoned the rest.  Could drill from one can to the next without tearing open the existing ceiling where we couldn't stay in a joist space.

    1. DanH | Mar 29, 2016 10:48pm | #2

      We're not going to replace the grid -- it looks good, really suits the rest of the kitchen, and, most of all, the wife really likes it.  (I installed the grid maybe 8-10 years ago, replacing the original yucky metal cross pieces and yellowing polystyrene panels.  It's all friction fit, and no trouble at all to take out to replace the fixtures.)

      The wiring likewise should not be a big deal.  If I need to relocate any cables I can run BX on the surface.

  2. finefinish | Mar 30, 2016 08:19pm | #3

    Hi Dan,

         Take a look at e-conolight.com.  They have a 40" LED under cabinet fixture that produces 917 Lumen and is 2700K.  I don't know if that's enough light to replace what you have on fluorescent.  Maybe 4 fixtures to replace the 3?  I think BigAss fans makes BigAss Lights now too.  They may have a utility LED that would be plenty bright, maybe not the right color however.   

  3. User avater
    MarkH | Mar 30, 2016 08:39pm | #4

    Buy some T8 ballasts and keep using fluorescent is my suggestion.  They are so much better and longer lasting than t40 tubes.  The old tombstones will fit the T8 tubes, and surplus etc ballasts can be obtained on eBay cheaply, or source them elsewhere if eBay isn't your thing.  I really like T8 tubes, with electronic ballasts.

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