I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
I've had both the fluorescent and the halogen undercabinet lights. As you
might imagine, they both have advantages and disadvantages. The
fluorescents are cheaper to run, and probably cheaper to buy (of course, you
can probably find expensive versions of anything, if you want.) The
halogens cost a little more to operate, but have the advantage of being
usable with dimmer switches. You can get both types at the Depot & Lowes
and your local hardware store. My personal preference is for the halogens,
as I prefer their "color" which is warmer than fluorescents (more towards
the red part of the spectrum than the blue).
Bruce
"Alexander Galkin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
>advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
>choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
>of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
>where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
"Alexander Galkin" wrote:
> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
> advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
> choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
> of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
> where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
>
I have had success with these:
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/products/XenonFixtures/XenonFixtures.html
You need a transformer, but placement is easy. Spacing depends on the
intensity you want. These can be ordered unassembled so you place bulbs
where you want. Not cheap.
--
San Diego Joe
For a kitchen, you want to be able to use a dimmer.
Therefore I suggest halogen.
I also suggest the 120 Volt. The low voltage version needs a
transformer that can hum, and some of them are switching power supplies
that can cause radio and TV interferecne. The 120V versions don't have
these problems, but the bulbs use a finer filamanet and are not as
rugged. If you use them with a dimmer and keep them dimmed most of the
time and there is not too much vibration, they will be fine.
Mark
Beware the cheap puck lighting sold at home depot. When they get hot, the
cheap plastic trim can fail and hot pieces of glass fall on the counter top.
Or when you put dishes in the cabinet a little too vigorously, the hot glass
falls out. I ripped all of mine out after about a week of this nonsense. I
also seriously doubt the UL rating on the really cheap Hampton Bay brand
lighting.
-- Paul
"Alexander Galkin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
>advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
>choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
>of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
>where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
A skirt can be placed under the front to hide the light.
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:38:04 -0500, Roy Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>Our cabinets use face frames, and there's a little bit of frame sticking
>down to hide the lighting behind.
Alexander Galkin wrote:
> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
> advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
> choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
> of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
> where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
I installed thin fluorescent fixtures up under the cabinets. I leave
one 13 watt unit on 24 hours a day. It works well IF you can find a
pinkish bulb rather than the standard blue "cool white" bulb. The
latter makes meat look black. (I won't go into what GF says about zits
in cool white!)
Perhaps you should visit a number of furniture stores to see how they
light up cabinets.
Many of my dark deep cabinets would greatly benifit from lighting even
though they do not have glass fronts. My wife has been complaining to me to
install lighting of some kind. As many batteries she goes through using a
falshlight I belevie would be more economical for her to get her wish.
MC
"Roy Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Alexander Galkin" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet
and
> > inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
> > advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
> > choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What
type
> > of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And
finally
> > where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
> In previous kitchens (in apartments), I've just put in thin fluorescent
> fixtures under the cabinets. Better than nothing, but the light isn't
very
> good.
>
> When we bought a house, we decided to get high-intensity halogen lighting
> (IIRC, http://tinyurl.com/4j4b5) running off normal line voltage. It was
a
> little expensive, but the light is wonderful. It comes in strips with
> various numbers of bulbs. You can mix and match lengths and end up with
> about one bulb every 10 inches or so. We wired ours to wall switches.
>
> The one thing we did wrong was not think about how bulbs would get
changed.
> The fixtures we put in are a bit fussy to open up, and since we mounted
> them all the way against the back wall, you'll got to be a bit of a
> contortionist to change the bulbs. If I were to do it again, I think I'd
> mount them up against the front lip of the cabinet.
>
> Our cabinets use face frames, and there's a little bit of frame sticking
> down to hide the lighting behind. With the frame-less eurostyle cabinets,
> the lights would be more visible, which might affect what you buy (if it's
> hidden, it doesn't matter if it's ugly).
>
> Inside lighting? I could see that for a glass-front cabinet display
> cabinet, but for kitchen cabinets with solid doors hiding cans of green
> beans and boxes of pasta? Interior lighting for something like that seems
> like overkill. But definately go with the under-counter lights; they're
> great.
>
> Check out http://www.waclighting.com; they make a lot of this stuff.
MC wrote:
> Many of my dark deep cabinets would greatly benifit from lighting even
> though they do not have glass fronts. My wife has been complaining to me
> to install lighting of some kind. As many batteries she goes through using
> a falshlight I belevie would be more economical for her to get her wish.
Get her an LED flashlight. They cost a little more but they run for days on
a set of batteries.
> MC
> "Roy Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> In article <[email protected]>,
>> "Alexander Galkin" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> > I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet
> and
>> > inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options?
