One of IKEA's LED table lamps currently on their website. What do you think about this style, compared to a traditional table lamp with an incandescent bulb?

In our Roundup for June 14 to July 2, we noted IKEA’s impending phaseout on the sale of incandescent light bulbs.  We didn’t go into detail about what this means for the lighting industry, and it’s a pretty significant milestone.

With such a prominent retailer officially disassociating themselves from incandescent bulbs (IKEA’s phaseout is expected to begin in August and be complete by the end of the year), the shift across the industry from traditional bulbs to more energy efficient lighting accelerates.

Of course, these changes will take place across the entire lighting industry in the next few years anyway – IKEA is simply beginning the incandescent phaseout early.  In 2012, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will take effect.  There are various components of the law (see the link for more details).  Basically, by 2014, the sale of all traditional incandescent bulbs will be banned.

The phaseout also signifies changes ahead in lighting design.  CFLs, Halogens, and LEDs will take the place of incandescent bulbs, and that means new lighting designs corresponding with the more energy efficient light sources are to be expected.  The picture of the table lamp above illustrates this point: without incandescents, it will no longer be necessary to accommodate for a large incandescent bulb in the design of a lighting fixture.

The entire foundation of lighting design is going to change; and for lighting designers, the possibilities are endless.

Did you know that we offer FAST price quotations on lamps and ballasts from many leading manufacturers?  Visit our new lamps and ballasts web page and submit our short Request for Quotation (RFQ) form, or just call our toll-free number, 800.392.4818, to receive a quote within one business day (and sometimes same day!).  Our lamps and ballasts are from the following manufacturers:

Check out our Fast Price Quotations for Lamps & Ballasts.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Oceana have launched the most recent plan of attack to protect the Florida Keys from oil plumes, and his name is Waldo.

“Waldo” is a 6-1/2 foot long underwater robot that can detect oil residue in the water and automatically send alerts to researchers, who will, in turn, perform tests and communicate with the local government.

So how does he do it?  As Waldo travels through the water, he sends out ultraviolet light with an LED.  If the water contains oil, it will absorb the LED light and re-emit it.  Any time Waldo detects light emission, he sends a signal to researchers.

Who knew LED lights could ever help with the oil spill?

Just to clarify, white LEDs do not emit infrared or ultraviolet light – that’s why they are useful for art galleries and museums, where this type of light can damage artwork.  However, Waldo does not use white LEDs, which is why he is able to use ultraviolet light to detect oil plumes.

We are excited to announce that our recent donation to Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, Inc. (TROSA) is helping them complete their newest housing project in Durham, NC!

TROSA is a two-year, comprehensive residential substance abuse recovery program.  It is a non-profit organization, and provides all care, food, clothing, and housing to its 375 residents free of charge for the duration of the program.  Providing housing for 375 residents is certainly a challenge.  TROSA is currently undertaking a major expansion of its campus to fulfill needs.

We offered to provide recessed lighting for their project on Elizabeth Street in Durham, NC.  The house, which was originally built in the 1920’s, has been undergoing major renovations for the past two years.  After the refurbishments are finally complete, seventeen residents will live in the house.

We donated eighteen recessed shower trims and housings for the house’s four bathrooms, and the project is now expected to be complete within the next few weeks!

To find out more about the organization or to make a donation, visit the TROSA website.  To find out more about the Elizabeth Street project, check out our press release.

This humorous video from Cree shows the effect of incandescent and LED lighting on chocolate bunnies.  The bunny on the left was under a 12W LED light and the bunny on the right was under a 65W incandescent light.  Looks like a fun test for a Monday afternoon!

In lighting news…

Toshiba has signed a contract to provide LED lighting for the Louvre (free of charge).  The Pyramids, the Napoléon Court, and the Cour carrée will all be outfitted with LED lights by 2012.

Three women in southwestern Kenya have engineered solar lighting for two remote villages in rural Kenya.  The story is really incredible.

The Green Savings Network blog wrote about a current trend in the green construction industry: certified general electricians are transitioning into energy contractors because of the booming market for retrofitting.

Houston’s Toyta Center, home of the Houston Rockets (NBA), has just been awarded with LEED EB Certification.  Joining the ranks of Portland’s Rose Garden, Miami’s American Airlines Arena, Atlanta’s Philip’s Arena, and Minnesota’s Target Field, the news points to a surge in popularity of major sports arenas seeking LEED certification.    

Recent studies indicate that workplaces promoting green initiatives and/or LEED certification have higher rates of employee productivity – definitely an interesting link!  The Greenbiz blog lists the findings in detail.

