I’ve been talking to the electrian doing the work in our kitchen. Seems it time for me to start thinking about under counter lighting. We really do not want anything too fancy or exotic. Fluorescent lighting is fine.
I have not looked beyond HD yet, but from what I see their “premium” linkable fluorescent lighting does not allow for hardwire, but instead has a plug to go into a receptical
Any suggestions and/or best practices that anyone can share?
This 654-sq.-ft. ADU combines vaulted ceilings, reclaimed materials, and efficient design, offering a flexible guest suite and home office above a new garage.
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Replies
Tark,
I prefer the hardwired units myself, My sparky uses the type w/ a 3-position rocker switch (nite lite, off, lite) this allows you to turn on only the ones you need as you need them, I find these much more functional than switching multiple fixtures from a single pole wall switch. The brand name escapes me now, I'll see if I can find it and post back, though that style should be readily available at any supply house.
Geoff
I would be very interested in what brand you have used. Many thanks to everyone else that also posted.Tark
Do you mean under cabinet or under counter?
I can remember a bar in St. Louis that had light colored marble counters with lights mounted underneath. Made the marble glow. Neat effect.
jt8
"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep." -- Dale Carnegie
Tark,
For a nice looking under-cabinet fluorescent lighting, I chose the Pegasus Microfluorescent T4 Light Fixtures. They are reasonably priced and look nice under a cabinet if you happen to look underneath. However, they are 1-3/8 inch tall which means that to effectively conceal them, you'll want an extra 3/4 inch more depth under your cabinet or a total depth of at least 2-1/8 inch.
I really wanted something under an inch, but didn't like the look of the flat box lights. Any of the LEDs that I wanted were 4X the cost of the fluorescents! You'll also want to make sure the light temperature (Kelvin) is the color you want for undercabinet lighting.
Pegasus has a plethora of good ideas and products..it's one of my favorite lighting sites.
.
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., wer ist jetzt der Idiot ?
Rockler - Slimlite Flouresent Lights - kind of pricey but my wife loves them.
There are more options than they have at HD -- browse the web a bit.
Though the old-fashioned halogen puck lights are a PITA (transformer is hard to hide and fails often, pucks won't stay in place, light too concentrated, et al), some of the newer xenon lights are much nicer. Eg:
http://electricalsupplies4less.stores.yahoo.net/juup142proxe.html
(Though I'm not recommending that particular brand or supplier.)
Whatever you use, though, don't "build it in" to too high a degree. The lifetime of the best small fixtures of this sort is about 10 years, so they need to be accessed for replacement, and often you can't find an exact match so some flexibility in mounting possibilities is needed to accommodate a slightly different replacement.
HEY!!!!
That's way too much info for only the 6th post!!
Where's the inane banter?If you didn't have time to do it right the first time, how come you've got time to do it over again?
I was just making light of the situation.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
yep, that'll work.
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"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." -Thoreau
Make sure you buy "warm white" bulbs. Even then some warm white are not as warm as others. Will have to try a couple. You will hate any other color... Makes stuff(food) look like s....
Bud
Note that the way to understand fluorescent color is "color temperature" and "color rendering index" (CRI). A higher color temp is actually cooler/bluer, while lower is "warmer". CRI is on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the best.A "cool-white" fluorescent lamp will have a color temp of 4000 or so and a CRI of maybe 65. A better choice for a kitchen would be a warmer bulb with a color temp around 3500 and a CRI above 80.Unfortunately, relatively few fluorescent lamps are actually labeled/advertised with this info, and it's often not readily available from the manufacturer.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Actually most bulbs and shelve labels have that informatiion on it for the last few years.At least for the common 2,4,8 ft T8's and T12's.Have not looked at the small bulbs in the undercounter lights.But most of them come as a package.However, for under counter lighting it is just suplimental and unless you work most of the time with the main lights off the color of the undercabinet lights won't have that much affect on the looks..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
When I've checked I've only seen the info on maybe 1/3 of replacement lamps. Most large fixtures don't include lamps, of course, but I don't recall seeing the info on any smaller ones that do.What you'll find, eg, is that the info is on the basic "cool white" lamp package, but then the "warm white" package doesn't list it. So you have the info on the lamps you already know you don't want to buy, but not on the ones you'd consider.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
The T-5 florescent lights are just about an 1" thick. The units are sized, if I remember correctly, at 13", 22", and 34" to fit under the most common sized upper cabinets.
First order of business - how glossy are your countertops? If they are polished granite or similar you'll be seeing the source - literally. Better here to use a lensed or 'frosted' type of lighting to avoid glare.
www. pegausassociates.com - terrific service and explanations for everything.