>> > What's advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low
>> > voltage is a choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite
>> > enough? What
> type
>> > of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And
> finally
>> > where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>>
>> In previous kitchens (in apartments), I've just put in thin fluorescent
>> fixtures under the cabinets. Better than nothing, but the light isn't
> very
>> good.
>>
>> When we bought a house, we decided to get high-intensity halogen lighting
>> (IIRC, http://tinyurl.com/4j4b5) running off normal line voltage. It was
> a
>> little expensive, but the light is wonderful. It comes in strips with
>> various numbers of bulbs. You can mix and match lengths and end up with
>> about one bulb every 10 inches or so. We wired ours to wall switches.
>>
>> The one thing we did wrong was not think about how bulbs would get
> changed.
>> The fixtures we put in are a bit fussy to open up, and since we mounted
>> them all the way against the back wall, you'll got to be a bit of a
>> contortionist to change the bulbs. If I were to do it again, I think I'd
>> mount them up against the front lip of the cabinet.
>>
>> Our cabinets use face frames, and there's a little bit of frame sticking
>> down to hide the lighting behind. With the frame-less eurostyle
>> cabinets, the lights would be more visible, which might affect what you
>> buy (if it's hidden, it doesn't matter if it's ugly).
>>
>> Inside lighting? I could see that for a glass-front cabinet display
>> cabinet, but for kitchen cabinets with solid doors hiding cans of green
>> beans and boxes of pasta? Interior lighting for something like that
>> seems
>> like overkill. But definately go with the under-counter lights; they're
>> great.
>>
>> Check out http://www.waclighting.com; they make a lot of this stuff.
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
Alexander Galkin wrote:
> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
> advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
> choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
> of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
> where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
>
Alexander:
The group here has hit on two main lighting options. In addition, if
you're looking more for decorative lighting versus work lighting, you
might consider "rope lighting" which is also available at Lowes & Home
Depot. It requires a transformer as it's low voltage.
For cabinet/shelving lighting, I've used the xenon lights available at
Rockler:
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_details.cfm?offerings_id=10002
I picked these because they gave a warmer, yellowish glow versus the
harsher halogen light. They also have a dimmer option. They require a
transformer, but I couldn't hear it as opposed to the one in my kitchen.
Rocker has a number of "puck" lighting available and you can daisy-chain
up to 6 of these together on one transformer.
I *do* like the flourescent lighting for under cabinet "work" lighting.
Halogen seems to get too hot, and the replacement bulbs are expensive.
Flourescent lights last longer and run cool. Hope this helps.
~Mark.
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:18:26 -0500, "Alexander Galkin"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
>advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
>choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
>of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
>where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
Most of the homes we work in have some type of under counter lighting.
Most use the fluorescent, probably because of lower cost to the
builder. Normally the electrician has pre-wired for the florescent
lights and we bring the wires through the bottom of the cabinet back.
An electrician we worked for used what we call hockey puck lights.
I'm not sure if they were halogen or xeon. He wired a switched box in
each run for his transformers. In that installation we built a false
bottom in the cabinets so that the lights did not come through the
actual cabinet bottom and the wires going from light to light were
also hidden in the void. Kind of a pain to do but the finished
product was very clean, inside and out.
One of our builders uses rope lighting as an accent behind the bottom
rail of the cabinet front, at the toe space. It's a nice soft look
along the floor. I've also seen rope lighting used inside a vanity
that had a clear lexan sink. It looked pretty cool when you walked
in the room but when standing at the sink you could see the plumbing.
I think that one was the decorator's idea.
Mike O.
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:24:35 GMT, Scrub <[email protected]> wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:18:26 -0500, "Alexander Galkin"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>>inside cabinet lighting.
>
>fluorescent = dim
>halogen = bright but VERY hot
>you'll melt chocolate if it's on the lower cabinet shelf
>xenon = a bit more expensive but good light and low heat.
I find halogen too harsh, and I don't care for the flickering of the
fluorescents as they come on so I went with a xenon unit I discovered
at my local lighting store, and I couldn't be happier.
They're not cheap but it was a one shot part of our "kitchen-for-life"
package so we went with it. I'm thrilled. It's a much softer light
than halogen.
http://siteinfusion.brandmatrix.com/servlet/pcatpageloader/productdetailsload?pcat_oid=14&ctg_oid=728&vendorid=83730&loadfrom=list&product_oid=142842
That URL scares me so if it doesn't work, go to http://www.kichler.com
and look for cabinet lighting. The units are available in 2, 3, 4, and
maybe even 5 bulb units, and are daisy-chainable. I had prewired for
lights with wall switches and the worked perfectly.