A great interview on the New York Times Green blog revealed common misconceptions about the state of the energy-efficient lighting market.  Don Peifer described the problem with putting new, energy-efficient technologies into traditional light sockets designed for incandescent bulbs.

In lighting tips…

Looking for inspiration for a summer home project?  A few recent articles outlined easy ways to tackle kitchen remodels: Five simple projects for a 180-degree makeover in 6 hours or less, Seven steps to an organized pantry, and Kitchen tips to create a new look without expensive remodeling.

If you’ve ever considered adding a dimmer to a room in your home (or if you haven’t ever considered it), check out this doityourself.com article on the four benefits to a dimmer light switch.  Save energy, control the mood of a room, and lengthen the life of your light bulbs with dimmers.

A helpful article on One Project Closer published a how-to on installing under cabinet lighting as a DIY project.

Other cool sites…

The GE “What’s your Lighting Style?” website is pretty awesome.  You can explore a virtual home and answer questions to find out how to create the perfect mood for your home through lighting.

If you’re only going to choose just one lighting feature to add your kitchen, make it under cabinet lighting.  It provides task lighting for your countertops to make them ideal for food preparation and cooking, it illuminates the backsplash on your wall to create beautiful accent lighting, and it can also be used as night lighting for your kitchen.  Once you install under cabinet lighting, you’ll never want to go back.

Many lighting designers talk about creating “layers of light” for your kitchen.  Under cabinet lighting serves as a crucial “layer” for great design.

That being said, there are a ton of options to choose from.  How do you know what style of under cabinet lighting is right for your kitchen?  Hopefully, this guide will make it a little easier to make your selection.

It’s a good idea to choose your light source first.

1. Fluorescent, Xenon, or LED?

Fluorescent Under Cabinet Lights

Fluorescent under cabinet lights are the most energy efficient in providing a given amount of light.  Moreover, fluorescent light sources give off very little heat.  This is a great feature depending on what is stored in the cabinet immediately above the under cabinet fixture or, perhaps, what is lying 12 to 18 inches below the light.  While most fluorescent fixtures cannot be dimmed, they can be a wonderful, inexpensive option.  In addition, our Microfluorescent Fixtures or Fluorescent Swivel Sticks are probably the easiest products to install – a definite plus.

Xenon Under Cabinet Lights

Xenon lights are not quite as energy efficient and do give off some heat but they have full dimming capacity, and they give off an attractive warm light.  (If you love the warm glow of an incandescent light bulb, xenon under cabinet lights are for you).  While they’re not cool to the touch, the amount of heat emitted is still substantially lower than halogen lights.  Heat output can be an important consideration with under cabinet lighting since you’re often installing the lights directly on the underside of food storage cabinets – and above any produce sitting out on the counter.  For this reason, we don’t sell halogen under cabinet lights.

LED Under Cabinet Lights

If you’re looking for the most energy efficient option, go with LEDs.  Although most LEDs cannot be dimmed, some fixtures have two levels of brightness which allows for some flexibility. LEDs are also cool to the touch and will last for 50,000 hours before needing replacement bulbs (that’s almost six years).  The initial price tag is a bit more expensive but if you consider your future savings in energy, LED under cabinet lights start to make a lot of sense.  They also give off a brilliant white light that is very appealing for kitchen design.

2. Puck or Linear?

The style of the fixture is another consideration.  We usually recommend installing linear under cabinet lights because they provide uniform, well-distributed light for the entire countertop and eliminate shadows.  However, a number of people prefer the style of under cabinet puck lights for the kitchen, which create pools of light in more focused areas.  Either type of light works fine, this is really just a matter of preference.

3. Recessed or Surface mount?

A lot of people assume that non-recessed under cabinet lights will have fixtures jutting out unattractively from underneath the cabinets.  This really isn’t the case –most of the surface-mount options are so thin that you’d have to literally stick your head underneath the cabinet and look up to see the actual fixture.  The good news is that it’s hard to go wrong on this decision.  If you absolutely love the seamless look of recessed lighting – even when it’s hidden – check out the recessed under cabinet lights (but keep in mind that all of the recessed options are also puck lights).

Low-Profile Surface Mount Under Cabinet Lights

There’s a much larger selection of surface mount under cabinet lights.  The most low-profile surface mount under cabinet lights are the Microfluorescent T4 Light Fixtures.  The Xenon Line Voltage Thin Under Cabinet Task Lights are also very low-profile and are some of our most popular under cabinet lights.  Our VP, Chris Johnson, actually installed these into his home.  Check out his blog post to see before and after pictures if you’re interested.

