Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

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alaskaee

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I have designed lighting for commercial kitchens since 1970. In these kitchens, the minimum light lever in arras where food is prepared is 70 foot candles. However in residential kitchens it is almost impossible to find a light fixture that will mount under the wall mount cabinet that is often mounted over the kitchen sink, that will provide more than 15 foot candles and these are normally a 15-watt fluorescent with a circa 1940, normal power-factor, choke-type ballast with glow-lamp starters and with a plastic enclosure/lens that was designed for the 1940s homes. Today, compact fluorescent lamps, of various configurations are available up rated up to 45 watts, and the new electronic ballasts are available as instant-start, rapid start, and with dimming capability, high power factor, for single and multiple lamp installations, but none of the major light fixture companies offers in a light fixture for the kitchen sink that utilizes these lamps and electronic ballasts.

What I would like to find is the following:

Size: 24 to 30 inches wide, 10 to 11.5 inches front to back, up to 2-inches high.
Lens: Flat prismatic acrylic (A-12 or equivalent) 1/8-inch thick
Lamps: three (3) 4-pin 38-watt General Electric 2-D compact fluorescent lamp - 2395-lumens / lamp or other equivalent lamp
Ballast #1: 2-lamp electronic - Instant-start
Ballast #2: 1-lamp electronic - Instant-start
Switch: 4-position: 1) Off- 2) Connect to 1-lamp ballast, 3) Connect to 2-lamp ballast, 4) connect to both ballasts.

Mounting: To be mounted below the 30-inch wide, 12-inch deep wall mount cabinet above the kitchen sink, between the wall cabinets on both side of the sink and behind a wood fascia that matches the cabinets to shield the fixture from view.

Although I have sent drawing of this fixture to Lithonia, Day Brite, and other lighting fixture companies, none have even acknowledged my submittal and worse have not developed a fixture like this to light the kitchen sink adequately.

If you know of a light fixture manufacture that makes a high-output fluorescent fixture for the use noted above, let me know.
 
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mc5w

Senior Member
Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

You could try a circline fixture that uses a 32 watt and 40 watt bulbs or at least that is the conventional solution.
 
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luke warmwater

Senior Member
Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

A dual Circleline will not fit in his dimentions.

Fluorescent might be recommended for sink lighting, but I think that halogens are nicer. You can get the light output you want and there are many manufactureres of a fixture that will fit your dimentions.

After you decide which fixture to install, will it be Hard Wired, or Plugged Into a Small Appliance Receptacle? :)
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

Originally posted by mc5w:
You could try a circline fixture that uses a 32 watt and 40 watt bulbs or at least that is the conventional solution.
Click to expand...
Do they even make circline fixtures anymore?
 
roger

roger

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Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

Todd, personally I'd mount it with velcro and plug it in to the SA circuit. This would allow for easy and safe lamp changes. ;)

Roger
 
iwire

iwire

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Location
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Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

Originally posted by roger:
Todd, personally I'd mount it with velcro and plug it in to the SA circuit. This would allow for easy and safe lamp changes. :D

[ May 07, 2005, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: iwire ]
Click to expand...
 
roger

roger

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Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

Why yes I am Bob :D and the velcro is, uh, I'll get back to you on that. ;)

Roger
 
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alaskaee

Member
Re: Over Kitchen sink lights - Not enough light

Dear Sir & Madam Responders;

Halogen (MR16) low-voltage lamps are cute and great for lighting objects-d-art, but for area lighting like a sink where food is prepared, lack the light output necessary to light the sink, are inefficient, and have short lamp lives.

Plug-in fixture with a zip cord hanging down over a kitchen sink in a $20,000 kitchen upgrade? Would you also propose that the home owner should have old cars on blocks in front of his/her home as decorative landscaping?

Circleline lamps are 1940s technology for which there are no electronic (instant start or dimming or multi-lamp) ballasts, have very low efficiency & power-factor and are most often found in cheap plastic fixtures found in home improvement centers, that never have fixtures that use the light sources, such as compact fluorescent lamps (other than screw-in types) for interior lighting and HID lamps other than (mercury vapor & HPS all-plastic area lights) in decorative exterior fixtures, used in high-class homes and commercial projects. Suggest that you look at the compact fluorescent lamp sections in lamp catalogs put out by General Electric, Sylvania/Osram.

Velcro? Velcro? Why not a Scotch Tape or bubblegum attachment? We are talking about a permanent installation here not a middle school show and tell project.

I hate the cheap, ugly strip light fixtures that use low-voltage micro tunstan-halogen lamps that are made in China and sold only by the company that sells the fixture that they fit in. If the lamp is not found in the GE or Sylvania/Osram or other major lamp company lamp catalog, I will not specify any fixture that uses the lamp. I never specify normal (low) power-factor light sources, or permanently fixed fixtures with incandescent lamps for other than decoration purposes that can not be serviced without a ladder.

I really like the new fixtures that use LED light sources where applicable such as exit signs, information signs, and lighted wind cones at airports for their high efficiency and and long life. FYI: The new LED traffic light assemblies (Red & Green) that replace the 70-watt 8000-hour traffic signal lamp cost about $130, pay for them selves in about 12 months, and last 100,000 hours. LED (Cross & Do Not Cross ) and other information signs, in addition to being effieient, long lived can be animated.

Conclusion: Incandescent and low technology fluorescent light sources have a low initial first cost and will be with us a long time, but this does not mean that designers and engineers should not demand fixtures that use modern light sources in the home to supply light where required. You can prepare food by candle light or by Coleman gas light ( in a power outage and in your cabin as I have) but why would you want to do so every day?
 
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