Jeff
I checked out the Pegasus website and of course they have what I needed. When I went back to HD to return what I had purchased, I found the conversion kit (actually a junction box with the appropriate connections that allows the lights I purchased to be direct connected, rather then plugged in. I guess I missed seeing this conversion kit last nightI really like the lights that I have purchased, as they are very thin (1") and have the frosted lenses that will make then work in my application.That said, I'll be check back at the Pegasus website for other things.Thanks again,Tark
Great - what did you buy?Jeff
I purchased the florecent lighting from HD. They are made by GE and listed as the "premium" offering available from HD. 1 inch thick, linkable (up to 10 lights) and now that I purchased their direct wire kit, I'm all ready to go. Shared it with the electrician last night and he's all thumbs up too.When we finish the kitchen and bathroom I'll have to share some pictures. It will come out really nice. The tile in the bathroom is almost finished and the kitchen cabinets will be here in mid-August, so things should really be coming together nicely by Labor Day. I have a day-job, so of course things go a bit more slowly, but at least we're going in the right direction.
I put in some 12" black slate for black splash for a customer. They loved it. Then they wanted better lighting under the counter. I purchased some of the new Xenon fixtures online. Put them in. They loved them. I wished I'd done a better job on the slate or a bad job on the lights :)
i've never seen anyone do this but me ...
first time...i mounted the wall cabs on 2x4 nailers that were recessed up about 2.5" from the bottom of the cab... found some slim line fixtures that fit in that 1.5" space.. and was able to fit them end to end so there were no dark spots... worked out well... i did paint inside the recess before mounting the fixures...
now just for effect and it makes it really simple to hang wall cabs... i use a 1x and a 3/4" - 1" recess and use rope lights ... on my new places i'm going to try some LED rope light the same way... fast simple & cheap...
p
ponytl, I like your idea, lots of advantages. All the lighting work can be done before the cabinets are hung. Also, I'm planning to go with 28-30" c'tops, so extended tops work great.The last kitchen I used seagull xenons, which we loved, but wiring was a pain, esp. since I "coastlined" all the cabinets, up and down, in and out, and put the xfmrs in the bsmt. I had to "snake" that #10ga stranded wire thru the cabinets. The downside to fluorescents are not dimmable and color issues.Couple questions. Did you find your way "washed" the wall with light rather than light up the c'top? How did you cover the ends?
I fail to understand the complexities you guys are fighting with.
I use these and love them. I firmly believe these are the best for undercab applications. There was a FHB article a coupla of years ago about them.
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/XenonLightStrip.jsp#MountingChannel2
Pete, no one is fighting here. Only sharing ideas.Thanks for the Pegasus link. Those are very similar to the Seagull zenons I have used before, until my supplier closed down. Do you mail order those?
The ones I used in the past came from the supply house. I understand their display is down.
I'll go online for the next room.
Something that has been mentioned a couple of times is color temperature. In my last two houses I've used halogen lighting to good effect. The warm pools of light really make the kitchen counter area pop. So much so, that they tend to be left on, even when the rest of the lights are turned off, because they make the kitchen seem like a welcoming place. In the house before that, we used florescents, and those tended to get turned off with the rest of the lights - just not the same effect.
I've been looking at LED's recently, but their light seems harsh - "unreal" somehow. I'm pretty sure that I don't like them for any application.Something that I don't remember seeing is the longevity of the individual bulbs. In the house before this one, the halogens were hardwired-transformer driven, controlled by a slide-type dimmer switch by the main light switches. The bulbs in those fixtures never seemed to burn out.However, in the current house, I have temporarily installed puck lighting (halogen) under the cabinets whose transformer just plugs into a wall socket - no dimmer. It seems that I'm always replacing one of these bulbs. This leads me to think that even a little dimming may cause the bulbs to last a much longer time.
it did wash the walls but the added light did help on the counter top...
as for the ends ... so far i've never had to deal with it... the cabs have always run into something... refrig... wall... stove nook ect.... i'd think if you had to finish the end of a cabinet it'd be the same just a bit bigger...
it was by chance that i did this the first time... very bad wave in the wall... was easier to shim the sleepers to run true... then i had to hide the bottom sleeper... which was a 2x4... just ran it higher than the bottom of the wall cab... figured it'd just add a shadow line... then it looked like a great place to run under cab lights...
since then i've done it "by design" vs " i need to fix a bad wall"
good luck
p
I'm going to have to remember that idea!
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Surely you mean undercanbinetlighting. Right?
What sort of countertop do you plan to use? A high gloss will make some lighting there very unccomfortable as it will reflect back into your eyes.
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