Most LEDs achieve there lighting level by using a lens. This isn't the way to produce even lighting.
How is it not an option?
Quite. Some very expensive LEDs can come close to halogen, but most don't. And produce a particularly unpleasant (to me) light. Especially for a kitchen where a good quality of working light is needed.
I doubt I'd be. ;-)
The LEDs we have are a long, thin strip with a small LED every so often. No obvious lensing at all but maybe the outer cover has some minor effect.
The light on the workstop is very even, but a specular item can looks as if lit by dozens of lights - which it is!
FL all round would be either too much light, too liable to get in the way, too expensive to run, need a pelmet, or one of several other things.
Our test LED strip, from Lidl, is quite close to halogen. Not quite as white as n under-cupboard type triphosphor FL. Nonetheless, not that depressing yellow of standard incandescents, still less that dreadful yellow of CFLs trying to look like incandescents.
under cupboard lighting with the more common use of several small ones.
"Terry Clips"
5/8" for T5. (Forget about T12 tubes under cupboards.)trimmed to let the tube pass. Screwing the clips to the front rather than the underside lets the tube sit slightly higher, the tube is then removed by moving it rearward a little.
In the case of under-cupboard pelmets, fit to rear of pelmet.
This also mounts the tube as near to the cupboard front as possible, which is important to reduce distracting reflections from the worksurface.
Keep tubes spaced away from flammable materials. In particular, tube ends can get very hot in some circumstances at end-of-life of the tube, and cheaper ballasts which fail to recognise this and shutdown the tube.
Things to consider: The ballast will have a max cable length to one end of the tube (to limit broadcasting RFI). The ballast will get warm, so don't mount it under a cupboard used for storing fresh food such as bread.
It's not essential, if you are happy with high light output. I use a 35W T5HE under-cupboard tube over my main food prep work area. (In contrast, I use a pair of 58W tubes with high efficiency reflector over my electronics work bench.)
I have also observed that as people get older, many prefer increased lighting levels.
essential dimming feature.
& 5' T8 tubes and 8' T12s are readily available in a wide range of CCTs and CRIs, and both phosphor types.Forget T12.
T5HE are ideal, as: a) they are same lengths as many kitchen units. b) they are lower profile.
tube with one of another CCT. Availability of other CCT miniatures is very restricted.
surface, reducing glare if the light is ever seen directly.
The tube should not be seen directly. Fit a pelmet if necessary.
switching some on and some off. Frequently the switching to do this conveniently is omitted, leaving the user to bend over and look up at the fittings to switch some off if desired. Light output is then patchy.
maximising comfort and utility, and minimising power waste. It can be adjusted effortlessly eg for evening comfort, night time use, or [[cleaning]].
T5HE is the same (providing all are compared on electronic ballasts).
lumens per watt. Running then dimmed reduces this a little, but not a lot. The result is over twice the [[energy efficiency]].
less than half that on real world ballasts.
T5HE is nearer 35,000 hours (because it includes a coating to reduce loss of mercury, which T8 doesn't have).
would get through over 8 miniature tubes.
as often with small tubes. One small tube failed has less effect than a large one. In either case the tube is easily replaced.
tube ballasts. If one fails, you lose more light until its replaced.
systems don't use them.
Starters are not used with electronic ballasts. (Even on switch-start, they will outlast many tubes.)
find yourself tied to one supplier, which might stop producing the tubes or go out of business. Either results in [[lighting]] system failure. This is not an issue with long T8s and T12s.
or T5HE.
are several times fewer of them. Total cost of fittings is comparable.
and light output is adjustable to exactly the level you want.
[[electrical]] connection of any kind (as long as the sink is not at the end of the worktop run), completely solving the [[water]] splash issue.the miniscule risk of a blender food splash becoming live.
convenient. On the other hand storing a spare long tube is less convenient, but their widespread availability makes this less necessary.
I agree.
Bert
ok, most of us then would find it intolerable.
Ok I'll add a word of explanation.
Lots of us have unshrounded fluorescent or incandescent lighting under there without a problem.
eh?
Adam Aglionby:
Last time I looked there was a huge installed base of 8' T12s in use in shops & factories. They were the most efficient of all linear fluorescent for decades. Other lengths have gone T8, but not 8'.
the article says: ==Comparison== of single tube lighting with use of several small tubes
Some other things mentioned I'll put in a revised version soon.
NT
No, that's still too broad. And in any case "intolerable" is far too extreme a term. If you mean that the level of light provided by full-size fluorescent tube lights in that setting might be uncomfortably bright for some people, then say that.
Bert
In article , Graham. writes
Choc-blocks are a popular alternative, especially in countries* that have an, um, more relaxed attitude to electrical installation.
*Spain.In article , polygonum writes
They've certainly come on in leaps and bounds recently. A very impressive selection on display in my local electrical wholesaler's.
I meant intolerable.
NT
Then I gently suggest that you're guilty of a rather extreme level of exaggeration. And of presuming to know how other people would react to a given situation - which you do not and cannot.
Bert
& factories. 8' was popular in the 1960's, with a significant installed base for 25 years thereafter, but not now.
They have cold starting problems (using switchstart). No one makes magnetic ballasts for them anymore which meet EU energy efficiency requirements required to stock or sell them in the EU. There's no electronic control gear AFAIK.
The first energy saving retrofit was the 100W 8', to replace 125W 8'. It was a T12 because they didn't think of moving to T8 until after Thorn Lighting invented it. The follow-on energy saving retrofits for all the other T12s were all T8s.
I'm not exaggerating at all. You sound like one of those people that fit a twin
6'er in a little box room and proclaim it a great success.NT
Since it's hardly possible to discuss things rationally if you're going to continue to generalise so broadly, I'll bow out now.
Bert
Where do you get T5HEs several feet long?
NT
T5HE are only available several feet long:
600mm (14W), 900mm (21W), 1200mm (28W), 1500mm (35W).The tubes are all 36mm shorter than those lengths, to allow for the end caps and still have the tubes fit within modular units built to 300mm multiples (such as cupboards, modular ceiling fittings, etc).
There are a matching set of T5HO (high output) lamps too:
600mm (24W), 900mm (39W), 1200mm (54W), 1500mm (80W). These can work well as over-cupboard lamps.There's also one odd-ball 1500mm 49W which is inbetween the HE and HO ranges.
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