I have no idea where my post went. I clicked submit post and the screen that came up was blank. No way to get back to it. I'll try to recap. Love the Crees. Get the correct color spectrum as they have at least two choices. They are quite bright. In our kitchen/family room we have 4 zones - they are placed approximately 4 feet apart in line, but the rows vary somewhat in distance apart. The dimmers aren't great, so I control the brightness by turning on and off zones. I wish that I had one extra control zone in the family room because you could land a plane in the FR with the available light from the crees. If I could turn off every third light in the FR it would be about right - although threre are times when I want all the light possible. Our light sources for the kitchen and family room are the 4 zones of CREEs, 3 pendants, hood light, under cab light and three 4 inch "wall washer" cans in the family room- not cree. We used the cree's through out the house wherever we added cans, and I am very happy with the led light. The five main observations would be: poor ability to dim light, (I don't care), brighter than regular cans - to me anyway, their 4" cans actually use a 6" housing - don't get fooled- check specs, buy the correct color spectrum- warm white vs blue light, add multiple zones to make dimming options greater. I think you'll really like them.

4" cree lights take a larger box than regular 4" cans - check the specs, unless this has changed in the past year. I know this because we put 6" CREEs in throughout the house with a plan for the 4" CREE cans in the entry and as an accent light in the family room. The 4" CREEs didn't fit as the contractor hadn't actually checked the specs for the box. Ultimately we had to use standard 4" cans in place of the CREES in those two applications. We have 8' ceilings in the kitchen/family room and used the 6" CREEs as our main ceiling light.. I love them and really like the light. They are very bright. I can't see how one foot of ceiling height would make that much difference. I do wish that I had added an extra zone of control, ( we have three), as they are very bright and do not dim that well. They do dim, but the light is just kind of weird when dimmed. Sorry, can't give a better explanation than that. I wouldn't let the dimming issue stop you from using them. Have you tried doing a search, both on this forum and lighting?

The main question is whether the additional 200 lumens would be useful and worth the extra cost. If you have ceilings > 10', perhaps.

Hi David, thanks for weighing in! There's something about the initial light when entering the room--to see where I'm walking--that makes me so hate a delay. I don't mind the delay in places where I'm already in the room with some ambient light, and then want to flick on a particular location for some task. I have another question about the undercabinet lights, though I think I'll start a new thread on that one. Hi housavvy, thanks for your input. I really appreciate your point about the up front expense. The person at the lighting place we visited said that going LED was like buying your electricity "up front". That you are spending more earlier, and there will be a payback time at which you reach the equivalent. For home kitchens, he suggested that if we're going to be in the house less than 5 years, to do the lower-priced CREEs (the CR6s, if they come out in time) or not LEDs--because the payback for the lower-priced LEDs would be about 3 years, and then it gets longer the higher in price you get. Balancing all of those things (time before payback, quality of the light, delay in coming on, etc) is key. I do know that having a delay upon entering the room is a showstopper for me personally, so hearing how things are actually behaving in real life is terrific. :-) Thanks! Lee