"Julie" wrote in message
...
| I'm planning on replacing the flourescent fixture in my kitchen
with
| some kind of track lighting.
| Right now I have 2 4-foot tubes.
|
| Any suggestions as to how much wattage I need to produce a
similar
| amount of light?
|
| TIA,
| JSH
|
|

Well, light output wise (lumens), multipy the wattage of the two
bulbs by 4 and that's approximately the wattage you'll need in
the track lighting. But ...

-- Hype says multiply by 5, some sources say 6; NOT! -
empirically its a lot closer to 4.
-- Track lighting is good, but ... what kind? Most track
lighting gives more of a "spot" dispersal of light; they won't
flood the entire room like a 4 foot tube of light. Some track
fixtures are better than others, but they still are directional
by design, IMO.

I'd say best thing to do is SEE some track lighting in use where
you can see an actual installation, not the nice displays in the
stores. If you can't do that, pick out what you feel you want to
use, bring it home, put a plug on it temporarily, and
tack/tape/whatever it to the ceiling and see what you think of
it. Then you can decide better. IMO, flourescent light PLUS
track lighting makes a great combo - soft light wash all over,
and useful spots that'll cover the sink, under cupboards, etc
better than the flourescent will.

If you're a big light using house, kitchen always lit, you'll
also see a visible change in your electric bill.
When I removed out track lighting, I took the fixtures to the
garage and mounted them, taping off dust access, etc. once I had
them set where I wanted them, and put flourescent screw-in 100W
equivalent flourescents (14 watts I think they are, or 17;
somewhere in there). It adds just enough to the ancandescant
lighting to make it good for finishing work, etc. Then I add
halogen at a low angle to see defects in the final finish.
Non-flourescent lighting also is worse for shadows; they're a
lot more distinct and less washed out because ot the
"directionality" of the source for the light.

Pop