And then there was light

Yes, Ashlee and I do live in the valley of the sun, but there are times when we want more light, and the kitchen counter is one place in particular where we find it most lacking. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, etc all sell lights for this purpose, but all the common styles have disadvantages.

I think the most common styles use compact fluorescent light (CFLs). Most people are probably familiar with them. The fixtures are kind of big, the bulbs are expensive (for the uncommon size used for this application) and they are too long for one of the spots where we were hoping to but some lighting.

Xenon and halogen lights are nice and bright, but the amount of heat they put off is a dead giveaway that you are wasting electricity, and they too are a bit expensive. They are usually built as little spot lights, which seems like a bad idea for the application.

LED lights are getting more and more popular for many purposes, and kitchen lighting is seeing their increased use as well. Most people are familiar with the single LED flashlights and know that they don't work well as flood lights in most cases. That's true, but if you but a bunch of them in a row along a strip, and then put the phosphorescent material (which makes the light white instead of blue) along the strip, you get a much more diffuse light pattern. These work well, but are expensive compared to what single LEDs cost, and actually generate a good bit of heat (in the ones I felt and read about) because resistors are required to make sure each LED gets the right amount of electricity.

Anyway, my desire to save money was met by my eagerness to tinker around with a do-it-yourself (DIY) solution, and the result looks like this:

(Oh yeah, we bought a microwave for above the range. At $75, it was a steal. We priced it online, and think it goes for around $500 brand new. Woot for craigslist.)

I bought three pairs of cold compact fluorescent lights (CCLFs) for this project. At $8 a pair, I spent less on six bulbs than I would have on one of most store-bought setups. I did have to buy a power supply, but it was just another $8. These lights are great because they generate very little heat and are the perfect size: about 1/2 inch in diameter and 12 inches long. There are three little boxes (about the size of a small cell phone) that power two bulbs each. The power supply is the size of a double stack of playing cards. I had to solder some wiring and use some zip ties to get it up out of the way, but I think I actually spent more time shopping around online. It was a quick and painless project.

In this view you can see the bulbs and the little boxes that supply the high voltage required to excite the gas in the bulbs. The part that lights up is no bigger than a coffee stirring straw, but it's enclosed inside a protective tube.

Finally, I installed a little push button switch that's hidden just inside the recessed area under the cabinets. It's turns the whole system on and off before the AC/DC power supply, ensuring no power is wasted inverting unused electricity. I tested the final setup with the multimeter, and it's reading about 22 watts. That's a good number.

 I can't help it, I've got to show off the microwave one more time.