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Kitchen
Lighting Guidelines (Download print-friendly version) Designers are now using fluorescent lamps interchangeably with the more familiar incandescent. Here in California, Title 24, California's Energy Code, requires that the General Lighting in your kitchen or bath be fluorescent. I prefer to creatively conform to Title 24 lighting guidelines rather than replacing fluorescent lamps with incandescent as soon as the building inspector has cleared the corner on his way back downtown. The results save energy every day for the life of the home, contribute to the comfort and well being of the inhabitants and create drama and beauty in place of the mundane and ordinary. Lighting presents an opportunity to have something different and exciting in your kitchen. While you may have been focused on the cabinetry and appliances, countertops and flooring; the lighting may very well be what sets your kitchen apart from those created by your friends or those who hire designers whose training and experience does not include lighting design. Lighting is a fast-changing industry. Here are some general guidelines for choosing fixtures and lamps. Title 24
All new and remodeled homes must incorporate energy efficient lighting and controls. CURRENT KITCHEN CODE For further detailed information on Title 24's lighting requirements for residential applications see the UC Davis Title 24 - Residential Lighting Design Guide.
NOTE: Any time I “mix” fluorescent and incandescent lighting in a kitchen, I must include specifications on your plans showing the make, model number, and wattage of each fixture. This means that all fixtures need to be chosen and specified BEFORE submission of your plans to the building department. With a client's permission, I like to use 100% fluorescent, which negates this requirement, and saves energy and costs.
Direct
Fluorescent Tube-shape Lamps and Compact Fluorescents (CFLs) "Warm
White" is a lamp color more readily available at home centers,
etc. Warm white direct fluorescent is acceptable for lower budget projects.
NEVER buy or allow your contractor, electrician, or anyone else, to
use "Cool White" fluorescent lamps in your fixtures. This
is cheap office lighting and the color rendering is unacceptable, for your
kitchen or bath, your food, and YOU! Your undercabinet
lighting will come in fixtures that require small diameter fluorescent
lamps. The same rules apply here as for any other "direct"
application. The colors of food items on your countertops will be much
more natural and pleasing to the eye if you invest in 2700-3500K lamps.
Minimum always is warm white. Indirect
Fluorescents Those lamps
in fixtures shielded at the tops of cabinetry or behind mouldings may
be 2700-3500K, or "Warm White". Indirect light bounces off
the ceiling; therefore the ceiling must be white, or very light in color.
The bounced light picks up its color from the ceiling color, thus the
lamp color is not as critical, EXCEPT where the visible reflection from
the actual lights hits the ceiling. If you want to see "warm"
there you need 2700K. The paint
on the ceiling or other reflecting surface should be flat, not glossy,
as the light will emphasize irregularities on the surface. The surfaces
must be carefully finished to minimize irregularities. Halogens Halogens
are best used as an accent or tiny pendant, not as general lighting.
The light created with halogen is intense and sparkly, so if you are
lighting a sculpture or trying to accent an architectural feature, halogen
is for you. Xenon LEDs Recessed
Fixtures for Task and Accent Lighting Recessed
Fixtures for General Lighting Under
Cabinet Fixtures Optionally choose fixtures with electronic ballasts for flicker-free starting. Choose the shortest height fixtures for visibility considerations ESPECIALLY in kitchens where table height seating is featured, since most people will be looking up at the bottoms of wall cabinets when seated. Adding mouldings to the bottom of your wall cabinets can conceal lights that are still visible when seated.
Choose fixtures that accept lamps in your choice of the color/kelvin ranges discussed above. Have your contractor mount undercabinet fixtures toward the fronts of the cabinets for best lighting of your countertops. Leave enough room behind the fixtures to mount a paper towel holder.
When using polished granite countertops, consider placing recessed can lighting in the ceiling in front of your upper cabinets. That way you will not be faced with the reflection of your undercabinet lights in the granite countertops. Fixtures
for Indirect Lighting Applications Since these fixtures will cast direct light on the reflecting surface, the rows should be mounted so that their ends alternate to avoid dark spots on the reflecting surface (when both rows are on). Or choose more expensive fixtures that can be mounted end-to-end with no lighting voids for the nicest result (Peerless makes one).
. Visibility
of the lamps in indirect applications is to be avoided, therefore choose
fixtures and lamps that are short enough to not be visible from the farthest
vantage point in the room. It is especially important for your contractor
to prepare the tops of cabinets to accept the lighting fixtures by cutting
away the concealed sides of manufactured cabinets which protrude above
the cabinet tops where cabinets are joined together. When this is properly
done the fixtures will sit 3/4" to 1" lower on the recessed
top of a face frame type cabinet. Crown or other trim mouldings will
conceal the rest of the fixture from all but Michael Jordan types. Fluorescent
fixtures are available in heights ranging from the inexpensive "industrial"
size, which amounts to 4 or more inches in height with the lamp, to
mini-types less than 2" high, to "undercabinet" types, which
are 1" or less in height. There are also fixtures that mount "sideways", reducing overall height; fixtures that incorporate two lamps, side-by-side; and even fixtures side-by-side with staggered ends. The cost of the fixture and lamp and its light output is directly related to its size and specialization factor, therefore choose the highest, largest fixture that will not be visible to family members.
Please feel
free to call with questions not answered here regarding lighting in your remodeled spaces. Also please keep a record of your choices in lamps for your fixtures so that you can duplicate our well-thought-out efforts when you need to replace lamps.
From the
National Lighting Product Information Program website: GE’s Virtual
Lighting Designer can help you visualize various lighting effects in
rooms like your home. Here's
great article by Randall Whitehead, my much admired mentor in kitchen lighting design: Here's
an interesting article by Eric Strandberg L.C. of Lighting Design Lab Here's
another article by Eric Strandberg L.C. of Lighting Design Lab Here are some
lighting labs in our area where you can see various recessed fixtures,
trims and lamps installed as well as the above-mentioned fluorescent
lighting boxes. Lighting Labs & Stores |
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