4. Hardwire or Plug-in?

Lighting fixtures that are “hardwired” are connected directly to the power source using a ROMEX® wire (this is what is used behind your walls to wire your entire house).  Plug-in under cabinet lights, of course, require you to plug in a cord to your nearest electrical outlet.  Decide what your preference is for type of installation and placement – if there’s not a well-placed outlet in your kitchen, you’ll probably want to go with hardwire.  A number of our under cabinet lights can be set up to be either hardwire or plug-in, but there are a few that do not have both options, so just check out the product listings of hardwire under cabinet lighting and plug-in under cabinet lighting.

The FAQs tab on our under cabinet lighting page has some really helpful information to explain the options even further.  Good luck installing your under cabinet lights, and don’t forget to tell us how it goes!  Comment on this post with any questions and/or post your photos of your recent lighting project on our Facebook page.

An announcement from the FTC last week will mark a significant change for the lighting industry.   Consumer packaging of incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED light bulbs will be required to have a new “Lighting Facts” label.  The label will be similar to the Department of Energy’s Lighting Facts^CM label, and the requirement will go into effect mid-2011.

If consumer packaging requirement changes don’t sound like a big deal to you, read on.  With this ruling, the FTC will effectively transform the way people buy light bulbs.  For years, people have purchased a light bulb largely based on number of watts.  For a super bright light, a consumer would simply buy one with a higher wattage.

With lower-efficiency bulbs like CFLs and LEDs, watts are becoming less relevant.  Technically, watts measure the amount of power consumed – not how much light it outputs.  Light output is actually measured by lumens.

The new energy efficient light bulbs bring lumens into the picture.  A LED recessed downlight uses just 11-12 watts of power, but it produces around 600 lumens of light.  That light level is the equivalent of a 40 to 60 watt incandescent.  Clearly, there’s no way to judge an energy-efficient light by its wattage.

With the new FTC ruling, consumer packaging of light bulbs will highlight lumen levels rather than watts.  Since lower-efficiency bulbs are being phased out beginning in 2012, this couldn’t come at a better time. The FTC commented on the change:

While watt measurements are familiar to consumers and have been featured on the front of light bulb packages for decades, watts are a measurement of energy use, not brightness. As a result, reliance on watt measurements alone makes it difficult for consumers to compare traditional incandescent bulbs to more efficient bulbs…

The DOE also has a Lighting Facts label, but it is more geared toward retailers, wholesalers, lighting designers, and energy efficient programs to evaluate products.  The new FTC label will be for consumers.

How quickly do you think consumers will adapt to the new labels?  Do you think this is a necessary change for energy efficient lighting?  Please comment below!

The Country Living 2010 House of the Year, airlifted into Manhattan to demonstrate green living.

Ikea will start phasing out the sale of traditional incandescent bulbs starting August 1, and they plan to stop selling incandescent bulbs by the end of the year.  This announcement signals changes ahead in lighting design.

The top 10 hot kitchen and bath design trends for this year were published after the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s 2010 design competition.  Jill Valeri, president of The Welcome Home, said the way to inject your personality into your space is through paint color, hardware, and lighting.

The Butler Institute of American Art is installing LED lighting in its galleries to save energy and illuminate the paintings more effectively.  Because LEDs give off much less heat and do not emit UV rays, they better preserve artwork.

LED technology is also making a sparkle in the jewelry industry.  Retailers find that LED display case lighting provides an optimal setting for diamonds.

How much energy can you save?  The Light Now blog published an article that calculates what percentage energy savings various buildings can achieve if they adhere to the ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides and the DOE Commercial Lighting Solutions program.

The Country Living 2010 House of the year was airlifted into Manhattan amidst the skyscrapers to demonstrate what a high-end, well-built green home could look like.

In lighting tips…

If you’re planning a lighting retrofit, this article is a must-read.  Buildings.com published a guide of 17 common lighting mistakes to avoid in an energy-efficient lighting retrofit.

For the interior-designers-at-heart, designer Sara Noble writes about her strategy for lighting a room.  She recommends going bold and using interesting shapes and color to add a pop of the unexpected.

Outdoor lighting has become an art form.  This article outlines current trends in outdoor lighting.

How do you create a relaxing, spacious ambiance in a bathroom that’s too small?  Check out Small Bathroom Designs – Advice from Top Industry Professions (and see our section on Lighting Tips and Tricks)!

