Phantom Lighting System

Why Cabinet Lighting is Necessary?
Cabinet lighting, by definition, is the illumination of the interior of a cabinet. By implication as well, it also refers to the illumination of the contents of such a display.

Such a display can exist for purely ornamental purposes. We often see fine antiques and curios showcased in antique reproductions and tall cabinets with non-mirrored back planes. Other displays may serve a more functional purpose, as we see in residential kitchen cabinets that are built with windows that allow you to see view the fine cookware and dinnerware stored within.

Regardless of the intent of the display, however, custom cabinet lighting solutions are needed regardless. Even the brightest of room lights are insufficient when it comes to lighting a closed interior space that is often covered by a glass plane in the front. Add to this the presence of vertical styles and shelves, and you can see very quickly how any attempt to light contents with an external light source would result in much of their surface area being obscured by shadows.

Such shadows are even more pronounced and magnified if housed behind closing doors. Glass windows will still dim the light to some degree, and the wooden frame of the door itself creates a criss-cross of obstructions to light.

It is clearly evident then that display cabinet lighting is an absolute must if you are going to create any type of showcase or display that offers clear visibility to the observer and contributes aesthetic value to the room.

Most designers agree that the best source of display lighting can be found the form of linear strip lights that mount on the interior surfaces of shelves and door frames. Phantom low voltage cabinet strip lights are the best of their kind for this type of application because they are custom-built to the exact dimensions of the surfaces on which they mount and offer a multiplicity of lamping options that are fully dimmable and super energy efficient.

Visit our phantomlighting.com to learn more about Phantom’s library shelf display lighting products. Our cabinet lighting installation facility is located in Houston, Texas. Phantom Lighting a network of nationwide lighting agents and professional lighting sales representatives that fan out throughout all 50 states into cities like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH), (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America.

We invite you to contact us directly at 800-863-1184 to obtain more information on all of these options. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed, request literature on our main website, visit our Phantom Lighting mobile website, or read through the many informative summaries and FAQs located on our Phantom Lighting blog.

If you are building cabinets with adjustable shelves Phantom Lighting offers you the option of building custom cabinet lights right into the shelving at the time of construction. These in cabinet lights are low-voltage units designed for maximum light output and minimal power consumption. With color temperatures ranging from 5000K-2800K, they are guaranteed to accentuate your product’s aesthetic appeal and directly increase its market value.

With the energy efficiency generated by Phantom LED cabinet lights, you can offer to reduce your clients’ decorative lighting costs by as much as 60%. When you combine LED lighting advantages with superb carpentry and high-end lighting, you add return on investment value to product quality and increase the selling power of your bid with some of the most ingenious technology ever introduced to the world of cabinet lighting.

In spite of its highly flexible nature and diverse range of application, Phantom technology consists of some amazingly simple components. These are the cabinet lights themselves, a CDA kit for each linear strip, a pair of buss bars, and a small, low-voltage magnetic lighting transformer that is easy to conceal.

The CDA kit replaces the standard right-angle pins with a pair of highly conductive brass shelf supports and corresponding brass contact pads. The buss bars are vertical metal strips that are mounted flush with the exterior walls of the cabinet. When a cabinet maker contacts our factory and places a purchase order, both the buss bars and the cabinet lights themselves are custom built to match the dimensions of the structure’s interior.

Each cabinet requires only one pair of buss bars, and each linear strip light requires only one corresponding CDA kit. These components, along with a small, low-voltage transformer that is easy to conceal, are all that is necessary to create a completely hidden, wireless light source that will illuminate everything from rare books and antique china to sentimental curios and fine bottles of wine.

Installing your book lighting display is a simple process that takes only a few hours to complete. Begin by routing out a 1/4” x 5/8” channel on each exterior wall of the cabinet. Route this channel directly at the point where you intend to mount the metal shelf brackets and install the buss bars. Once the cabinet is assembled and painted use the brass screws in the CDA mounting kit to affix the shelf brackets by screwing directly through the cabinet wall to the buss bars.

Once the shelf brackets are in place, attach the brass contact pads in your CDA kit to the ends of each shelf. Install the cabinet lighting fixtures behind the front reveal of every shelf, and then connect them to the contact pads with the small wires that come with the CDA kit. (You do not need an electrician to do this). Now, when the shelf is placed on the bracket, the power will flow from the buss bars through the mounting bracket, then complete circuit through the contact pads connected to the lighting strips.

Contact us now at 1-800-863-1184 to learn more about private library shelf lights or curio cabinet lighting. These concealed adjustable lighting strips can beautify a home or office with an entirely new aesthetic with apparently sourceless ambient lighting. Mobile phone customers can also find us at www.phantomlighting.mobi

Our cabinet lighting installation facility is located in Houston, Texas. Phantom Lighting a network of nationwide lighting agents and professional lighting sales representatives that fan out throughout all 50 states into cities like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH), (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Library shelf book lighting is often very different from display and cabinet lighting. Private libraries tend to feature shelving units that are much taller than collectible displays and storage cabinets. They also tend to be highly decorative in nature to better showcase collections of books. Only the finest woods, staining techniques, and finishing methods are used in their construction. Shelves must be easy to adjust, because different groupings of books may feature different spine lengths that require library shelving heights to be adjusted to their dimensions. Lighting such an environment effectively requires a shelf lighting strip that will compliment the aesthetics of the bookshelf and facilitate unencumbered repositioning of shelves at will.

Mill workers can more easily achieve these objectives with library shelf lights that are built into the bookshelves at the time of construction. Attempting to retrofit fixtures to a cabinet that has already been constructed seldom generates satisfactory results. Finding a fixture that will precisely match the dimensions of custom library display bookshelf often proves a time-consuming challenge. Even if such a match is located, lights and wiring are also difficult to conceal, and the value of the presentation is diminished as a result.

