Under-Cabinet/Under-Counter Lighting: How to Choose?
Monday 25 October 2004 at 12:10 pm We are busy living in 2 rooms of our home, as the rest of our home is currently under construction. Both Jen and I are extremely excited about it being done, but also really sick of it not being done. We live in either our bedroom or my office, which houses the TV and the Internet, both obviously vital to our sanity to distract us from the dust-covered filth and holes surrounding us.My job, being the lighting freak I am, was to find some under-cabinet (also called under-counter, though it lights up the counter, not under it) task lighting for the kitchen. Sweet! I'll find something really cool. But wait -- it must not generate a lot of heat, and Jen specifically said no to halogen. No problem, I think, and get to work.
My first thought is LED rope light! But alas, while the color of the light is nice and warm, similar to incandescent and halogen, it's not enough light. So what about LED bricks? A few companies sell LED bricks that put off a warm white light, similar to incandescent. Sweet! Until I saw the price. 24", 60 LED's, $400. What? No. Moving on.
Then came Xenon and Fluorescent. Now I haven't seen a Xenon light in use yet, but somewhere I read that its color temperature was like 5000K. Anything above 4000K are considered "cool" light sources, such as fluorescent. 3000K would be incandescent, and anything at or below that is considered "warm" light. Now I found a warm white fluorescent light rated at 3000K, and while it was better than a normal fluorescent, it was still very white.
I read somewhere that Xenon pucks "put out a similar very white light" with half the heat of halogen, and last 4 times as long. Well, that's cool, but I need to see it to believe it. Otherwise, I'll need to go convince my wife that halogen is just the way to go.
Maybe I'll get her a personal fan.
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