LED Kitchen Lighting

The best kitchen lighting designs invariably use a lot of lighting, which doesn’t mean simply adding a few more ceiling rose fittings. Kitchen lighting draws on the same principles that underpin successful domestic lighting ideas but can be more extreme in the way it demands different types of lighting for different zones. In fact, almost the worst way to light a kitchen is to put a few bright fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. You’ll certainly get bright light - but also flat, cold and certain to give you a headache in no time at all.

An obvious issue with central ceiling lights in a kitchen is that you inevitably create dark spots and are always standing in your own shadow. A popular solution to this is to install sets of halogen down lights uniformly across the ceiling and install additional lighting for worktops and hobs.

This does indeed work quite well, but brings its own problems: halogen lamps operate at a very high temperature; they don’t last well; and they are just about the most expensive way possible to light a kitchen. Over ninety percent of the cost of incandescent lighting in general (and halogen lamps in particular) is in the electricity they consume.

Welcome then to LED kitchen lighting which pretty much just requires that you swap existing halogen spotlights and under-cabinet lights for 12v LED lights. If you are using mains voltage lighting then all that is required is to replace existing GU10 spotlights in-situ with GU10 LED bulbs. For low voltage systems, replace each existing 12v transformer with one (or more, depending on the number of lights involved) constant voltage 12v LED driver and then change over to LED light bulbs.

Three aspects to consider when working LED spotlights into a kitchen lighting design are: luminosity (brightness); color temperature (how cool/blue or warm/yellow); and beam angle. Aim to match these as close as possible to the characteristics of the halogen lamps you might otherwise have considered using.

These are general considerations to bear in mind when choosing LED lights. In brief, we have become accustomed to rating brightness by wattage, but the rated wattage for an LED light bulb should be slightly above 10% that of the equivalent halogen (or other type of incandescent light bulb). For example, expect to replace a 35w halogen lamp with an LED rated 4w or greater, 50w requires a 6w LED and so on.

Color temperature measures how cool or warm a light appears. LED lights are available in a huge variety of white color temperatures (and indeed, colors) but since it has always been easier to manufacture blue LEDs, many cheap LEDs have a naturally cold/bluish tinge. Ask for “warm white” (color temperatures below 3500K) for a reasonable approximation to the kind of white light normally associated with halogen lamps.

Lastly, the narrower the beam angle (45 degrees for example) the tighter and more spot-like the light will appear, while 120 degrees gives an even spread of light and eliminates “hot-spots” and glare. Arguably one of the best LED spotlight presently on the market as a direct replacement for halogen spots is the Edison 6W LED in warm white.

One of the crucial elements in how any artificial light appears is of course the surface it shines on. To warm things up, point spot lighting at warmly colored areas (terracotta tiles, natural wood or simply a warmly painted wall). Alternatively, create dramatic effects by for example directing blue LEDs at fairly dark surfaces - blue LEDs reflected off blue, green, granite and steel can look stunning.

Try using lights with differing characteristics against different textures and colors to obtain different effects in specific zones in the kitchen. There are so many options, especially with LED strip lighting systems for accenting plinths, coving, worktops and just about anything else you could think.

A particularly cool idea is using flexible LED strips for kitchen island lighting - run then around the edge for a really striking effect that will get noticed, The best advice though is stick with just one or two ideas - it's surprising how stunning even a small amount of LED kitchen lighting can look.