Under Cabinet Lighting

steveprichard

I need some "bright" under cabinet lighting for a dark kitchen. Any suggestions or brand names would be appreciated. The brighter the better.

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Steve

"Keep thee thy airspeed, lest the earth rise up and smite thee!"

Teetorbilt

E1, your caps are still on.

LED's are really gaining speed, I see it as the lighting of the future.

Xenon is good and Halogen can help keep food warm. There is also some 12V rope lighting that can be cut. Running it around the entire base of the cabinet can produce quite a bit of light, low on shadows in that config., it's also dimmable.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Mike Finley

Two that I like are Kitchler and Sea Gull, they are xenon line lighting systems, have 5 watt or 10 watt lamps that press into the wire so you can vary the light by going to the 10 watt bulbs over the 5s and closing up the spacing. They seem to be very bright and if you choose the frosted bulbs they give a nice even lighting effect.

Not sure what bright enough for you would be, but these certainly seem very adequate. Not cheap, small runs can be as high as $50 a linear foot. The per foot will go down with longer runs.

Teetorbilt

E1, you must be speaking of flat based boxes. I haven't seen them installed in years. I'm not a fan of anything that is visible.

Rope lighting is pretty popular here. It's used for indirect ceiling lighting, toekicks, undercabinet and I even saw some installed under a bed once.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

mdshunk

E1, when you tell a person that their preferred method is a foolish way, you're calling them a fool. Uncool.

As an electrician, I try to stay out of the actual fixture selection as much as possible. Lighting is a little bit like art or jewelry. Everyone has their own opinion, and it's in the eye of the beholder. If it was left up to me, every home I wire would proudly feature porcelain keyless lampholders in most rooms.

mdshunk

Why do you type in caps? A capitol letter goes at the beginning of each sentense, and at the beginning of proper nouns. When you type in all caps, my eyeballs start to bleed. "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" is a good program to brush up on that. It has been out for 20 years or better.

dshcontracting

progress lighting hide-a-lights. Exspensive as anything, but worth the cash!!

troubleseeker

I just still like good old thin flourescents. As with anything, buy quality fixtures. I cannot understand how those damn halogens are even code approved, they produce so much heat they will actually ignite or melt tall objects on the counter.The Kitchner xenon are popular with lighting designers and architects, but they are pricey and have a ridiculously large junction box that mounts next to the fixture, then a premade loop for the connection. Not very attractive to me.

mdshunk

Yup, me too. They make T5 fluorescents that pretty much disappear, even without lighting valances. Some people just don't like the color temperature of fluorescents, which I can certainly understand. The Xenon is the run-away favored choice at the moment. It is a very white or slightly blue white light. The actual "brightness" depends completely on the lamp density of the fixture that is chosen.

I am a Progress fan, and it is my main brand for fixtures. I have been putting in the Hide-a-Light family of Xenon undercabinet fixtures when xenon is required. I have been having some quality issues lately with that particular family of fixtures, and I may discontinue their use.

Teetor has been touting LED undercabinet lighting, and I have looked into them with some degree on sincerity. Progress has them available, but they are very expensive. They run about 50 bucks a foot for the lighting, and the power supplies for that system run between 350 and 700 bucks. It's still too pricey, in my opinion, for most people's budgets. Their present use is surely limited to those who favor the latest gadgets and those with bigger budgets. Neither of these groups of people seem to be on my schedule on a very regular basis. This is a technology to keep an eye on, however, because it will be the next generation of UC lights.

Teetorbilt

I'll be the first to admit that LED's aren't for everybody.......YET! I find that rather odd as the components aren't very expensive at the wholesale level. It will be the lighting of the future. http://www.lumileds.com/

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Mike Finley

Not sure which version you are speaking of. The line lighting version you have one transformer and you can put it about anywhere, on top of a cabinet hidden behind crown molding, in side a cabinet behind the drawers, inside a cabinet mounted to the bottom of the counter top, or even in another room such as a closet or the basement and run the lines to the kitchen.

But they ARE pricey!