Phantom Lighting System

Architects know that every home they design has kitchens, and every kitchen has cabinets. Beneath these cabinets are countertops that serve a dual purpose of decoration and multi-task utility. Shadows in these spots are both unattractive and possibly hazardous. Eliminating these dark areas with kitchen under cabinet lights instantly improves the aesthetic and safety of utility areas, and can play a major contributing role in a home buying decisions.

To ensure that the most important elements of kitchen under cabinet lighting installations are met, architects must move beyond generic puck lights and outdated fluorescent “energy savers” toward a more robust engineering and manufacturing design that captures the intentions of an artist with the precision of a scientist.

Phantom TL series kitchen under cabinet lights is one of the few strip lights that offer LED lamping in color temperatures that are aesthetically complimentary to the granite and marble countertops common in high-end homes. Warmer color tones look best under the 2800K led festoon, and cooler temperatures can be accented using our 2950K. These options offer home buyers a long-term return on investment on the front-end costs of the strips. The energy efficiency of LED, which is up to 60% more than that of any other form of lighting, accrues a savings that offsets initial purchase costs. Also, LED lamp life of 40,000-50,000 bulb hours eliminates the need for frequent maintenance and makes bulb replacements very rare.

LED kitchen under cabinet lights can also play a contributing role in reducing cooling costs. Most people who invest in under cabinet fixtures tend to want to leave them on in the kitchen if and when it is safe to do so. A hot-burning light source is going to trigger the thermostat to activate the HVAC system, driving up power bills in the process. However, LED bulbs emit light electronically rather than chemically through the ignition of gas in a sealed glass container. This makes them a very low-heat source of illumination, perfectly safe to burn throughout the night, and negligible in terms of impact on room temperature.

For applications that require color temperatures ranging from 3000K-5000K, Phantom also offers xenon lamping options that offset the higher power consumption curve with dimmability options and low-voltage transformers engineered to curtail excessive electrical consumption. Our purpose is to provide our commercial design clients with the full range of necessary color temperature compliments to every cabinet build, interior decorating scheme, and general lighting requirements they may encounter in custom home design.

The linear strips that power our kitchen under cabinet light fixtures are sophisticated pieces of engineering in their own right. These linear strips are very small in comparison to most competing models, and they are much easier to conceal beneath the surfaces of a variety of cabinet sizes and custom builds. Two very important features of these lighting strips work to eliminate not only shadows, but also reflective glare. Rather than mounting in the center of the under surface like puck lights, or in the back as many fluorescent fixtures install, Phantom TL series fit under the front of kitchen cabinets. Special glare shields that are built into the lights direct the light backward away from the eyes and across the utility areas under countertops. Dimmer controls allow the homeowner to adjust lighting levels to match those created by general overhead lighting. This adjustability allows the end user to create a contiguous luminous that is both sourceless and seamless from the viewer’s perspective, and creates a very attractive setting for gatherings, parties, and cooking demonstrations.

Phantom Lighting makes it easy for architects to incorporate our kitchen under cabinet lighting fixtures into their custom home designs. Each fixture is custom cut to the dimensions provided to us by the architect. The choice of LED or xenon sourcing is determined (with the help of a Phantom specialist if need be), and a purchase order for custom manufacturing of the fixtures is set in order.

Call a Phantom Agent for more information on all of these options. We invite you to call toll free 800-863-1184 to request literature online or visit our lighting blog to learn more about Phantom custom low voltage lighting products.

Our lighting manufacturing facility is located in Houston, Texas with professional lighting sales agents located throughout the United States that enable us to service all of Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America and the United States including Washington DC, Nashville Tennessee, Las Vegas Nevada. Portland Oregon, Oklahoma City Oklahoma, Tucson Arizona, Orange County California, Atlanta Georgia, Austin Texas and Palm Springs California.

What benefits does Phantom lighting offer to the lighting distributor or lighting designer?
Custom build to specific client need is the number one benefit we can offer to you to pass on to your customers. Our linear lighting strips are fabricated to the exact vertical, horizontal, and radial dimensions of the many cabinets, display cases, bookshelves, and ceiling coves you encounter daily in on site visits to both commercial and residential prospects.

