Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Kitchen Progress -- Slower than I Thought!

Well, here is that old cliche;
     
                          OUT WITH THE OLD -------




























AND IN WITH THE NEW:


Sorry, must be too tired to focus




This is what we finally decided to go with and now that 6 out of 8 are installed and burning brightly I'm really happy with them.  We bought these at Home Depot and they were one of the few items that received 5 starts from almost every reviewer.  We had tried the CFL bulbs but they were very blue and created a glare.  Almost decided to stick with incandescent flood lights and wait for LED's to drop in price but then saw these.  What's nice about them is that they are bulb and trim all in one.  At about $35.00 each this was a less expensive way to go then buying separate bulbs plus the trim ring.  We had tried an LED bulb and it too, seemed to leave quite a glare.  Most also show the separate LED's giving them a Jetson, space age look.  These don't have that and the bulb has a built in cover.  We should realize a great savings on these bulbs, rated at 65 watts but only use 14.5 watts.  I installed them in an air tight can and since they don't put out much heat (compared to other bulbs) we figure our a/c bill this summer will be a bit lower as well.
     Had a little bit of a problem with the Halo, 6" recessed cans.  I ended up asking my neighbor who works on kitchen remodels and installations to give me a hand.  He too had some hassles and mentioned that these had some grey foam on the clips, something he hadn't seen before.  Since we needed a total of 8 I bought an unopened case of 6 plus 2 loose ones.  The case had the clips without the insulation and installed much easier!
     Here's a picture of how these look now, I still need to add the final two by the window.  The way the kitchen is wired there are three switches, the four lights in the center are on one switch, the two over the bar are on another, and the last two by the window are on their own switch as well.


     Looking good!!  Replace the drywall, have an expert retexture the whole thing and then we'll paint it so this phase will be complete.

2 comments:

  1. Great info on the lighting I will have to have Doug read this, we have halogen and they get so hot and he worries about that. I can not tolerate the fluorescent lights we have tried so many in our lamps and I can not take the lovely dull green light they put out. I love a candle glow and the regular good old light bulbs give me the look I love. John, can you dim these lights?

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  2. Kathy, you can dim them, most of the LED's now are dimmable since the cost is about the same either way. I've seen comments that say you need a special dimmer and others that say an incandescent one will work too so not sure on that aspect. Since we have three lighting circuits in the kitchen we opted not to add the expense of dimming. I did add one more directly over the island to eliminate shadows. As a test I left a circuit on for a few hours and could touch the bulb -- felt as warm as a hot cup of coffee!

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