Phantom library shelf lighting fixtures are engineered in anticipation of all these concerns and provide a flexible alternative to the cumbersome challenges of forcing a generic fixture fit on a high-end cabinet build out. These cabinet lighting systems are built to the exact dimensions of each library shelf and are powered by wireless technology built into the bookshelves themselves. Rather than requiring our clients to devise time-consuming and awkward strategies for concealing long wire runs, we use buss bars that are installed in the vertical walls of the cabinet to deliver power to the strip lights. Each buss bar is cut to match the vertical height of the bookcase on either side and is made with multiple screw holes that allow metal shelf supports to be mounted at any desired height. Contact pads affixed to the under surface of each shelf complete the circuit when the shelf is laid on top of the supports.

Because our library shelf lighting solutions feature a low-profile design that operates on an adjustable, wireless platform, the aesthetic results our fixtures can produce are far superior to competing, generic cabinet lighting fixtures. The fixtures are small enough to be concealed behind shelf reveals, providing a hidden light source that emanates light downward and backward over book spines. They are also completely dimmable, allowing collectors to raise lighting levels to search for books, and then reduce illumination when low-level, decorative lighting is desired.

Phantom library shelf lighting can be ordered in a variety of color temperatures that compliment a wide range of wood types and finishes. Our patent-pending festoon lamp design enables us to replicate the quality of xenon lighting with LED 2800K lamp technology that is much safer than incandescent technology when it comes to lighting old and rare books. As a light source the outputs no heat and no ultraviolet radiation, an LED lamp can be left on indefinitely with minimal power consumption and no risk of damaging book collections.

Call us today for more information on cove lighting design in commercial and residential interiors. Our lighting manufacturing facility is located in Houston, Texas. A network of nationwide distributorships and United States lighting sales representatives fans out throughout all 50 states into cities like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH), (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America.

We invite you to contact us at 800-863-1184 to obtain more information. You can also visit our mobile website, lighting supply page or read through the many informative summaries and frequently asked questions located on our lighting blog. All of these resources contain a wealth of information about our custom; low-voltage lighting products.

What is the best type of lighting for a free-standing bookcase?
If the bookcase has already been built, we recommend installing Phantom AE (Adjustable Exposed Bookcase Lights) series linear lighting strips. These bookcase lights are ideal for remodelers because they are designed to be installed in bookcases that have already been built. In most cases, there are metal buss bars in these bookcases that can function as the main conduits of power to the low voltage lighting system. If not, we can supply you with buss bars to install with the lighting strips.

Can Phantom bookcase lights be built into a unit at the time of manufacture?
Yes. We have another line of linear strips, the AC (Adjustable Concealed Bookcase Lights) series that is intended to be built into new-construction cabinets and bookcases. The AC series is used by a great variety of contractors, including cabinet makers, general contractors, and even electrical specialists.

What advantages do these strip lights offer over other forms of bookcase lighting?
Concealment is the most important attribute of these luxury lighting fixtures. Both the AC and AE series are very slim, low profile linear strip lights that are custom-manufactured to specific shelf dimensions. They mount on the front under surface of each shelf, hidden from open view.

Phantom linear bookcase lights feature some ingenious engineering found nowhere else in the world of cabinet lighting design. We have patented a virtually wireless cabinet lighting fixture that negates the need for both gangly wiring and problematic battery power. Using buss bars and metal shelf supports, we have engineered linear strip technology to use metallic structures that are either built into the cabinet or retrofitted to its surface as conductors of low-voltage current. This current neither generates heat nor presents any risk of shock, and is essentially the safest form of bookcase lighting to utilize for eclectic displays and collections of older books whose covers and pages are exceptionally sensitive.

Because these bookshelf lights utilize buss bars and metal shelf supports as electrical conductors, there is no visible wiring, either, to clutter the display.

How can Phantom Lighting provide such specialized lighting on a customized application basis?
We rely upon a sophisticated internal consultation, manufacturing, and distribution process flow that coordinates the production of the product with our client’s project itself. When a professional contacts our office, we first determine if this is going to be a new build out or retrofitting project. Once that determination is made, we gather detailed information on the scope of the project, the dimensions of the bookcase we will be lighting, and even the contents that will be displayed within that case. This allows us in turn to choose not only the right linear strip series, but the appropriate festoon lamping options as well. The factory then produces the strips, which are then sent to the client’s location. For large projects, our agent network acts as a distribution and technical support channel. These experts help contractors; interior decorators customize both select and customize the lighting strips to bookcases, displays, coves, armoires, and even antique furnishings. Large projects such as these require a great deal of consultation and technical support, which are Agents are happy to provide to the general contractor and the specialty interior designer.

Phantom linear strips have earned the reputation of being some of the most unobtrusive fixtures for this type of lighting, and have led to the coining of our motto, "see the light, not the fixture." Visit our online gallery here, and visit our phantom website to read more about such topics as cove lighting, curio cabinet lighting, under cabinet lighting, and retail display lighting.

Our bookcase and cabinet lighting manufacturing facility is located in Houston, Texas. Feel free to contact us toll free at 800-863-1184 for assistance on strip lighting or fine art lighting projector equipment. A network of nationwide distributorships and sales representatives fans out throughout all 50 states into cities like Scottsdale, Arizona, Seattle, Washington (SEA), Los Angeles, CA, (LAX) Boston, Massachusetts (BOS), Princeton, NJ (EWR), Philadelphia, PA, Dallas, Texas (DWF), Pasadena, California, Chicago, IL (ORD), Baltimore, MD (BWI), and Minneapolis, MN (MSP). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer sales representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America.