f/u to xenon lights getting hot

13 years ago

Someone recently posed a question about xenon under cab lights getting hot. I was at a lighting store today and asked about it. I was told there are "low voltage" lights and "line voltage" lights. It is the line voltage lights that can get pretty hot, whereas the low voltage lights get slightly warm at best.

Featured Answer

davidro1

13 years ago

Elba1 :

Here is a case of the blind leading the blind:
"Someone recently posed a question about xenon under cab lights getting hot. I was at a lighting store today and asked about it. I was told there are "low voltage" lights and "line voltage" lights. It is the line voltage lights that can get pretty hot, whereas the low voltage lights get slightly warm at best.

And now we have a batch of people reading it without posting any response that shows any critical thinking.

The sales person who you spoke to and who said something offhand will have to backtrack a bit.

Watts are the power consumed.
All power turns into heat or light.
The light produced also creates heat where it lands.
How many watts? This is the question.
Power consumed by LED and fluorescent is less heat and more light.
Power consumed by ALL the others is more heat and less light.
To equalize light output, they consume LOTS more Watts.
Xenon, Halogen, etc: these are all incandescent.

To learn more, and maybe try refuting some of what I have written here, learn about Lumen, which measures light generated.

All Watts get turned into Lumen and heat.
Xenon consume Watts which produce mostly heat, and some light too.

If ANY bulb "only feels warm" it may be because the housing lets air move around it and carry warm air away from it. It's still a waste of money; it's mostly heat, for the Watts consumed. Then, you have to pay more again, for more air conditioning, to remove the heat...

So, the housing may help to remove heat. BUT it's not a factor depending on whether it's low voltage or line voltage. The blind lead the blind. Anyone says anything and it gets reported.

Felix Unger signed FU at the bottom of a note to his Odd Fellow roommate, and the playwright Neil Simon did not see the joke in this when he wrote it. It later became apparent to him when he saw audience reaction.

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Comments (16)

sallysue_2010
13 years ago
I had to read this Subject line 3 times before I understood it and stopped being shocked :)
finestra
13 years ago
Me too!

I'm glad that was cleared up, the lights too.
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breezygirl
13 years ago
I still don't get it. I read the title as ......
sallysue_2010
13 years ago
breezy - "Follow-Up"

I am looking at undercab lights and REALLY don't want hot ones, so the first read through sounded perfectly reasonable to me!
celineike
13 years ago
lol! i loved that!
bh401
13 years ago
That's funny! I read it the other way too. Ofcourse, I posted "Yet another BS question" on this forum. I didn't realize it was read as bull s*** until I got my first response.
breezygirl
13 years ago
Duh. BS I get. F/U I didn't.
elba1
Original Author
13 years ago
Davidro, thanks - sounds like LED's are the way to go then.

Everyone else - oops, sorry about that, I thought that was the abbreviation for follow-up?!
mtnfever (9b AZ/HZ 11)
13 years ago
The post title seemed fine to me--"oooooh xenon must be as bad as halogen"... I had halogen UCL (caved to DH) in my previous kitchen and loathed it. I slid my coffemaker just right underneath and the light melted the coffeemaker lid and I thought f/u halogens and stupid me for caving... But thank you Elba1 for the Follow/Up and entertainment early on a Sunday morning! :)

In this kitchen, I knew I wanted LED and had read up in the Lighting forum about the different online companies to order from. THen I happened to see at a local uh, small box? chain hardware store a ready packaged LED UCL that specifically said it was a warm white. Since I could easily return it, I took the chance for $41 and it's working out well. Three very shallow strips of 12 LEDs each that fit under my very shallow cabinet trim and puts out excellent light. Since my eyes are getting bad in dim light (age sucks), I think I might even add another bar or two as expansion kits are available also.
cfire
13 years ago
Thanks, Elba1 for trying to help me. I had posted recently with the problem of xenon lights that were heating up the inside bottom of my cabinets.(There hv been others, but mine was the most recent).

I greatly appreciate Davidro1's info, too.

Must be too early in the a.m. for me, or I am just so fixated on the problem that I can't see the headline in any other way. So, I will have a few cups of coffee and revisit to appreciate what sounds like a double entendre that is giving others a laugh.

Oh, oh..wait a minute, just saw Elba1's (dare I say, 'f/u') comment. Therefore, in the words of Miss Emily Latella, 'Never mind.'
sallysue_2010
13 years ago
I would like to feel very silly and sorry about hijacking a thread that needed a serious answer to correct bad clerk information, except I can't muster up one iota of regret!

Winter has returned to the North and I am looking for every laugh I can get :)

Now I will have to think of ANOTHER excuse come summer.....
Fori
13 years ago
Oooohhhhhhhhhhhh.
brickeyee
13 years ago
"I was told there are "low voltage" lights and "line voltage" lights. It is the line voltage lights that can get pretty hot, whereas the low voltage lights get slightly warm at best."

Do not rely on any advice from whomever made this claim.

Heat output is driven by power input, how many watts the light is.

The voltage makes no difference.

A 20 watt incandescent bulb is a 20 watt incandescent bulb, and the vast majority of the power is turned into heat.

The bigger problem with line voltage physically small bulbs is that their vibration resistance is terrible.

A 12 V puck bulb filament is much more resistant to vibration than a 120 V puck bulb filament.

Low voltage filaments can be made as a double helox for strength, at 120 V the electricity would jump over the filament coils, they need to be further apart than 12 V.

This is also why cars use low voltage bulbs.
If you had a 120 V bulb in a car it would be failing every time you hit a hard bump.
elba1
Original Author
13 years ago
Ok, thanks, so much for the "lighting expert" at the lighting store.

By the way, I use f/u all the time - just realized it is a medical abbreviation, not a texting one :o).
sallysue_2010
13 years ago
Elbal - and I work with boys in junior high and high school, so there ya go - context!