You need a user account to post in our forum or submit Did-it-Myself projects.

Don't have an account yet? Sign up today.

Login Error

Invaild User/Password combination

Close

5 Tips for Choosing Low Voltage Under Cabinet Lighting


by DoItYourself Staff

When you are making your decision regarding your home when it comes to lighting, it is important to consider using low voltage under cabinet lighting. There are several different things to consider when you are deciding what kind of lighting that you are going to go with.  Various aspects of lighting itself come into play when making your final decision.

Tip 1 – Go for Ambiance

Ambiance low voltage lighting is probably the most simplistic lighting to install. The key to using proper ambient light is to remember that ambient light is not direct light. Just as it sounds, direct light is light that is focused in one specific direction. You typically control exactly where you want this light to be. If you have track lighting, the direction that you point the bulbs is the direct light. Ambient light however is there to flush out an entire area. These lights are placed in out of the way places and illuminate a large portion of a wall or a room without a solid light source. The ambient light is a high quality light that is not easily duplicated. 

Tip 2 – Hide Your Lights

Under cabinet lighting is a great way to have more light in any room or space that you want, while keeping the light sources hidden. Just as the name implies, this lighting technique involves hanging lights underneath your cabinets. An added benefit to this is that you can get more light into the harder to reach corners of your kitchens or cabinets. Not only does it keep the lights hidden, it also adds to the aesthetic of your room. 

Tip 3 – Create Some Style

The beauty of these lights is that they allow you to create your own sense of style. You can change the colors of these under cabinets’ lights to fit your mood.  This will allow you to easily change the lights for holidays or parties that happen to pop up. The added benefit of these lights is that you can control the strength of the light that is being emitted. By using a beam lighting system, it allows for you to dim or brighten the light as you see fit.

Tip 4 – Install to Save Money

Under cabinet lighting almost always comes with its own switch to turn the bulbs on. This has the enormous benefit of saving you money.  Now instead of activating one switch that will illuminate an entire room, you can simply flip a switch that will let you light the small portion of the room that you need. These small lighting fixtures only require a small amount of energy to use. As well, with the new configurations of lighting fixtures, you will save even more money in that you don’t need to continue buying brand new lighting fixtures to replace broken or burnt out ones. Many of these lights can last up to 10,000 hours. 

Tip 5 – They Are Safe

One of the best safety features of using low voltage lighting is that the main transformer uses a step down system to accommodate for the low lighting. Purely from this standpoint, you can see how much safer ow lighting fixtures are versus normal lighting fixtures.

 forum activity