Anyone installed LED ribbon undercabinet lights?

[Don Wiss]

The state-of-the-art these days for undercabinet lighting is LED ribbons that you can cut every couple inches to get continuous (and energy efficient) lighting along the counter.

I first tried to find who makes these. It isn't so easy. The web is filled with retailers that don't disclose who made what they are selling.

These seem to be the major manufacturers:

My first question is how many watts per foot makes sense? I find one

0.73/watts. Too low. The next level of brightness is 1.44-1.52/watts. That seems to make sense. Then comes 2.4-2.6/watts. And one manufacturer has 5/watts. Way too much.

I hear that some people go for a higher wattage and then put a dimmer on them. Other than over a dining table I'm not a big fan of dimmers. I'd rather pick what is appropriate upfront.

Then comes the color choice. People are into the warm colors as that is what they are used to from incandescent lighting. But what is so bad with a cool white? Especially in a kitchen that is supposed to be sleek. Looking at the manufacturers I find colors all over the place, with each having a different color temperature for warm white, neutral white, and cool white. What I'd like most of all is the undercabinet LEDs to be the same color as the MR16 pendants that will hang over the sink and over the eating peninsula. But the MR16s have different color temperatures for WW and CW and again they vary my manufacturer.

Then I just stumbled on Diode LED's new High Output Tunable Color Strip Light. You have two sliders. One to change the color and the other the brightness. Seems like overkill.

Has anyone in this group installed these and can give us their experiences?

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Art Todesco]

I waited to see if anyone replies ... so far, none. I also, have been wanting to do this. I do have a friend in the Chicago area that did it and it looks pretty good. Right now I have 3 8 watt under cabinet fluorescent fixture in my kitchen. I originally had warm white bulbs, but I accidentally replace one with a cool white bulb. Either of these gave plenty of light for our uses. Well, because the wall is a pinkish color, it made almost no difference in the look of the color. But, the cool white is a little brighter. Normally I don't like cool white on anything inside (or outside, for that mater), but this seems to work here. I was thinking of using the warm white LEDs. I don't think I need the double density strips. And, I think mounting the strips to the front of the upper cabinets will be much better than the fluorescents which are now nearer to the wall. I have another friend that put them in his theater organ console to light the stop tabs and give light to the keyboards. Normally, there are 6 or 8 12 volt bulbs equally spaced around the stop rail. He used double density and I think they are way to bright for that application. I might try the single ones on my theater organ console, but because the present lamps work, it probably won't happen soon.

[DerbyDad03]

...snip...

I can't speak to LED lights, but I do have a thought on your dimmer comment.

I find that the amount of "appropriate light" changes depending on time of day, job to be done, etc. I have dimmers in just about every room for that reason.

Simplest case: The bathroom. I need a lot less light to use the toilet at

2AM than when I'm getting ready for work at 6. All I need to do is see the toilet enough to take care of my business.

In the bedroom, if the wife is sleeping, I don't want to fully turn on either the overhead light or a nightstand light. The dimmer on the wall allows for just enough light for me not to hurt myself.

I even have a dimmer on a switched outlet for a floor lamp. Don't worry, the outlet is behind a heavy hutch and also protected by a cover that requires a screwdriver to remove. The only thing plugged in is the floor lamp.

[Ed Pawlowski]

How do you compare actual light output? The strips I saw had 439 lumens. I have an 18" florescent bulb that, according to this chart is

900 lumens.

If that is the case, half the light would be very disappointing, especially at $50 or so for the fixture as compared to the $6 fixture there now. I've been able to replace the entire fixture for about $1 more than the cost of the bulb. And you get a new cover that has not yellowed over the years.

[Don Wiss]

I've thought about that one. I am a big fan of LED night lights. Especially of the type that is on the right in this picture:

I've also bought a couple similar to what is shown at the left. They are useless. The plug is polarized and I could only plug them in standing up like shown there. They light up the ceiling. I want the floor lit.

I have these night lights in all halls, and in the bathroom. I do not turn on hall lights at any time. I do not turn on a bathroom light in the middle of the night. My eyes are dilated enough then that the light is adequate.

One or two of these would work for that too.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[=]

Light is measured in lumens so a lumen comparison will be correct. Usually, the lumens are given only for the light source, not the fixture and the fixture will absorb some light if there's an enclosure, lens or shade. I usually estimate the fixture losses at 20% for a lens and 40%% if there's a shade.

Tomsic

[Don Wiss]

I was in a kitchen/bath fixtures showroom this afternoon. They had these lights. It was a single strip and the bulbs were about 3/8" apart. From my notes it appears that this is one of the 2.4-2.9 watts/ft. The amount of light seemed fine. But what was very noticeable is the row of white dot reflection that ran across the counter. Also across the chrome fixtures, but I'm planning on matte stainless steel and satin nickel.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[DerbyDad03]

Not a bad suggestion for someone looking for a solution, but my dimmers were installed long before motion detecting LED lights were on the market. Since the dimmers are already installed, work just fine, and don't take up any receptacles, I'll stick with them.

Thanks anyway.

[Don Wiss]

Those are not motion sensitive, but light sensitive. Though some motion detection ones do exist I don't have any. Here's the one I like without the superfluous standing erect ones:

I also have a few rectangular ones that are even brighter, but I don't find them now at the Lowes site.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[grumpy]

Round lights shown in picture are incadesent bulbs, lence can be turn =

360 Deg.

[Don Wiss]

No. I have the exact ones. They are LEDs. Not incandescents. Plus the web page states they are LED. You are correct that they can turn almost 360 degrees. This allows one to aim them at the floor, irrespective of the orientation of the outlet.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).