I'm in the process of finalising the design for our new kitchen. One thing that still needs resolving is that of lighting up the benchtops. Currently, we have high ceilings with the energy efficient downlights. They are adequate, but the benches aren't bright. So with a new kitchen I'm looking at resolving the situation.

The kitchen company we are going through has offered two solutions: false bottoms on the wall cabinets with lights in the bottom, or some sexy LED lights that are only 10mm thick. I'm not keen on false bottoms, so that rules out that one. As for the LED lights which attach to the bottom of the cabinets, I'm concerned that they just aren't going to be bright enough (1.8W, 140lx @500mm, dropping to 64lx @ 700).

So I'm looking at finding my own. I do like the modern, even look of the LED strip lighting, but I'm not sure how to go about it or who to talk to. For example, there are pre-made strips, or you can buy them and cut them down to size. But what about drivers, wiring, etc and would a standard electrician have any issues installing them?

On the weekend I was in Bunnings, and had a quick look at what they had. They had a few, but the brightness was woeful. The halogen next to it was blinding. As for the strip lighting, I think the power indicator LED on my TV is brighter.

Anybody got any recommendations? Any good lighting shops in Sydney where you can see this in action?

While you're at it, why not get tri-colour LEDs so you can dial up any colour you want.

Ikea sells them too and you can choose different colours:

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/10119409

Another way is to replace the bottom shelves of wall cabinets with shelves with built in light. The shelf is only a bit thicker than a normal shelf (mine is 3cm thick). Here is mine.

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g'day

id go with the false bottoms.. the led lights only work well when they are shining on something that is in close proximity.. from my experience.

the false bottomd cupboards are invisible! they build the false bottom into the cupboard itself so you dont see any lines.
on the outside is the normal cupboard. but open it up and you see a double thickness bottom.

i think they look more classy with a softer light, as opposed to a white doctor sugery light. ive installed many many lights in kitchens this way and never had anyone complain about their effectivness.. even the people that had doubts.
but its totally up to you.. dont let me sway you go to a kitchen showroom and get them to show you the differences

for them to work you need
a transformer ( how many depends on how many lights you are having AND the wattage )
a switch line to the transformer ( usually in 1.0mm cable from a switch location )
and some small fig 8 cable to go from the transformer to each kitchen light.

ask your electrician, if he has never done these then they have been living in a cave for 10 years.

i asked my kitchen place on the weekend if they did the lights in the false bottom. They said they didn't do that anymore because the had problems with the heat from the lights damaging the cabinets.

cenemelectrical, is there a type of light that you would recommend to use in a false bottom? anything special i should look out for?

g'day

we use downlights that are fully enclosed and use a small 20watt bi-pin globe.. we have never had an issues with overheating.
they are about 50 - 70mm in diameter ( depending on model )

here are some examples:

noosalighting.com.au

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description:


DL888 Undershelf Surface/Recess Downlight

Undershelf lighting is great for use not only in kitchens, but also in cupboards and niches as well. This versatile little 12v undershelf light can be used as a surface mount as pictured, or simply snap the outside ring off and it can be recessed as well

lightcom.com.au

http://www.lightcom.com.au/Assets/Light ... LIGHTS.pdf

downlight catalogue scroll down to LC122

alllightingdirect.com.au

http://www.alllightingdirect.com.au/ALD ... lights.pdf

downlight catalogue scroll down to ALD888

every shelf light is another basic design of these.. ,most will be able to be either surface mounted ( the reason for the extra ring on the outside of the light ) or recessed..

i suggest to go to an electrical wholesaler ( middies, AWM, leckies ) or any lighting shop and say you would like some recessed undershelf downlights with transformer and globes.
they'll show you some examples.. buy them and take to your kitchen guy or sparky.

i hope that helped

you that's a great help. thanks.

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm not keen on halogen: it is hot and a real energy waste. Have five or six of them, and it is equivalent to having my TV on. And the lights in the kitchen are usually on all night.
So even if I went with the false bottoms, I'd probably get LED, just more powerful ones. For example, this catalogue has a LED downlight which is warm white and only uses 2.3W (page 25 "sign round"):
http://www.hettich.com.au/images/media_ ... e_2009.pdf

The light output looks good, and there is a warm white model (though they don't specify the actual colour temperature).

