Three Tips for LED Pantry Lights

LED Pantry Lights Improve Functionality and Convenience Get More from Your Kitchen with LED Pantry Lights

Many otherwise perfect kitchens fail to deliver enough light to an open pantry. The darkness of night exacerbates this problem, which makes getting food from the pantry more inconvenient than it needs to be. LED pantry lights offer an easy, efficient, responsible way to create functional and aesthetically pleasing lighting in the pantry.

LED lights are the best choice for pantry lights because they have a lifetime of 50,000 hours, roughly five times more than most incandescent bulbs, so they won't have to be replaced as often, and because they produce virtually no heat, making them a safer choice around food and in small spaces such as the pantry. While LED pantry lights are relatively easy to install, the following tips and ideas can help make sure that you make the right choices to your pantry lights.

Be sure to consider the dimensions of the pantry area(s) to be lit, and choose the type of LED lighting that delivers the right volume of light and matches your taste. Puck lights, LED light strips, light bars, and under cabinet lights all can work very well inside the pantry. For example, high power under cabinet lights and sets of puck lights deliver the most lumens of light, but cost a bit more and draw slightly more electricity. On the other hand, LED strip lights are easier to install and less expensive, but deliver a bit less light.

Obviously the deeper and wider the pantry shelves are, the greater the necessary volume of light will be. In the same vein, it is important to consider the placing of the lights. Do you want to mount the lights towards the front of the pantry shining down and towards the back, in the center of each shelf shining down, on the sides, or in some combination of these and other possible locations? This decision can affect how well the light is distributed, how much convenience it adds, and how pleasing you find its visual appeal.

Along with this, be sure that the lighting fixtures chosen fit the pantry space well. Under cabinet lights are fairly small, but still have a significantly larger profile than LED strip lights, which are only one-tenth of an inch tall. Choosing the right height and location for LED pantry lights will ensure both that they deliver light effectively and that they don't physically get in the way of using the pantry.

Also along the lines of getting the most convenience possible from LED pantry lights, it is important to make a deliberate choice about how the lights are turned on and off. The conventional option is a standard light switch. However, many people prefer a system that automatically switches the lights on when the pantry door is opened, and off again when the door is closed. This is especially convenient because it means that when you have your hands full of things retrieved from the pantry, you can close the door with a hip or elbow and turn the lights off. It also eliminates the possibility that the pantry lights will be left on by accident.

There are two popular ways to do this. The first way uses a switch that the closed door presses down, so that when the door is opened it releases the switch, opening the circuit and turning the LED pantry lights on. The second way operates on the same basic principle, but uses a magnetic on-off switch, so that when you pull the door open, the magnets separate and complete the circuit.

With this simple technology, homeowners and designers can put the finishing touches on a perfect kitchen that is as functional as it is aesthetically pleasing.


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To learn more about LED lighting used for LED pantry lights, visit ElementalLED.com!