Undercupboard fluorescent lighting in the Kitchen

[Pandora]

I am looking for some small HF flicker-free fluorescent lights to go underneath my kitchen cupboards. 510mm is the optimum light length.

I was about to purchase some Hera T4 Slimlite

I noticed that their T4 lengths are non-standard.

This means that I would have to go back to the manufacturer for replacement tubes, which seems unsatisfactory.

T5 tubes are a more standard length across manufacturers, although they are not the optimum size for my cupboards.

Should I just buy Hera T4 and keep my fingers crossed or is anyone happy with their T5 lights?

[Andy Hall]

Yes. I've had some for over 6 years and no problems at all.

[Pandora]

Which type do you have, Andy, T4 or T5?

Do you have to get your replacement tubes from Hera?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Assuming you are hiding the fittings behind a plinth etc, why not make them up using ballasts? 21" is a standard tube size. You also then have the choice of tube colour temperature rather than what a fitting maker supplies. Dimming ballasts too. You probably won't save much money as decent HF ballasts ain't cheap but you'll end up with a better product.

[John Rumm]

[Andy Hall]

Not sure but I can take a look

I haven't needed to buy any so hasn't been an issue.

[Andrew Gabriel]

All T4 lengths are non-standard -- there is no standard for them. I used the Omicron ones, and when they vanished from the market, I bought up enough stock of replacement tubes to keep me going for a while.

As someone else said, the standard 13W T5 is close to your length.

[robgraham]

I would suggest you go with the TLC ones - they are inexpensive , reliable, a big range of lengths and, perhaps not always a good selling point, are stocked by B & Q which possibly indicates longevity of supply of tubes.

Rob.

[Pandora]

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

I spoke to Hera. The sales guy there said that the latest trend in undershelf lighting was high-voltage compact fluorescent lamps. Link:

these aren't as ugly as the SlimLite strips.

Hera supply these with a Megaman cool white 9W bulb (with similar brightness to the T4 tubes) for =A315 + VAT each, including mains cable. I'd have to space them at 300m intervals to get 30W per metre so that they are comparable with the T4 tube outputs, although the guy at Hera recommended spacing them at 500mm

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Depends on what you want, I suppose. I prefer the even light you get from a tube for under cupboard illumination, since this is a work area. Pools of light from downlighter type things look better in pics, though. I did approx 3 metres of wall cupboards including going round a corner with tubes and dimmable ballasts for well under 100 quid including 'posh' colour temperature tubes. And the results are superb.

[Pandora]

Dave, please could you post a link to an appropriate separate HF ballast (high output 39W) and 36" T5 tube holder? As a "fluorescent virgin", I've only ever seen lights where the ballast is integral to the light. I'd be interested to learn more. Thanks.

[John]

In article , Pandora writes

Has anyone tried LEDs? My son used a Maplin product (N56CF) for a project at school and I was impressed how bright they were - a series of strips connected together would give a very good flood of light running at 12v and you could just stick them to the underside of the cupboard with double sided tape.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The ballasts I use are Osram dimming types. I used terry clips to fix the tubes to the underside of the cupboards and flying leads with moulded end caps tubes to ballasts. All of these you should get from a good wholesaler - but they'll probably need to order the ballasts.

[Pandora]

Right, but the T4 tubes give out about 30W per metre length, whereas the T5 tubes are only about 24W per metre.

I'm not sure if the T5 tubes are bright enough. I wonder if anyone out there has used T5 to light their kitchen surfaces?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have a 35W T5 tube lighting one worktop. It is more than bright enough (some people might find it too bright).

Note there are 3 types of T5 tubes:

The old classic 4W, 6W, 8W, 13W.

New T5HE (High Efficiency): 14W 549mm, 21W 849mm, 28W 1149mm, 35W 1449mm These are approximately same power/length as the old T5 but are all longer (some cases, very much longer).

New T5HO (High Output) which are same tube lengths as T5HE, but much higher power/length, and would be far too bright for under cupboard lighting: 24W 549mm, 39W 849mm, 54W 1149mm, 80W 1449mm.

Note that most of the lengths are designed to fit with 600mm units, so 549mm fits under 1 600m unit, 1149mm fits under 2 600mm units, and 1449mm fits under 3 600mm units. So you lose the dead linking space between shorter T4 fittings and that would more than make up for your worries of reduced power/length.

Most of the T5HE ballasts will drive any of the tube lengths, and likewise for the T5HO ballasts. This is because all the lamps in each range run at the same tube current.

[Pandora]

That's very helpful. Thank you. I shall buy some T5HE 21W and experiment.