Some photos of my new kitchen 18 Cree light

[reptiles]

This is my first attempt at a large LED fixture. It is wired directly into the ceiling. In addition to the 18 Crees (15 white and 3 red to warm the color index); I added X10 wireless remote control to activate the LEDs or the T8 tubes (which I retained, but rarely use because they are too bright.)

I got the fixture at Lowes; LED supplies from the Shoppe, and X10 stuff off the net (http://www.thehomeautomationstore.com/kr22a.html). Took about 4 hours including a short trip to RadioShack for some terminal strips and machine bolts.

The fixture "cloud" cover is a translucent plastic that perfectly blends the light from all the LEDs into a shadowless even illumination. It is smaller than the last fixture that was up there so I need to repaint the ceiling to get rid of the discoloration around the edges of the cloud.

When looking up at the fixture, one can see 3 large islands of brighter areas because the LEDs are mounted in 3 banks of 6 emitters (Cree XR-E LED's mounted to MCPC strips from the Shoppe.)

The LEDs are attached with heat sink compound (and bolts) to the 4 foot aluminum strip that covers the balast (for the tubes) and now the drivers for the LEDs too. The aluminum strip has several 30 degree facets, so I oriented two Cree arrays towards the food prep area, and 1 array towards the dining area. For some reason, it seems more light gets bounced around if the LEDs face the diffusion screen at an angle, rather than perpendicular. All 120vac is totally enclosed in grounded aluminum. Not an electrical code expert, but tried to make this as safe as possible.

Photos show only LED illumination.

Hope you find it as interesting as I do. I suspect it will pay for itself in a few years in energy savings. I ran it for 3 days straight just to insure that it didn't overheat, burst out in flames, etc. lol

Regards,

Mark

 

[McGizmo]

Cool! Clever idea on the X10 giving you a "second" circuit and allowing you to maintain the T8! :thumbsup:

 

[reptiles]

Cool! Clever idea on the X10 giving you a "second" circuit and allowing you to maintain the T8! :thumbsup:

Thanks Don, it was either that, or tear up the walls/ceiling and install another switch and fish through a new wire run.

I also completed one of your Cree bars (120vac powered) and I'm eyeing up additional fixtures around the house. I think your fixed projects have inspired me.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[blasterman]

(15 white and 3 red to warm the color index);

How'd you like this result? I was thinking about using White LEDs in conjunctions with amber, but I'm curious how you like the the resulting light quality of your rig.

 

[SafetyBob]

Nice job and wonderful idea. I just junked all the flourescent crap in some cheap lights I had in a utility room with Seoul 3000K leds. I think I used 5 with a microdrive 9 @700mA.

Lesson learned is that I should have used the 4000K leds, the ones I used are noticeably warmer than the remaining fixtures in the room.

Don't be afraid to lay a layer of epoxy on the bottom of your Cree leds and let it dry before you glue them down directly to the light fixture. I have done this a couple of times so far with really good success. That way you can space your leds as you like not what the strips allow.

I gotta do this though. My kitchen lights get left on all the time and a bunch of leds would do what I need to do for general illumination without all the heat and light that the flourescents add to the room.

Bob E.

 

[csshih]

1 word: beautiful.
:thumbsup:

 

[reptiles]

How'd you like this result? I was thinking about using White LEDs in conjunctions with amber, but I'm curious how you like the the resulting light quality of your rig.

Actually I like them pretty well, although they were designed by the experts that make these Cree strips available to us via the Sandwich Shoppe.

The red really isn't apparent unless you look directly up into the fixture. I suspect amber might also be useful, but to keep things simple, 1 red per 5 white Cree XREs seems like a good value.

I also warmed up my kitchen by selecting yellow and orange paint, wallpaper, and curtains. This might allow me to use the brighter but cooler high powered emitters without the typical bluish hues. Some people add a few drops of yellow to white ceiling paint as well. I haven't gone that far, though.

Of course one could toss in 10 times as many "warm white" or high CRI emitters but then the budget is completely blown

For what I spent, I am quite happy with the results.

Thanks for your interest.

Regards,

Mark

 

[reptiles]

Nice job and wonderful idea. I just junked all the flourescent crap in some cheap lights I had in a utility room with Seoul 3000K leds. I think I used 5 with a microdrive 9 @700mA.

Lesson learned is that I should have used the 4000K leds, the ones I used are noticeably warmer than the remaining fixtures in the room.

Don't be afraid to lay a layer of epoxy on the bottom of your Cree leds and let it dry before you glue them down directly to the light fixture. I have done this a couple of times so far with really good success. That way you can space your leds as you like not what the strips allow.

