I use my dimmers in my DR/LR/GR, but I don't actually use the dimmers in my kitchen. I find that if I just want "mood" I leave my UC lights on for that glowy night light effect. Otherwise I like full on light to see what I'm doing.

Same as laxsupermom...I don't dim any in the kitchen, but do in DR and LR. If I want only a little light, I turn on the venthood light, or just a certain section of lights.

I find that we dim the pendants and recessed lights the most. As a matter of fact, our recessed lights are rarely on full. This may be b/c we have a lot of recessed cans (4" since that was the largest we could fit; we had to downsize the 5" ones to 4".)

We don't seem to dim the undercounter lights nearly as much as I thought we would! Yes, the DR lights are usually dimmed as well, but the kitchen lights are on more than the DR.

The number of lights would certainly make a difference. We have 2 pendants by the sink on 1 switch, 2 overhead/central lights on another, and 1 over the table on its own switch. We have only 5 recessed cans in the main kitchen divided onto 2 different switches to light specific task areas. Whenever those are on I want the full light for whatever I'm doing. We didn't do undercabinet lighting.

Screw-in halogens are also dimmable. They give a lot more light for the wattage, so are a lower energy choice than incandescent bulbs.

Good point about the halogens and xenon. I'm just not -- or wasn't -- planning on using them in my kitchen. (But I keep changing my mind!) I forgot those are dimmable even though I have two dimmable halogens on the hood vent.

I have dimmable halogens and xenon. I don't think I have ever dimmed the UC lights, and very very rarely the cans in the kitchen ceiling.

I do have bullet lights shining into my greenhouse windows, and I've dimmed those once in a while.

But the ones that get dimmed quite regularly are the halogens in the DR fixture over the table- our DR is now our kitchen, so guess that still counts.

So, wouldn't miss the dimmer switches in my kitchen. I think having lots of different lighting choices is what is best. I have about 6 dimmers, and as I stated, really only use the one over the dining table.

I also like LOTS of light when working in the kitchen, but at night after the kitchen has been put to bed, but before I am in bed, I dim the cans over the sink area, and also put the UC lights which are just wonderful and which I highly recommend you look into... they are either the Seagull or Kichler Linear Lighting System with Xenon bulbs.

The most used dimmers are the DR incandescent as we eat there every night and the morning room in the PM as we use reading lights and dim the overhead incandescent chandy . In the kitchen I dim the hood halogens and the island incandescent. None of the others as they are , like others here, either on high or off. We have Xenon in/under cab lights. Good for 8000 hrs. A few cans. c

Our can lights are on dimmers, and are probably our least used lights. We generally turn them on when we want a low light in the kitchen at night - enough to see by, but without bright glare. I only turn them on full brightness when I'm cleaning.

The undercabinet lights have high/low settings. I have them all set to low and generally turn on these lights as neeed for task lighting - i.e. when I use the perimeter counters for prep or when making coffee in the mornings.

Main sink light - no dimmer. I usually tun on this light at the same time as the cabinet lights.

Island pendants - no dimmer. I really expected our can lights to be the main lighting source, but in reality, we tend to use the pendants over the island the most as our primary light source. I suppose if we had a dimmer on these we'd probably use it a lot as well, but there are enough other lighting options where I don't miss it.

Breakfast pendant - no dimmer. Only on when eating after dark :). If we need mood lighting, we have two additional can lights on a separate dimmer.

GE and a couple of other companies are making dimmable CFL's now. I bought a pair of 25 watt dimmable spirals for the new kitchen fixture this weekend.

I didn't know the technology was still "rough" for dimmable CFLs or I certainly would not have installed, used and enjoyed mine in my recessed can lights. Guess I can't contribute anything here. :)

Sue

We dim the recessed lights the most, then the dining room chandelier, then the pendants, then the lights above our new french doors. Our undercabinet and over the sink are not dimmable. I rarely use the undercabinet lights, because I keep forgetting I have them!

I dim the lights over the dining table pretty well every day. I HATE bright lights shining in my eyes when I am sitting down to enjoy a meal (or conversation).
My under counter lights have two settings and I keep them on low almost all of the time.
I have several pot lights - I rarely dim them because I only turn them on when I need 'light'.
I keep the under cabinet lights and the two pendants over the island on all the time.

I have all the can lights in my house on dimmers. I will gradually switch them all to dimmable fluorescent bulbs.

We used to play a lot with the lights after the kitchen was remodeled. Three years later, mostly, they are on or off. We "dim" for company. (big smile)

-Babka

I don't have overhead lights as I don't care for overhead light. If I had them I would surely want to dim them - since I don't like bright overhead light.

I don't dim my under cabinet lights much. The lights over my sink have high, medium and low - those I usually have a medium. My pendants are on actual dimmers and those are almost always dimmed.

We put our 7 halogen can lights onto 2 switches. 3 lights are the lights we use most--one can in the center of the work area and 1 can at each end of the pathway through the kitchen. I like having these on dimmers. There are times of day when full light seems too harsh (just as it's getting light in the morning and at dusk.) The other light we have on a dimmer is the hanging 3-light fixture (pool table style) over the peninsula prep zone. I often use the dimmer because the fixture is fairly low and can seem too glaring in my eyes. But I haven't been dimming this fixture lately because we've been replacing the incandescents with cfl's---hope to get dimmable cfl's down the road. My preference is to have it dimmable but it's not horrible in a non-dimmable state. We rarely use the second batch of 4 can lights that are spaced over the perimeter counters but when we do it's because we need lots of light so we would never dim them. I rarely dim the pendants over our sinks because they're only on when I'm washing or prepping veggies and I want the light. We have undercabinet lights that have a low/high switch (as do our hood lights) but I very rarely use the uc lights (maybe 10 times in the last 3 1/2 years.)

I dim all of my overhead lighting, including the three chandeliers in the kitchen (over island, sink and table) as well as the pot lights which are on two different switches (one for each side of the kitchen). I think the can's (4") are halogen? The little hot ones with two pins that plug into the fixture.

I have upper cabinet and under cabinet lighting, but they're xenon strips so I don't have them on dimmers because I can choose where and how much light I want out of them.

Are you in California? If so, ALL the non-fluorescent lights in your kitchen will have to be on dimmers.

We have fluorescent undercabinet and overcabinet lights that are not on dimmers; all our other lights are on dimmers, including incandescent pendants and wall sconces and halogen track lighting. We tend to use our dimmers depending on how many lights are on: The more lights that are on, the more likely we are to dim all of them to some degree in order to balance the light and reduce glare.

I have 3 under cab lights (high or low), 3 pendants over island, 7 recessed lights. All 3 sets of lights are turned on for general use, The range hood light (high or low) get used when stove is being used. Here is how I use my dimmers.

Pot lights dimmer used the most, from full on when prepping, anywhere in bettween when hanging out and full off when on computer or watch TV, this one is on a remote control, very nice to have due to the proximity of the switch to seating area at computer. I tried using one set of light or the other seperatly but it seem better to generally have them all on.

Penndants are generally on low, get turned up if guest are helping prep on the island or if I am reading there.

Under Cab lights are usually on low and get turned to high rarely.

Kitchen table light is not installed but will be on a dimmer.

I go to friends places without dimmer and it tends to be on the bright side. I wouldn't be without dimmers in the kitchen.