Cabinet Lighting

[Lee4847]

LOML wants a couple of 20 watt halogen lights in this cabinet to highlight some of those nick-nack things. Their will be two glass shelves and glass doors. My question is where to place them in the top. It seems to me they should be near the front so light is cast on the front of the objects on the shelves. I am thinking that if they were centered it would cast shadows on the objects. Thanks in advance for your input.

Lee

[Copper]

I recently installed some undercabinet halogen lamps (puck style) and found that the light didn't necessarily shine direcctly under the lamps. Before you drill any holes, try taping the lights temporarily (or hold them in place while LOYL stands back and looks) and see if they cast light where you want it.

[venkatbo]

Hi Lee,

I vaguely recall reading some building codes (in CA, and probably part of Uniform Codes) that restrict the kind of lighting one can add in cabinets. It apparently has to do with excessive heat/fire-hazard... May want to check your local codes, just so you can mitigate such issues with appropriate h/w-electrical selction.

Best,
/venkat

[LCHIEN]

maybe you should think about putting a mirror back and mirror bottom on the inside of the cabinet.

It will reflect light from all sides and make the cabinet look bigger (deeper) and also you can se the backs of the NNs.


Venkat, I think 20W is pretty low power/heat.

[jackellis]

maybe you should think about putting a mirror back and mirror bottom on the inside of the cabinet.

It will reflect light from all sides and make the cabinet look bigger (deeper) and also you can se the backs of the NNs.


Venkat, I think 20W is pretty low power/heat.

Even small halogen lights can get pretty hot because they're so small, and that's really the key point here. 40 watt incandescent bulbs get too hot to touch. A 20 watt bulb the size of the end of your little finger gets significantly hotter because it's dissipating that 20 watts over a much smaller surface than the incandescent bulb.

Make sure there's an inch or two between the reflector and anything that can burn, like wood, and provide some ventilation for the cabinet so the inside doesn't get too warm.