(edit) -- kitchen remodel; help me find US sources for ceiling/cove/counter lights? 110v, neutral white, to meet code

It’s that time — kitchen remodel planning well under way.

The architect’s default is canister lights in the ceiling. I don’t like those for a lot of reasons — they have to be air tight to the attic for code reasons, and that makes them hot spots so they have to be boxed to keep insulation away from them, and then they cook their electronics.

I’m hoping (and my spouse agrees) that we can find some thin flat panel LED ceiling lights — something where the driver can go in a proper electrical box (above the ceiling plane as usual) but the lamps are in an inch thick or so circle or rectangle. Three or four of these would go along the center of the room ceiling, on a single switch.

These are going to be mission-critical hardware so I can’t chance something unknown from overseas — and we’re in earthquake country so the inspection to electrical code is done quite seriously.

(the most recent LED light I looked at — meant to use outdoors over the new steps —- had its driver loose and rattling around in the housing, the 110v wires misrouted outside the metal grounded case and missing any protecting sleeve where they ran over sharp metal edges, and a little hole in the metal case so it would fill up with water in the first rainstorm — it’s cautionary)

Wow, based on the thread title I almost marked this as SPAM before even reading :stuck_out_tongue:

Good question. Heres a couple of links to help you in your search.
http://www.alled.co/2009/07/allegheny-county-jail-implements-alsis-led-lighting-to-reduce-costs-improve-security/
http://www.grainger.com/search?searchQuery=Led+Lighting&adgrpID=19676232554&kwdID=30773516861&cm_mmc=PPC:+Google+Main+12-*~~Lighting_Lamps_BMM~~*~~Miniature+Lamps_Led+Lighting_BMM~~\_-keyword&ef_id=VP@qOQAAASke8uj4:20150629215612:s
Hope this helps with your search

Kitchens?! Did you say you want a new kitchen?

Boy, have I got a deal for you!! Cheap all new kitchens!
http://PaisleyKitchens.co.cn

Meets all codes! UL, ETL, CE, FCC, FAA, USDA

I came here to mark-as-spam as well :smiley:

:smiley: :smiley: I almost did the exact same thing! But I must admit, I love beating others to the spam button when the situation calls for it… especially when Im the one who makes the entire thread disappear! :bigsmile:

Give me better words with which to ask for help here. I’ll edit the Subject line.

Grainger — good call; found some possibilities, and they have a local store.

Your post is fine Hank. Sorry, I should have mentioned that before. Its just that we get spammed so often with posts for kitchen advertisements that many of us compete to see who can mark them as spam first. :wink:

Go with the canister lights and put LED bulbs in them. Avoid custom/funky/non-screw-in bulb fixtures like the plague. I know a guy that built a million dollar plus home with all sorts of neat fixtures in it from several different makers. Then they started failing and the makers either disappeared or discontinued the products. He was stuck with having to replace around 20 grand worth of lovely, crappy lighting.

+1 to standards. Grab some ICAT cans and heap some loose insulation around them if you’ve got batts in the attic. If you haven’t planned for it already, think seriously about a (compatible) dimmer on those lights… imho, it makes them way nicer.

We have a low-slope roof, lacking space to work with between ceiling and roof deck across most of the area I’m trying to light.
Cans would have to be very small — we’d need a lot more of them than surface mount. And I’m sure heat would be a problem.

I’m an early adopter and am already seeing heat related failures, as for example the failed R20 I asked about elsewhere.
And besides — LEDs are changing really fast. Surface mount I can get at easily to change. Cans, not so much.

EDIT: checked Home Depot since they’re the Cree vendor; nothing from Cree, but found some ideas.

Turns out “flushmount” is the search term (I’d have thought that was for a much smaller sort of room …)

Something like this but dimmable which these aren’t — is in the ballpark that might suit the family member who decides these things:
f

Here’s a larger, oval, dimmable one:

2250 Lumens output
Dimmable with 0 - 10-Volt dimmer
Energy Star listed
Power input 41-Watt
LED color 4000K-bright white

Just sending a quick thank you to “alltumbs” for sharing our company’s news story! We are here to help all with LED lighting solutions!