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tmy23

Recessed LIghting for Kitchen

tmy23
15 years ago

Greetings. I am at the stage of my kitchen remodel where I am framing the ceiling for new sheetrock and thus am selecting lighting. Being completely new to this, i.e. like many I grew up with a circular florescent fixture surface mounted to our kitchen ceiling, so this recessed lighting thing and all the various bulb options is a little daunting. I've read a number of the posts and thought to go with a low voltage halogen solution. Why...couldn't tell you, it seemed that low voltage was less expensive to run that high voltage.

SO I went to a web site that sold 4" fixtures that use MR-16 bulbs and noticed that there is a ballast, etc on this fixture and began to wonder from a maintenance standpoint, would it all be accessable for maintenance through a 4" hole in the ceiling? Obviously I don't want to tear up sheetrock to replace components, so then I started thinking of line voltage cans, where theoretically nothing goes wrong once the wiring is right. So bottom line is I'm a bit lost.

IS there any relationship between low voltage and low energy comsumption? Or will line voltage cans be fairly energy efficient because of non-incandescent bulbs?

Is there a family or configuration of halogen or LED bulbs that have a much longer life expectancy than others?

Finally, I don't have a budget for $200 cree fixtures, although they look great. I'm at the big box stores looking at $20-$30 fixtures.

The kitchen will have also have under cabinet and two hanging fixtures over our island to provide general lighting. I am relying on the cans for specific work area lighting.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Tom

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