In article ,
"Steven Campbell" spam@away writes:
Hi guys I'm looking for any ideas for under cabinet lighting on a soon to be
fitted new kitchen.
The pelmet isn't that big so it would need to be something slim line.
I've had a look at some LED strips. Would these throw out enough light to
work with.
These obviously wouldn't be the main light for working in but an additional
light.

I use fluorescents.
From the point of view of best worktop lighting and minimum
reflections, you want to fit the tubes as near to the fronts of
the cupboard bottoms as you can. Right behind the pelmet is ideal.

You can buy T4 fittings in the likes of B&Q.
Just beware that T4 tubes are not standardised, so make sure you can
buy spare tubes from whereever you get the fittings. (I've been bitten
by this once, as Omicron decided to stop producing their products.)

More recently, I have changed to use T5HE (High Efficiency) tubes,
which are available in lengths to match widths of kitchen (and other)
modular units, i.e. (from the table I put in Wikipedia)...

Length Watts HE Watts HO Notes
563 mm (22.2 in) 14 W 24 W fits within a 600 mm modular unit
863 mm (34.0 in) 21 W 39 W fits within a 900 mm modular unit
1,163 mm (45.8 in) 28 W 54 W fits within a 1200 mm modular unit
1,463 mm (57.6 in) 35 W 80 W fits within a 1500 mm modular unit

Under a run of 3 x 600mm cupboards, I use a 35W tube.
It's bright, exactly what I want for working on the worktop.
I use 5/8" terry clips on the back of the pelmet to hold the
tube, and the electronic control gear is remote on the wall
(positioned where it won't heat up the cupboards, although
any lights will to some degree).

I have done the same on top of wall cupboards in a couple of
kitchens to provide the room's general lighting, indirectly off
a white ceiling, using the HO (High Output) T5 tubes (24W on
single cupboards or pairs of narrower cupboards, 54W on a pair
of 600mm cupboards). If you have lots of wall cupboards, you
could drop back to the HE tubes instead.

HO tubes would be too bright under cupboard, and they also get
very hot and it's not a good idea to have kitchen cupboards
heated like that as they can't be used for storing lots of
types of food.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]