The words 'dimmable,' fluorescent' and 'less expensive' don't generally go together. Other options might be rope lighting, which is probably the cheapest but produces the least light, or strips of small incandescent bulbs, such as festoon bulbs. Track lighting might be useful, but it's not cove lighting. Fiber optics might work, but I don't think they would save you any money.

Are you looking for the cove lighting to be a primary light source for the room, or just a nice visual effect?

I'd be intererested in your advice on cove lighting. It has been suggested for our masterbedroom, which has an elevated flat ceiling to define the space from a walkway area leading to a separate sitting room. It will not be the only light in the room, but will be an adjunct to recessed lights above the bed (for reading) and a mounted hanging fixture.

jon1270,

The cove or soffit lighting will be the only source of light in that room. We do have a huge window that opens to that room though. Why woundn't track lighting be cove lighting? It is really hidden so no one knows.

We are looking for the cove to be both the main lighting and for visual effect. Our architect said it is softer and not direct like canned lighting.

Thanks again.

Tommy

Tommy, I'm not sure what sort of track fixtures you might be thinking of, or how you'd mount them, unless it's a miniature track designed to have a lot of very small, low-voltage fixtures attatched to it -- something along the lines of Juno's Trac 12, maybe? If that's what you mean then I suppose it could work, but I doubt it would save you any money. Using fewer, larger track fixtures would tend to give you very uneven lighting, and probably be a fire hazard as well.

I'm hoping someone more expert than I will chime in on this topic. The only reason I know anything about it is that the incandsecent fixtures typically used for cove lighting are also sometimes used for kitchen under-cabinet lighting, which is what I plan to do shortly. There's a bunch of manufacturers making very similar harware, generally using low-voltage xenon festoon or rigid loop bulbs. None of it is cheap -- typically in the range of $25-$30 per linear foot once you add up that cost of wire, bulb holders, bulbs, transformers and associated knick-knacks. I've linked to a brochure for one product line, just so you can see where I'm coming from.

From what I've seen, it seems unlikely that cove lighting will work as the only artificial light source in the room. I think it's a lovely source of ambient light, but it won't be able to compete with a large window during the daytime and won't (I'm pretty sure) be enough to read comfortably by at night. If you look through the brochure I linked, you'll see that all of the sample installations are complemented by other sources such as sconces and recessed cans.

Dimming fluorescents requires the use of dimmable ballasts and (usually) special dimmers. A quick google search turned up a source for dimmable ballasts for T8 tubes; the cost of the ballasts alone would be $40-$50 per four-foot, 32w tube. You can see how that would add up.

You haven't said how large the room is, or what sort of fixtures your contractor is suggesting, but $2K doesn't surprise me at all. If it includes building the cove to hide the lights, plus installing everything, it might even be a bargain.

Here is a link that might be useful: Linea cove lighting