Above the cabinet lighting, too bright

[Article 90.1]

They work great in low-voltage landscape lighting, too.

Hmm... Never thought of that, good idea!

 

[480sparky]

Hmm... Never thought of that, good idea!

Cheap way to convert them to holiday lighting.

Red & blue for Memorial Day and July 4th. Red and pink for Valentines' Day....... Green for St. Patty's.......Pastel colors for Easter....... Orange and dark purple for Halloween....... Orange, brown & hellow for Turkey Day......... Red n green for Christmas........... Blue for my birthday..........

 

[mark32]

Of course. Speaking of weddings, we did our reception there by the pool. With the dolphins in attendance.

Ha ha, wow that's cool you had your reception by the dolphins, I know exactly what you are talking about. We stayed there for seven days and saw five receptions, plus the filming of a commercial. Does this pic look familiar?

 

[mark32]

They make 4watt 8watt 14watt 21watt lamps you have to see what lamps you're ballast is rated for! Ive seen the tombstones melt from mismatched lamp and ballast
if the ballast will not do a lower wattage lamp lower your K value to like a 3000k it will soften the whiteness

Hello again, I'm unsure if I'm reading your post correctly. The fixtures take the 46.5" bulb which I believe is 28 watts. Are you saying I can get a 4,8, or 14 watt bulb that will fit in this fixture? You know what's funny though, I had my father put in another t5 bulb when I wasn't around (We live in different states) and he said it started smoking, maybe the tombstone had a meltdown but I just thought he didn't have it in properly.

My thoughts exactly! You will want to ask for "Neutral Density Gells" The photo/video world measures there lighting in stops, and therefore, you will order a 1/4, 1/2 full, 2 stop, etc. gel. A good grip company will have rolls available for you as well as sheets of varying sizes. There are two types of gells, the type that can be used with "hot" lights, and standard gells. The ND gells should not alter the color temperature of the lamp in theory, although, it is hard to believe when you are looking at the grey material. Hey why not get some 1/2 CTO gells and warm the lighting up a bit? (just kidding). The packing tape is going to be the least expensive option IMHO.

Hello there, I'm just curious as to what these gells look like. How would one install these over a horizontal fluorescent? Would the roll or sheet be better? Also, I'm unsure what "1/4, 1/2 full, 2 stop" means. Thanks!

 

[Article 90.1]

A "stop" is a unit of measurement of light in the photo and video world. One stop is equal to double the amount of light, or half the amount of light, depending on which way you are going. As far as what gels look like, they look like the picture 480 posted, think of colored cellophane. ND (Neutral Density) gels can be thought of as neutral or gray sunglasses; they don't alter the color, just the amount of light passing through. A stop is like a pixel, in that there is not a standard size. A stop is relative to whatever is outputting or limiting the light.

And for anyone who cares, that is why f2.8 on one camera lens, is a different size opening then f2.8 on another camera lenses opening.

As it goes in the other posts on plumbing, "welcome to Mike Holts' photography forum."

All the math above is based on the inverse square law. Sorry, not going in to that or going to look it up.

Just tryout the packing tape like someone else mentioned, you will be reducing the light output and warming up the color temperature a bit.

 

[boltneck]

I ran into the same problem last year on T5 lighting above cabinets

Google "dimmming sleeves"

someplace in Ca i found them at

they were like a tube guard with a matrix dot pattern around the tube
spin the tube around the lamp for different dimming options

at the time thay did not have T5 but the T8 worked fine on the T5 lamps

 

[LarryFine]

Somehow, using a too-bright lamp/fixture and then masking it dimmer rubs me the wrong way.

I say make the amount of light you need and no more. Lights are inefficient enough already.

 

[mark32]

Thank you Article for that info, interesting stuff, thanks for posting.

Boltneck, I like the idea of these dimming sleeves, so much in fact that I ordered two today from a place called Fluorolite Plastics, I'll post next month how they work. Thank you very much sir for your input.

 

[mark32]

I received and installed two t5 "Dimming Sleeves" last week and they worked great and at $12 a piece they were much cheaper than buying a dimmable ballast and dimmer. Thanks for all the help, especially Boltneck for the idea.

 

[220/221]

Spray paint the lamps.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I received and installed two t5 "Dimming Sleeves" last week and they worked great and at $12 a piece they were much cheaper than buying a dimmable ballast and dimmer. Thanks for all the help, especially Boltneck for the idea.

The dimming sleeve sounds like a great idea. I will have to try and keep those in my memory bank.

 

[cschmid]

Last year I installed 2 (End to end) 4' t5's above the cabinets in my parent's kitchen. I did this to compliment the t5's I put under the cabinets (8" and 14" I believe) and the rest of the recessed lighting. Anyway, the four footers throw a little too much light, I then considered t4's but I see that the lumens are the same as the t5's. Now I'm unsure as to what to do, I need less light output and I don't want to use cheesy rope lights, any suggestions?

Dimmable electronic ballasts as they save energy vs the dimming sleeves that just deafen the light.

added: You can use one ballast and connect both lights to it, master & slave

 

[cschmid]

They make 4watt 8watt 14watt 21watt lamps you have to see what lamps you're ballast is rated for! Ive seen the tombstones melt from mismatched lamp and ballast
if the ballast will not do a lower wattage lamp lower your K value to like a 3000k it will soften the whiteness

soften the whiteness it stains the white color with yellow it makes it a cream color..I would not like it..

 

[e57]

Cheap way to convert them to holiday lighting.

Red & blue for Memorial Day and July 4th. Red and pink for Valentines' Day....... Green for St. Patty's.......Pastel colors for Easter....... Orange and dark purple for Halloween....... Orange, brown & hellow for Turkey Day......... Red n green for Christmas........... Blue for my birthday..........

Ever seen my homemade GOBO light? (MR-16 lamp holder, in a 4S box, a housing of scraps from TAP plastics, an old telephoto lens, and various MR-16 color filters with letraset lettering)