"we haven't sold one fluorescent fixture in over 4 years ..." Well, sure. Stores sell what they push. If you don't suggest that customers buy a product, most won't. (I'm the exception, as I usually know what I want long before I step into a store. :) "the difference between low voltage halogen and fluorescent in terms of energy use and life is nothing close to what the numbers claim." As the old saw goes, the plural of anecdote is not data. If you have your lights dimmed most of the time, you've probably chosen the wrong light. Curiously, low light output is one of the places where low voltage incandescents "shine" (sorry). For a given wattage, the filament is thicker for better life and durability. Compared to line voltage incandescents, they can run hotter (and whiter) for better efficiency at low light output. But that's when they're run at normal voltage. You lose that advantage when you dim them. As you dim any incandescent lamp, its efficacy in lumens per watt, already overall the lowest of modern lighting systems, becomes even lower. This is a natural consequence of the lower filament temperature. In other words, your energy use is low because you aren't producing much light, not because your lights are efficient. So you could use even less energy if you'd use even lower voltage lights running flat-out - assuming you could find such lights. (Practically speaking, this is where LEDs come in.) BTW, a dimmed halogen lamp also loses one of its other great advantages over a conventional incandescent - maintaining light output over the full life of the lamp. That's because the chemical reaction that keeps tungsten boiled off the filament from deposting on the lamp envelope doesn't run at the lower temperatures of a dimmed lamp. "most fluorescents can't dim..." There are some retrofit dimmable CFs that dim rather nicely. I'll admit that they don't dim as low as many people would like, however. "Mercury is one of the biggest contaminants in land fills." I don't doubt that it could be a concern, but I'd like to see your source for this statement. Here's what counts, folks. When you use a fluorescent lamp, you are releasing LESS mercury into the world. Period. Most people state that and let it go, but here are the hard numbers. The amount of mercury in fluorescent lamps has gotten drastically smaller in the last couple of decades. A typical compact fluorescent lamp has only about 5mg. There are even some full-size linear fluorescent lamps (Philips Alto range, for example) that contain so little mercury - less than 3.6mg per 32 watt F32T8 lamp - that the EPA has actually approved disposing of them in regular trash, though I still recommend taking them to a household hazardous waste (HHW) disposal site (and do this myself). Now, a coal fired powerplant will emit about 3.5mg of mercury powering a 20W CF for its lifetime, taking that as 7500h (a rough average). If you chuck the CF in the trash, you've just released 8.5mg of mercury into the environment. If you take it to the HHW center and they recycle the mercury, you've released only 3.5mg. Now let's say you use a 75W incandescent bulb instead. Since it lasts an average of 750h you'll need 10 of them to the one CF. This uses more landfill space and more raw materials, but we'll neglect that for now. The salient point here is that although those 10 bulbs contain no mercury, the powerplant emits 13mg of mercury powering them. And there's not a thing you can do about it. You can't haul any of that mercury to your local HHW center. So, here's the bottom line. Using an incandescent bulb releases at least 53% more mercury into the environment than using a CF, and that's if you junk the CF in a landfill. If you use a CF and dispose of it properly at a HHW disposal center, the mercury released is only 3.5mg. In that case, using the incandescent bulb releases 270% more mercury, or 3.7 times as much. "Again, this boils down to personal preference." Absolutely. Choice is good. Informed choice is better. That's why I take the time to write this stuff. :)

Don't mind the missing door, I'm in the process of adding trim to the cabinets and plan on painting them a cream color with some pinstripe glazing. If anyone has any idea as to why this would happen, or if you have experienced the same thing I would appreciate to hear your thoughts. I've searched all over the web and only found issues from flickering LEDs used with a dimmer which isn't the case with mine. I really don't want to run the halogen bulbs. Thanks This post was edited by rockuf8 on Tue, Nov 5, 13 at 8:42

I will choose LED recessed lights. LED lighting is the most energy-saving way of illumination in the present day, saving up to 90% energy compared to other lighting. This means that about 80-90% of the electrical energy is converted to light, while around 20% energy is lost. On the contrary, traditional lighting such as incandescent light bulbs only operate at 20% energy efficiency. LED light bulbs have extremely long lifespan. They are expected to operate up to 100,000 hours. This means that an LED light bulb could operate continuously for about 11years, which is 3 to 10 times longer than compact fluorescent lamps and 60 times as long as incandescent bulbs. LED lights do not contain any toxic substances. Most fluorescent lights contain a multitude of toxic chemicals like mercury that are dangerous for our health and the environment. LED light bulbs emit less CO2 than traditional incandescent bulbs, and they are 100% recycle, offering you a greener life. LEDs produce little heat or UV rays, while traditional incandescent lights emit a large amount of waste heat. And compact fluorescent lamps are reported to generate a multitude of UV rays, which is a potential risk of getting skin cancer. Because of this benefit of LEDs, LED lights are suitable for objects or materials that are sensitive to heat or UV rays. LED lights operate well under colder and lower outdoor temperature than fluorescent lamps. Therefore, LED lights are extremely suitable for outdoor winter settings. LED lights brighten up instantly as soon as you turn the power on without any seconds. In contrast, fluorescent lights may take several seconds to brighten up. Here is a link that might be useful: My LED recessed lights source here

What is being referred to as "Xenon" here is really incandescent bulbs. Smaller incandescent bulbs (like the type found in old-style flashlights for example) have a much lower color temperature, and as a consequence the light typically feels very orange-colored and dull. Bulb designs filled with Xenon gas help compensate for this, to some extent. I can get much more into the technical details if you want, but that is the basics of it. In general though, Xenon will still give off a lower color temperature than halogen, so if you really want a brighter whiter color of light, Xenon is probably not the best option. LED is probably the best option for undercabinet lighting, but can oftentimes be overly pricey. If color rendering is an important consideration, you might want to look into high CRI LED lighting, because under regular LED lighting colors can appear just a little grey-washed or yellowish. This is likely to be even more pricey though. Incandescent bulbs (which includes Xenon and halogen) are just not particularly well suited to undercabinet strip lighting. For one thing, when there are multiple bulbs each with a lower wattage, the color of light is confined to the very warm white color territory. Then there are always bulbs burning out that need to be replaced. There are many different options, and they all carry their own subtle advantages and trade-offs. All undercabinet lighting is kind of overpriced, in my opinion, so unless you are really looking to create a dream kitchen, you might want to consider going without it.