In article ,
"stuart noble" writes:
I quite fancy the idea of fluorescent tubes on top of kitchen cupboards, as
suggested on here over the years. Are there non-flickering types that will
not be noticeable on start up?

Any with electronic control gear.
There are generally two types, preheat and instant-start, but it's
very difficult to know which type you are going to find in a fitting
before you buy it. In neither case with electronic control gear will
you get the multiple flashing at switchon, flicker whilst operating,
or continued failed attempts to light a dead tube. Personally, I go
for instant start if I can find a choice, even though it slightly
reduces the tube life.

I'm also a little concerned about the coldness of the light bouncing off a
white ceiling. Can anyone suggest a tube that might be closer to daylight?

Real daylight is just about the coldest colour you can get.
When will you be using the light, and how bright is your kitchen?

If the answer is only in the evenings (so you are looking only at
standard evening lighting levels), and you want to mix with filament
lighting and have the same colour, then you want 2700K tubes.
For a brightly lit kitchen and where you might use the lights
to supplement daylight, then 3000K or 3500K would be more appropriate.
For a very brightly light kitchen, you could go up to 4000K.
I wouldn't recommend anything higher than than though. The real
daylight tubes are up in the 6000K area, but unless you get the
lighting level up to that of the midday sun, which would probably
mean covering the ceiling in fluorescent lamps, it will look very
cold and food in particular will look washed out in colour.

--
Andrew Gabriel