Need kitchen undercabinet dimmable light ideas

How about a string of Christmas rope lights?

I thought about that, but haven't experimented with them yet. I'd have to see how hot they get when concentrated enough to focus enough light on the workspace. Has some promise... Thanks, Ron

Well I bought a 9' rope of white LEDs and an 18' rope of white incandescents. Neither is bright enough for kitchen task lighting, even with the full 18' of incandescent rope concentrated under one cabinet.

Need to find another solution....

Ron

Have you considered xenon lamps? They're small, dimmable (according to one online purveyor) and last a long time. They are relatively cheap and have a ~20,000 hour bulb life (same source).

I have the standard halogen bulbs (two in a fixture) under the dark part of my kitchen counter cabinets. I have these run off a motion detector with a remote, coily cord, sensor. I have tucked the sensor behind the fridge so it only sees straight down the counter in use. This works perfectly and never cuts out as long as you are standing in front of the 24 x 24 inch cutting board. It shuts off within about 15 seconds of walking away. It must be possitioned so that forward and backward motion of the person cuts the lines of vision of the sensor.

A word of warning. Undercabinet/counter lights do not work well if you have shiny backsplash material. The glare will make it harder to see the item you are working on. You need a matt/dull work surface and a dull backsplash/wall.

Yes Bob,

read Rons first post. He has pretty much eliminated everything, claiming produces too much heat. And the suggested rope lights don't produce enough light. At some point in time Ron will figure out if he demands "dimmable" and "lots of light" then that equals heat.

Ron, if rope lights are not bright enough, look at 120V halogen pucks.

#3 option in my original post WAS xenon lights. I've tested these, and they dim great, look great, BUT -- They are WAY too hot for kitchen undercabinet use, in my opinion. Makes the insides of the cabinet hot (not just warm). Of course, the undercabinet application is how they are marketed. It's puzzling to my why anyone would want to use these in this situation, unless I'm the only one who puts heat-sensitive items (like food!) in their cabinets. ;-)

Ron

Finishes drying the dishes.

In my kitchen the layout is somewhat different. All of the over-the-counter cabinets contain dishes, glasses, cups or dried spices (*lots* of spices :)) so a little extra heat there is of no consequence. I've been kicking around the idea of installing under-cabinet lighting there for a while. Xenon looks like a good possibility for my app. Since we have lots of dimmable ceiling cans and other switched lights in the kitchen, I don't think I'll dim the under-cabinet lights. If I get around to it any time soon I'll let you know how it works out for us.

Yes, I've come to that conclusion - bright and dimmable equals heat (which I guess should have been obvious).

So I guess I'd like to modify my question here:

What do people who already have halogen or Xenon fixtures install undercabinet experience w.r.t heat in the cabinets? Are you using pucks or the more traditional (florescent style) fixtures?

R> read Rons first post. He has pretty much eliminated everything, claiming

In our previous home larger jars of dried spices were stored in the cabinet above the stove which was always warm. There was no ill effect though I didn't keep sensitive stuff like saffron there. I get a kick out of the expiration dates printed on spices. Some are "good" for about a year and a half. Others are marked, "Best if used by 12/03/2015" or some such. ISTR there were jars of spices discovered in one of the pyramids and they were still usable. (Note: That might be MUL).

There's another approach you might wish to consider. You could install 2 circuits of xenon bulbs and switch them independently, giving you 4 levels:

All off A On B On A+B On

It's not as slick as infinite dimming but it might be all the flexibility you need and it will eliminate the dimmers.