On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 06:06:30PM -0600, Karl Vacek wrote:
>
> Warning - no automotive content.
>
> New kitchen cabinets will be here soon - like almost 60' of them.
That's a lot of cabinets!
>
> I'll be putting in under-cabinet lighting, and I haven't researched it much.
> The websites I've looked at aren't all that helpful. I think I want
> low-voltage Xenon lighting, but what are the pros and cons. The websites seem
> to indicate that Xenon runs cooler, a real drawback of halogen units that's
> been worrying me. What about dimming?
You can get 110V or 12V undercabinet halogen lights. The 12V variety come
with a small in-line transformer. The disadvantage of the transformer
is it emits some RF interference which could be an issue for you. External
dimmers shouldn't be a problem for the 110V variety but might cause problems
with the 12V transformer (any electricians in the house?).
I have some of the 12V variety. These use 20W halogen bulbs and if you leave
them on for hours at a time, they do get warm. You definitely don't want to
keep meltable items like chocolate chips on cabinet bottom directly above
the light. You could probably solve this problem by adding a 1/4" air gap
between the cabinet and the light can.
They make good accent lights, I guess, but since they're mounted only a couple
feet above the work surface, their beams don't spread out very far so you get
very uneven lighting. For that reason, IMO, they're not very good work area
lights (they might do better if they had 4-5 feet for the beams to spread
and diffuse). I find that I only use mine if I have guests.
>
> What else should I look at?
Halogen track lighting. While not "under-cabinet," they're without question
the best thing I've added to the kitchen. I installed 2 sets for a total of
6 little 50W heads.
Back on the subject of under-cabinet lights...
Have you considered light pipes? That would give you the benefit of incandecant
lights without the heat since you'd locate the light source elsewhere (perhaps
on
top of the cabinet out of sight). You sometimes see light pipes used for deck
lighting.
JM
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