Kitchen Remodel Lighting

[LadyFish]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

We did a $65,000 remodel a couple of years ago and most of that money was for the kitchen. We designed it ourselves which took over a year, yeah we're fussy. My husband did our plans and 5 months later and a lot of hard work, we have the most beautiful kitchen I've ever seen.

We used halogen lighting for task lighting. We also installed under and over cabinet lighting which I love. I have to say that even though I like the amount of light the halogens put out they also put out a lot of heat.

This is not a good thing when making pie crust since it heats up the soapstone countertop on the island.

Just something to think about. If your wifey dosen't make pies than no worries.

 

[jkust]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

A couple comments on the undercabinet lighting since I think that is frosting on the cake of a lighting project. We have both Halogen undercabinet lighting and xenon undercabinet. The Halogen lighting (lighting store fixtures) was put in the kitchen probably 5 years ago before LED's were practical and just when xenon was the expensive upgrade. I think we've burnt out 2 halogen's in all these years. The xenon's were just put in this summer in my wife's ultra custom home office and our over-the-top laundry room remodel. The xenon's are great because they don't get hot in the event any cloths or whatever touch them unlike the halogen. I looked at the LED undercabinet and other than the expense, the led's were mismatched in color depending on the batch each came from. I like how thin the fixtures are but didn't care for what was available quite yet.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

Looks like I am going to go with recessesd CFLs, Pendants of some type and undercounter LED.

No wife here...just me so no worries about pie crusts.

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

my only complaint with MR16's is their short life span and that they're rather spendy to maintain. Maybe the LED's aren't so expensive after a couple of years if you consider bulb replacement costs. Nice layout and drawing there Bruce!

Depending on the transformer you begin with, you may have to change out the transformer in the future. Not all LED MR16s are plug and play with existing systems. Most new LEDs need a electronic transformer designed for LEDs. Older transformers wont recognize the "load" of a 4 watt...6 watt LED.

I am currently using 4 inch round recessed lights with CFL floods in them, they work quite well, I have found the halogens are just to short in life span..I really thought I would like the halogen lights, but they burn out WAY to quick..

CHEAP MR16s..even made by the "BIG 3" from China are rated @ 2,000 hours and for many of those that number is a stretch. There is ONE manufacturer that has a 18,000 hour HALOGEN MR16 , even a 10,000 hour if the 18k hours is too many.

I would focus on the undercabinet lighting as well. Led seems like the way to go. Can you dim the 4" CFLs? I like dimmers, especially on overhead lights. Looks like a fun project.

Bear in mind also that the new and expensive dimmable CFLs also need a new dimmer, such as the Lutron Diva system. Also the new dimmable cfl's have a LOWER rated life than standard CFLs. Some only are rated @ 8,000 hours.

Yes, my plan is to go LED for the undercabinet as well. You can buy dimmable CFLs these days for the recessed lights.

Ambient "cool" lighting or true task lighting?

We did a $65,000 remodel a couple of years ago and most of that money was for the kitchen. We designed it ourselves which took over a year, yeah we're fussy. My husband did our plans and 5 months later and a lot of hard work, we have the most beautiful kitchen I've ever seen.

We used halogen lighting for task lighting. We also installed under and over cabinet lighting which I love. I have to say that even though I like the amount of light the halogens put out they also put out a lot of heat.

This is not a good thing when making pie crust since it heats up the soapstone countertop on the island.

Just something to think about. If your wifey dosen't make pies than no worries.

LF, there are products such as "IR" Mr16s, where a 35 watt lamp puts out the same amount of light as a 50 watt (an Ansi coded EXN for industry reference). These have 30% less heat, BUT are rated @ 4,000 hours.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

Yeah...I think I am skipping the MR16, one of which being energy usage.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

We did a similar lighting project when we redid the kitchen in my "short sale" house. I few issues come to mind.

This is a mute point if you are going cfl but if you use halogens where your cupboard doors can swing directly under the cans you can actually burn the doors if they are left in that position.

We ran into surprise issues when we started cutting the holes to put the cans in and discovered that the copper plumbing from the bathroom above prevented us from putting the cans in. We ended up building out the sophets (sp) in front of the cabinets and putting the cans in the sophets.

If you have a ranch style house this is not really an issue but....
Have you planned out how you are going to run the wires and put the switches. sometimes you just can't run the wiring certain ways without damaging the drywall. If you have to go through several floor joists (second floor floor joists) to get to the first light from the switch how are you going to drill through them all without putting extra holes in the ceiling?

your plan looks pretty good to me. I don't think you will run in to the issues I have mentioned but I just wanted to bring it up to potentially prevent an oversight.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

your plan looks pretty good to me. I don't think you will run in to the issues I have mentioned but I just wanted to bring it up to potentially prevent an oversight.

Yes, have all the wiring planned with minimal drywall work. Basically, the only drywall work is to enclose the current fluorescent tube area unless I want to convert that area into a tray ceiling.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

Yes, have all the wiring planned with minimal drywall work. Basically, the only drywall work is to enclose the current fluorescent tube area unless I want to convert that area into a tray ceiling.

Are you adding switches??

I doubt you would want to run all of that lighting off of one switch. We have one can that is on an individual switch from the rest right right over a stand alone cabinate in between the kitchen and family room. That turns out to be one of the best decisions we made when we planned out the wiring because if you are watching a movie you can turn on just the one can and see what you are doing anywhere in the kitchen or family room without turning on any bright lights. It's like mood lighting (Better than a dimmer IMO).

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

The recessed and the pendants will be on one switch. I will have a couple zones of under cabinet on seperate switces. I am going to try to get the pendants on a seperate switch but that may be difficult.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

We wanted our island on a seperate switch also but that was to difficult for us as well.

What we ended up doing was capping off the box for the original light in the kitchen and using that as a juction box to run to the other lights. we ended up with three switches. One for the main recessed (5 cans) and 2 pendants over the island. Another switch for the fixture over our dinette. and the third switch is a stand alone can I mentioned earlier.

Lucky for me my best friend is a master electrician. He did all of the work for free and even got me a big discount on the cans (used company account, he works for the biggest union shop in Rochester)

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Kitchen Remodel Lighting

If your ceiling is insulated you can't use most recessed halogen fixtures due to the heat generated.