Other cool sites…

Check out these LED light paintings – they’re incredible, and they were created naturally without manipulation in Photoshop.

This is the third blog post of my New Home Project post series.  This series of posts details the lighting projects that I have undertaken in my new home.  My first post reviewed the installation of our under cabinet lighting and my second post covered the use of microfluorescent T4 fixtures as pantry and closet lighting.  This post will also talk about microfluorescent T4 fixtures, but this time using them as over cabinet lighting in my kitchen.

While my house was under construction, I had the electricians install electrical outlets on either side of my kitchen directly above my cabinets.  These outlets are controlled by a single wall switch.  Once we moved into our home, I measured the total length of the cabinets where I could place the microfluorescent fixtures.

Since I knew I was going to be using a number of fixtures (both for my over cabinet as well as my pantry and closet lighting) I chose one size to be used in all of my lighting projects.  This made stocking replacement fluorescent lamps easy since I only needed to worry about one size / wattage lamp.  For all of my microfluorescent T4 uses I chose a 24-watt fixture (34.5 inches long).  I also made the decision to use warm white instead of cool white lamps.  As I stated in my pantry and closet lighting post, I prefer the warmer color temperature for a residential setting.

To ensure that I had enough light and to minimize dark spots between fixtures, I installed two rows of microfluorescent T4s on top of my cabinets.  Each microfluorescent fixture comes with a cord and plug, two mounting clips with screws, and an inline direct connector.

Microfluorescent T4 Fixture

In addition to being plugged into an electrical outlet, the microfluoresent fixtures can be linked together using either the included inline direct connector or a 90-degree direct connector, 3-way direct connector, or flexible linking cables.  When I purchased my fixtures, I purchased a number of flexible linking cables to create a chain of fixtures above my cabinets.  Since I used 24-watt fixtures, I was able to link together five fixtures on one outlet.  In general, the maximum wattage in one chain of T4 fixtures is 200 watts.  However, for the 22-watt and above fixtures that are on a single circuit, five linked together is the max.

To say that my over cabinet lighting installation was easy is a severe understatement.  In fact, I am not aware of too many projects that are easier that I have tackled.  Clearly having the electrical outlets and switch installed during construction helped my cause.  However, one of the reasons that I am big fan of our microfluorescent fixtures is how easy they are to install for a number of different uses.  I think that my entire installation took 15-20 minutes.  I simply placed each fixture directly on top of my cabinets.  I then linked one fixture to another until I had my maximum of five.  Once I had five, I moved on to another chain of fixtures using another one of my outlets above the kitchen cabinets.  I spaced out my two rows of fixtures to maximize the light and minimize dark spots.  Finally, once I had the placement of each fixture the way I wanted, I screwed one or two mounting clips per fixture into the top of a cabinet in order to minimize future movement of any fixture.

Voila!  That was it.  I then turned on my switch and I was done.  I had fantastic over cabinet lighting that, I think, looks great (pics below)!  One idea that I wanted to do, but something got lost in communication between me and the electricians, was to have each row of microfluorescent fixtures over my cabinets on separate switches.  This way I could have one row of fixtures on to create a “low” light setting, and then turn on the second row to have a “high” light setting.  Unfortunately, the electricians and I did not get on the same page and I only have one switch for both rows of lighting.  No big deal, but the individual switches for each row of fixtures would have been cool.  If you can, you should try it.

My next new home project post will be about replacing all of the light switches in my house with Maestro dimmers and switches from Lutron.  This is another relatively easy lighting project with lots of bang.

If you would like to read past posts in my New Home Project series click one of the links below:

• Under Cabinet Lighting
• Closet and Pantry Lighting

Are you tackling any lighting projects?  Let us know and share your pictures with us.  You can post your lighting project info and pics to the Pegasus Lighting Facebook page or in the Share Your Lighting Project section of the Pegasus Lighting Forum.  When possible we also try to post pics of our customer’s lighting projects to our Design Center page.  Make sure to check it out and take a look at some of our customer’s projects.

If you have any questions about over cabinet lighting or our microfluorescent fixtures please submit a comment below.  We would really enjoy hearing from you and helping however we can.

One of the electrical outlets controlled by a switch over my kitchen cabinets.	Microfluorescent T4 fixture with included mounting clip
Over Cabinet Lighting On	Over Cabinet Lighting Off
Rows of microfluorescent T4 fixtures over my cabinets	The switch on the left turns on/off my over cabinet lighting