Xenon Undercabinet Lights

15 years ago

It looks as though the downside to the xenon lights is the heat. How hot do they really get? Must say the fluorescents under my present cabinets produce enough heat that I don't keep things like tea on the bottom shelf. Are xenon that much hotter?

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Comments (12)

mamadadapaige
15 years ago
hmmm... I have Xenon bulbs. I have the Sea Gull Ambiance Linear Lighting system.

I have no issues with the bulbs being too hot.
solarpowered
15 years ago
I believe that typical xenon U/C lighting is around double the wattage of typical fluorescent U/C lighting. That translates into twice the amount of heat from the xenon lighting.
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Trinity_2010 - Xenon bulbs are low voltage. Your Kichler strips are line voltage because they have the transformer built into the strip that take the xenons from low voltage to line voltage. You will still need a low voltage dimmer, either a "magnetic low voltage dimmer" or an "electronic low voltage dimmer". Check with the Kichler installation instructions, or call the Kichler customer service phone number, to find out which low voltage dimmer your strips need. While low voltage dimmers are more expensive than line voltage dimmers, you do not need to spend the $90 that Coffeebeantown quoted. We purchased two electronic low voltage dimmers for our Juno xenon strips (one dimmer for each side of the kitchen). Ours (the Leviton IllumaTech IPE04-1LZ) cost about $47 each. There's also the Lutron Skylark SELV-300P for about $45. Another choice is the Lutron Diva DVELV-300P which is a bit more at $60, but still not as high as the $90 mentioned previously. Lutron makes several other designs for low voltage dimmers, and you can spend more if you want, but you don't have to. Keep in mind the total cost of your kitchen re-do, and what percentage of that is the low voltage dimmer cost of $50 or so.
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friedajune
15 years ago
My xenon undercab lights, which are Juno Trac12's, do not get hot at all. Really, not at all. I believe the difference is that they are OPEN strip xenons, versus closed (i.e. a closed strip would be encased in some sort of plastic cover). I love my xenon undercab lights, I like the white light, I like that they are dimmable (which feature BTW I use all the time), and I like that they are not hot. I will say though, that the Juno Trac12's have the transformer separate which added to the cost, and was a little harder to install. But there are other companies that make xenon strips with the transformer built in. The Kichler's come to mind, but note that the Kichler's make both an open strip style and a closed strip style. Again, the open strip is better IMHO because it won't trap heat.
User
15 years ago
I'm not sure where you are getting your information. My xenon lights (Seagull Ambiance Linear lights) don't heat up the cabinets bottom at all. My son left them on while I was away a few years ago, from Thursday to Monday - the the cabinet bottoms were barely warm. With my old halogen pucks, the house would have burned down by then.

Halogen undercabinet lights make great plate warmers, and they do keep the peanut butter soft. Xenon generates very little heat. You'll love xenon.
cathyinbothell
15 years ago
We had Xenon (Kitchler) installed a couple weeks ago and I have really been surprised at how cool they have been...but so far haven't left them on overnight or anything...
imrainey
15 years ago
I have the Kichler lights. If I touch a light unit it is hot -- I didn't manage to actually touch it before I knew I didn't want to. But an inch away the temperature is hardly detectible at all. After that, you couldn't feel that they were on.
lmalm53
15 years ago
I also have the Seagull Ambiance linear lighting system and LOVE it! I did research both the Halogen and Xenon strip fixture units first and found them both to be unacceptably hot, plus were not dimmable. The Xenon linear lighting systems do not generate excessive heat because the bulbs themselves are so small and are not enclosed in a fixture case as other posters have mentioned. They use dimmable low voltage transformers and I find I use the dimmers on mine all the time. I love the ability to have a bright work light over my countertops or to have low level ambient mood lighting as the need arises. If I actually touch the bulbs with my hand they are of course hot, but the heat is not felt at all a couple inches away and does not reflect heat into my cabinets. They are exactly what I was looking for in an undercabinet lighting system.
cpanther95
15 years ago
For those of you with the Seagull system - what size bulbs did you use and what was the spacing? Did you use the single socket or double socket bulb holders?

Why the choice of a 12V or 24 V system?
cpanther95
15 years ago
When I called Seagull about pre-wiring the system, they said to use 10 AWG Romex in wall then splice into their cable. I questioned such a large AWG, but she said that's to match the size of their cable.

Is this really necessary? 5 runs of 10 AWG wire will be a PITA to deal with.
catamount90
15 years ago
And it's pricey too! I pre-wired with their "ambiance" cable... It's $1.65 / foot around me!
pew1
15 years ago
cpanther95

Depends on the number of bulbs per run, and the length of the supply line.

In my case I used 12/2 and connected to their wire under the cabinet.

I used 10w bulbs which are actually less than 10w, if my memory is correct they are 8 something per bulb.

If you had a large installation, the 24v may be of advantage allowing for smaller wire size and or more bulbs per run.

I used 4 inch spacing. Ours are on a dimmer, we rarely use them fill power.
cpanther95
15 years ago
I have a spread out installation (5 sections) but not a whole lot of actual cabinets. Runs are:

15"
36"
18"
57"
39"

heading clockwise from the DW in the upper right

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