I'm going to visit a showroom in the next week or so to have a look at the output of leds (LED Lighting in Peakhurst, Sydney) to see how bright strip lighting is. They apparently have several different models on display, so I should be able to get an idea if it will be bright enough, and the colour adequate.

Three months later, and our kitchen is done. We have installed LED strip lighting, and are very happy with the results. It is very bright. I measured the power usage, and for all the lights and transformer it only uses 35W. I've added some pictures (excuse the painting, it is the final job remaining to be done!)

Here is the kitchen at night, looking into the dark corner (without under cabinet lighting on). Excuse the blurriness, I turned the flash off:
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Same picture, with the lights turned on:
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A close up of the lights, it hardly sticks out at all, stays cool, and goes the length of the bench (and no false bottoms on the cabinets). In the photo, the individual LED's aren't visible, but they are in the reflection:
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A general pic of the kitchen, with ONLY the under cabinet lights on. We usually don't even have the overhead lights on most of the time, as we find this plenty bright enough. The lights are installed on both sides of the kitchen:
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General pic of the kitchen now. Flash now on. Unfortunately our house is built in 1920, so it is a bit of a small kitchen:
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One final shot showing cabinets, granite benchtop, glass splashbacks, can just see the marble floor tiles:
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Hi Roba,
Those lights look great. We are looking for something like that when we build. Did you get them from the Hettich range. if so which ones. If not can you pass on the brand name etc.
Oh, by the way the cupboards have come up a treat. Very nice.

Hi Kaytee.
No, we didn't go for the Hettich range. I was worried that they wouldn't be bright enough. I've seen too many cases where LED just doesn't cut it. Plus, we didn't want the spotlight effect, instead wanted consistent lighting along the bench. I went with the strip LED's here (found these guys mentioned elsewhere in the forums):
http://www.ledlighting.com.au/super-hig ... ibbon.html

And bought this tubing:
http://www.ledlighting.com.au/201-mounting-profile.html

Then the LED strip and tubing is cut to size and the LEDs stuck inside the tubing (one side is sticky). It was all pretty easy. Though it was the first time the electrician had ever seen it, though he was pretty impressed by it all!

The LED's last 80,000 hours. Assuming it's on 4 hours every night, that's about 55 years. So I'm not expecting to have to replace it anytime soon!

Thanks for the comments on the cabinets. We're pretty happy with the way the entire kitchen turned out.

Looks good.

We're also looking for a similar solution for our new kitchen, so the big question is: how much did it cost (and how many metres do you have)?

Also, did you go for the warm white or the cool white LEDs?

Thanks for all that info. Will keep the website for when we build later this year.

I really should have mentioned cost!

All the gear cost a total of around $550. That was for 3 metres of strip lights, 4m of tubing (sold in 2m lengths), and the transformer. I didn't have trouble justifying it though. Besides all the other benefits I've mentioned, I also figure with the energy savings it will pay for itself in a few years. I also figure that while this stuff is cutting edge at the moment, in a few years the price will come down further and will be common. At that time, I didn't want to be stuck with old outdated halogen.
Also, the ultra-bright LEDs (what I chose) were much more expensive than the normal ones. The normal LED strip lights would have still worked and looked good and come in considerably cheaper.

We chose warm white. Gives the kitchen a much warmer glow.

Anyone tried the IKEA lighting: http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/10119409

was this required to be done before the cupboards were installed or can it be retrofitted?

Thank you for showing the before and after night shots. My lighting store was just trying to talk me into the led strips and I was unsure, but those photos really show the difference! Now to make sure it fits in the budget!

ETA. Just realised this thread is from last year Although if you are still around, are you still happy with them? Do you use them a lot?

I actually am not here that often, just happened to notice the old topic!

We moved out of the house about 6 months ago. So we only ended up using them for about 9 months. But they were great. After dinner was complete and the kitchen was clean, we'd turn off the overhead lights and just leave the strip lighting on for the rest of the evening. It was plenty bright enough for general tasks.

Now that we've moved, we're starting all over again (don't know whether to be happy or sad about that!). Have already put down the deposit for a new kitchen. Our new kitchen is significantly larger than our old one, and is open plan. As such, we don't have any overhead cabinets, which means no strip lighting. That bit does disappoint me!

You could probably achieve the same or similar result with cheaper components. Have a look on ebay for the multitude of LED strips available. While some out there will be duds in terms of light output you could probably afford to get one or two wrong and still come out miles in front of the Australian retail price.

Those "after" pics look super bright though!