--
LRod
Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite
Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999
http://www.woodbutcher.net
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:18:26 -0500, "Alexander Galkin"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>inside cabinet lighting.
fluorescent = dim
halogen = bright but VERY hot
you'll melt chocolate if it's on the lower cabinet shelf
xenon = a bit more expensive but good light and low heat.
"Alexander Galkin" wrote in message
> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options?
One common, cost effective approach is Fluorescent fixtures, particularly
for face frame cabinets. Bulbs last a long time, run cool, are readily
available in many styles and lengths, and your cabinets can be designed to
make the fixture basically invisible.
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 11/06/04
.
In article <[email protected]>,
"Alexander Galkin" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
> advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
> choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
> of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
> where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
In previous kitchens (in apartments), I've just put in thin fluorescent
fixtures under the cabinets. Better than nothing, but the light isn't very
good.
When we bought a house, we decided to get high-intensity halogen lighting
(IIRC, http://tinyurl.com/4j4b5) running off normal line voltage. It was a
little expensive, but the light is wonderful. It comes in strips with
various numbers of bulbs. You can mix and match lengths and end up with
about one bulb every 10 inches or so. We wired ours to wall switches.
The one thing we did wrong was not think about how bulbs would get changed.
The fixtures we put in are a bit fussy to open up, and since we mounted
them all the way against the back wall, you'll got to be a bit of a
contortionist to change the bulbs. If I were to do it again, I think I'd
mount them up against the front lip of the cabinet.
Our cabinets use face frames, and there's a little bit of frame sticking
down to hide the lighting behind. With the frame-less eurostyle cabinets,
the lights would be more visible, which might affect what you buy (if it's
hidden, it doesn't matter if it's ugly).
Inside lighting? I could see that for a glass-front cabinet display
cabinet, but for kitchen cabinets with solid doors hiding cans of green
beans and boxes of pasta? Interior lighting for something like that seems
like overkill. But definately go with the under-counter lights; they're
great.
Check out http://www.waclighting.com; they make a lot of this stuff.
In article <[email protected]>, William W. Plummer wrote:
>Alexander Galkin wrote:
>
>> I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>> inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
>> advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
>> choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
>> of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
>> where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
>I installed thin fluorescent fixtures up under the cabinets. I leave
>one 13 watt unit on 24 hours a day. It works well IF you can find a
>pinkish bulb rather than the standard blue "cool white" bulb. The
>latter makes meat look black. (I won't go into what GF says about zits
>in cool white!)
There are two lines of "T5" (5/8 inch diameter) fluorescent lamps.
The older one is 4, 6, 8 and 13 watts and mainly uses "old tech"
phosphors with color rendering index in the 50's to 60's ("warm white" and
"cool white").
The newer one comes in higher wattages 14 watts or more and usually has
color rendering index 82-85 and the color is usually specified by color
temperature or 1/100 of the color temperature. The usual color
temperatures are 30/3000 ("warm white"), 35/3500 (in my words "semi warm
white" and in my experience most pleasing), and 41/4100 ("cool white").
The newer ones are also more efficient than the older ones because they
are longer and therefore have their electrode losses being a lower
percentage of input power, and also unlike the older 4-13 watt ones are
normally operated from electronic ballasts.
- Don Klipstein ([email protected])
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:18:26 -0500, "Alexander Galkin"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I am going to build kitchen cabinets and plan to install undercabinet and
>inside cabinet lighting. Can someone advise me about the options? What's
>advantage of using low voltage over 120V lighting? If low voltage is a
>choice when a transformer is placed? Is transformer quite enough? What type
>of bulbs are the best? What's the usual spacing between bulbs? And finally
>where can I buy good quality undercabinet lighting hardware?
>
Others describe other options, but I use Juno Trac-12 12volt
undercabinet lighting. It looks like regular trac, but is only 3/8" x
3/4" and available in lengths to 8' For short runs you can use
electronic transformers, but electronic dimmers are pretty expensive.
For longer lengths (& more lamps) we use Federal "Buck 'n Boost"
transformers to 500 watts, requiring less expensive magnetic dimmers
Remember that wire guage for connection is based on amperage, so 500
watts at 12 volts = 42 amps. We hide the transformer in an unused
cabinet space, or between kitchen floor joist accessable from the
basement.
In any case, it is the most flexible, site cutable and provides a nice
warm and even glow on splashes and countertops. We've even used it
vertically inside glass-doored cabinets.
I could give you much more info. E-mail off list if interested.
http://www.junolighting.com/productinfo/prod_finder_item1.asp?Fid=F005&SFid=SF052&Cid=C0401&SCid=8