Brightening tips to make cooking, cleaning even more fun
By Paul Bianchina, Inman News

When it comes to lighting, few places in the home are more important
than the kitchen. From general lighting to specific task lighting, a
well-designed lighting plan makes the use and enjoyment of any kitchen
a much brighter undertaking.
                           

GENERAL LIGHTING

General lighting is what comes on as you first enter the room. It
should brighten up the room well enough that you can see to enter and
move around the room, and to perform basic tasks, such as getting
something out of the refrigerator.

In many kitchens, general lighting is accomplished with one or two
incandescent or fluorescent light fixtures, or by a group of recessed
can lights. The general lighting fixtures should be controlled by a
switch that is easily accessible as soon as you approach or first enter
the room. If there are two entrances to the room, the same group of
fixtures can be controlled from both locations using a 3-way switch.
                           

TASK LIGHTING

Task lighting, on the other hand, comes from fixtures that are
strategically placed to provide good lighting for performing specific
operations, such as cooking or cleaning up. Since the general lighting
sources are located high up on the ceiling and behind you wherever you
are in the room, your body typically blocks or shadows some of that
light, which is why specific lighting fixtures dedicated to specific
areas are so important. Task lighting may be in the form of recessed
cans, fluorescent fixtures, halogen lights, or any combination. To
conserve energy and prevent overlighting or overheating the room,
activation of the task lighting is generally broken up between several
switches.

To lay out your task lighting, first envision how the kitchen will be
used. One or more fixtures should be located over the sink, to provide
direct overhead lighting for cleanup and food preparation. Recessed
lights work well here, as they can be directed very specifically to
light the sink. The over-sink fixture should be on its own switch.

Cooking tasks require their own light source as well. If you have a
range hood that is located above your cooktop or range, the light that
is located within the hood may be sufficient, or you can add a recessed
fixture to the ceiling that is located to provide as much direct light
down onto the cooking surface as possible. The fixture in the hood will
have its own switch, and any other specific cooking area light should
be separately switched as well.

Islands can present another task lighting challenge. Here again,
recessed fixtures can be used to good advantage to light up the island,
or you can consider one or more hanging pendant lights over the area.
Some lighting designs will have the island lights come on as part of
the general lighting, but most will target these lights with separate
switches as well.

One kitchen lighting area that is extremely important but often
overlooked are the counters. Between the combination of your body as
you stand at the counter and the bulk of the wall cabinets, much of the
counter area is severely shadowed, and yet this is where much of the
work in the kitchen is done.

To overcome this, specific under-cabinet lighting is used. Perhaps the
most common source are shallow fluorescent fixtures that are mounted to
the underside of the upper cabinets. These under-cabinet lights come in
a number of different lengths to make it easy to match the fixtures to
the cabinet layout, and you should use an adequate number of them to
provide even, shadow-free lighting on all the counters.

Small halogen fixtures, typically called puck lights for their
resemblance to small hockey pucks, are also sometimes used in these
areas. Puck lights are brighter, but may put out too much glare or too
much heat in some areas, so take that into consideration as well.

Here again, you want to divide up the under-cabinet fixtures onto one
or more specific switches. What usually works best is to envision how
the counters will be used, and then group the fixture switching so that
the desired counter or group of counters are lit at the same time. For
example, if you regularly use one section of counter for food
preparation, all the under-cabinet lighting over that section of
counter should be on the same switch.

All of these fixtures should be available from local lighting stores,
electrical supply retailers, and home centers. Remember to use only
UL-listed fixtures and parts, and always consult with a qualified
electrician for assistance on any wiring project you're not comfortable
with.