I gotta do this though. My kitchen lights get left on all the time and a bunch of leds would do what I need to do for general illumination without all the heat and light that the flourescents add to the room.

Bob E.

Hi Bob,

Yup, my kitchen lights were always on. The LEDs should make a big difference in energy consumption. The T8's are only used when mopping the floor or cleaning out the refrigerator. Although the T8's are still way better (efficiency wise) than the vintage non-electronic ballast dinosaur that was up there for the past 35 years!

I do like your idea about spacing the LEDs better, and might try that in a future conversion. I might even experiment with non-PCBstripped emitters. But all things considered; this was way too easy. If I had know it was this simple, I'd have done it last year.

I just read the pdf spec sheets, Don's photos elsewhere in this section, the info on the SS webstore, and it all just clicked for me.

Thanks for the comments.

Regards,

Mark

 

[reptiles]

1 word: beautiful.
:thumbsup:

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm about to attack another fixture.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Ken_McE]

/Bows in general direction of Philadelphia/ Notices red and staring eyes in picture #2, starts to back away slowly/ I've never worked with X-10 stuff, how'd that part work?

P.S. *WANT*

 

[blasterman]

Although the T8's are still way better (efficiency wise)

And T5's better yet. Likely more efficient than the LED array because it's easier to diffuse the T5 bulbs without losing efficiency.

While this is a cool project and shows a proof of concept of how easy it is to retrofit with LEDs, my right brain is raising a protesting hand as to why stick with 'ugly shoplight bolted to the ceiling' look. With the flexibility of LEDs, why not split them up a bit and use them to light specific parts of the kitchen. I realize that for most guys the kitchen ranks lower on the priority scale than the garage, but aethestics are good for resale.

Just a thought.....

 

[SafetyBob]

Mark, I guess I should have said to keep the light about the same I should have used 4000K led's.

My 3x 4 foot retrofit in my den I used 6 Seoul P4's at 3000K and they look wonderful (although I should have used fewer led's as the mood lighting is just a tad to bright for the room).

I finally converted all the big flourescents to T-8s about a year ago. Found a local electrical house that had quality GE electronic ballasts for reasonable if not cheap price so I converted everything.....and I mean everything.

Again, get job and thanks for giving us all a good shot of motivation to get these really meaningful projects going. Just need to order some more LED's from Mouser....again.

Bob E.

 

[reptiles]

/Bows in general direction of Philadelphia/ Notices red and staring eyes in picture #2, starts to back away slowly/ I've never worked with X-10 stuff, how'd that part work?

P.S. *WANT*

Yes, that's my friend Jim with the red eyes <lol> he thinks I'm nuts.

The X-10 stuff has been around for decades. Sold by RadioShack, Sears, and under various labels over the years --all seem compatible with each other. I used two "wired-in appliance modules" connected directly to the AC power from the ceiling. One is connected to the LED driver/transformers and the other to the native T8 ballast. Each X10 module is assigned a unique code. I use a another X10 component (RF receiver/controller) to receive the remote control instruction to turn on/off the LEDs and/or T8 tubes. My remote is coded to the X10s in the fixture. All the X10 stuff is found under that link above.

I used "appliance" modules because the X10 "lamp" modules are dimming and neither the LED drivers or T8s expect to be dimmed in that manner, so its just easier to lose the dim function, rather than risk a low-voltage incompatibility.

Its easy, cheap, and the X10 modules in the fixture remember their last state (on or off) so, guests can easily switch the lights from the existing (standard) wall switch without getting to know the X10 controller, etc. Also power interruptions don't mess with any of these X10 appliance modules, they will return to whatever state they were in before the power failure, as soon as power is restored.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[reptiles]

And T5's better yet. Likely more efficient than the LED array because it's easier to diffuse the T5 bulbs without losing efficiency.

While this is a cool project and shows a proof of concept of how easy it is to retrofit with LEDs, my right brain is raising a protesting hand as to why stick with 'ugly shoplight bolted to the ceiling' look. With the flexibility of LEDs, why not split them up a bit and use them to light specific parts of the kitchen. I realize that for most guys the kitchen ranks lower on the priority scale than the garage, but aethestics are good for resale.

Just a thought.....

Actually I intend to install some discrete LEDs under cabnets, etc. But for the ceiling, at least for me, it was tough to design a custom diffusion panel --that's why I used a commercial light.

As for resale... hah! Most people wouldn't understand, so the light will go with me

Cheers,

Mark