Illuminating the Future of Kitchen Lighting: Energy Efficiency

It doesn't matter if you live in a home with a modern kitchen that has all the fancy upgrades, or one that just has a single overhead light in the center of the room. If you're not using the latest generation of energy-efficient bulbs, it's time for a kitchen lighting upgrade.

Kitchen lighting has made great strides in the past couple of years, not just from a kitchen lighting design standpoint, but also with regards to kitchen lighting energy efficiency. So upgrades are definitely worth looking into. Kitchen lighting manufacturers are spending a considerable amount of time, and dedicating a lot of resources to developing kitchen lighting fixtures capable of using more energy-efficient light sources than the standard incandescent light. It's no coincidence that this trend is growing in popularity at a time when energy costs are on the rise.

As recently as two years ago, the only kitchen lighting fixtures available for lighting the kitchen that used the most energy-efficient light sources available today being fluorescents and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) plainly, were not aesthetically pleasing. In today's marketplace, however, decorative energy-efficient kitchen lighting fixtures are available in every product category, whether you're looking for something traditional, modern or artsy.

Few of the kitchen lighting manufacturers know today's consumers want to capitalize on the fact that compact fluorescent bulbs are approximately three to four times more efficient than incandescent bulbs, and LEDs can be three to 10 times more efficient, so they've dedicated a lot of resources to developing new fixtures that utilize these technologies. Several kitchen lighting manufacturers will be introducing LED under-cabinet unit in the fall that requires just eight watts of energy to provide the same illumination as an 80-watt halogen light source. The new LED kitchen down light will be 40 percent more energy efficient than a kitchen compact fluorescent and 75 percent more energy efficient than a kitchen incandescent."

Because of the energy efficiency and the increasing popularity if the LED kitchen lighting fixtures more and more kitchen lighting manufacturers of residential kitchen lighting fixtures are making plans to release several models of kitchen lighting fixtures that use LEDs early next year. Many have available now kitchen lighting LED pendants that are beautiful with art glass to match or co-ordinate with kitchen granite counter tops. But energy-saving products are nothing new for most kitchen lighting manufacturers. They've been offering kitchen lighting fixtures that take halogen IRC bulbs, capable of improving kitchen lighting energy efficiency by 50 percent, for the last five years. Infra Red Coating (IRC) bulbs are designed in such a way that the heat they generate can be recycled and turned into light.

Some other kitchen lighting manufacturers that haven't already are in the meantime concentrated their efforts on developing decorative kitchen lighting fixtures that take compact fluorescents. They have offerings in every category for decorative kitchen lighting fixtures that really enhance what you get out of a compact fluorescent.

No matter which of the new technologies you choose to go with, when shopping for energy-efficient kitchen lighting fixtures, it is important to look for kitchen lighting with the Energy Star label. In order to qualify for the Energy Star designation, the kitchen lighting fixture must meet specific performance criteria for kitchen lighting energy-efficient performance set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

As for concerns people may have about the quality of light given off by kitchen lighting compact fluorescents and kitchen lighting LEDs, experts say, "while in the past color rendering may have been a concern, it is no longer a problem. Consumers can rest assured the quality closely matches that of the incandescent light one is use to in their current incandescent kitchen lighting."

Today's kitchen lighting advancements are quite impressive, but what does the future hold for kitchen lighting? Kitchen lighting experts expects the lighting industry as a whole to work hard at getting more products on the shelves that use the most energy-efficient technology developed to date - LEDs. Right now LEDs are still kind of expensive, but once they become more readily available, the cost will come down significantly.

Mike Brake is the owner/operator of http://www.lamps-lighting.com and in expert in kitchen lighting