We are a one-source low voltage lighting manufacturer for all forms of storage and display cabinet lighting. Regardless of whether you are subcontracting under a builder and starting from scratch, or retrofitting an existing cabinet with new light fixtures, Phantom has a modeled designed to meet the specific needs of your client base.

How easy is it to conceal these strip lighting fixtures from normal viewing angles?
Very easy—our motto is “See the Light, Not the Fixture.” The transformers we use are smaller than those used in other lighting strips because all Phantom LED strip lights are low voltage devices. Our cabinet lights install in a manner that is very unique to the industry. Because they are custom made to order, you can specify exactly how you want to wire the strips to best conceal the wiring inside the cabinet.

The most popular way of doing this when installing display cabinet lights is to exit the cabinet and splice the wires on the backside of the furniture. For kitchen cabinets built into the wall, there are a number of other concealed wiring strategies can be implemented through the complimentary consultation services provided through our network of lighting agents.

What specific linear strips models do you manufacture?
The vision of our engineering team is to proactively anticipate each and every lighting our distributors and agents will encounter in the field. We carry six variations of custom cabinet lighting fixtures, each of which is then analyzed by your lighting agent to be the best possible fit for your client.

Once that determination is made, the strips are then custom designed and manufactured to precise dimensions, voltage (12 or 24), and festoon lamp types to match the fixture exactly to the needs of your client.

This procedure will add tremendous value to your cabinet lighting installation service proposal, as you can literally analyze each and every cabinet in your client’s home or office and propose a custom lighting installation unique to that specific, individual cabinet.

What can I do for my clients on an extremely tight budget?
You can easily address and accommodate these concerns by recommending they go with LED replacement festoon lamps. Our patented lamp design emits approximately 50 lumens of light per lamp—five times the lumens output of competing LED manufacturers. We offer five colour temperatures now; making LED the near equivalent of xenon in superb lighting quality and the leading contender in energy efficiency, bulb life, and UV/Infrared free lighting.

We also recommend that you install a user-friendly dimmer switch that will allow your clients to turn their display cabinet lighting up or down like a volume control on a stereo. Any clients you have who host events on a regular basis can use these controls to both regulate power consumption and to set lighting levels appropriate to activity, occasion, and mood.

Click here to find an Agent in your area and begin working with Phantom today.

We invite you to contact us at 800-863-1184 X 125 to request a color brochure of our accent lighting fixtures. In addition to low voltage strip lighting we also manufacture fine art lighting equipment.

In spite of the superior decorative appeal and lighting control that newer forms of under cabinet lights offer, fluorescent bulbs to this day remain the very best sources of light in work areas where very bright light is needed for maximum productivity and safety.

They offer a unique combination of high light output levels and relatively low electrical consumption. As such, they are very cost effective for industrial clients operating on a tight budget.

Most factories are very large and are lit by large overhead metal halide or fluorescent lights provided by commercial lighting manufacturers. The height of the ceiling and the cubic square footage of the facility (known as the vertical cube) have a tendency to diminishing even the brightest illumination as it comes down from the ceiling. The higher the ceiling, the dimmer the light tends to be. Also, higher ceilings also allow more opportunity for obstructions to block light altogether in certain parts of the room.

Any piece of equipment, rafter, or storage rack can cast shadows over assembly lines and highly skilled work areas. This creates more than an annoyance—it creates a work hazard and potential liability for the company.

Because these areas often contain storage cabinets above workspace, installing fluorescent under cabinet lights offsets diminished and blocked overhead lighting and allows workers to see clearly without hurting themselves or making mistakes.

Does Phantom Make Fluorescent Strip Lights?
No, but as a conscientious lighting manufacturer with a strong emphasis on consulting, we always seek to educate our clients in what their best options are. Generally, we tend to steer people away from using fluorescent under cabinet display lighting in kitchens within the home. Other types lamps provide a more aesthetically balanced and comfortable level of light that blends better with kitchen, living room, fine art, and bathroom lighting design.

However, homes are not the only places where you find kitchens and kitchenettes. Construction trailers, factories, warehouses, RV’s, camping trailers, and modular buildings often use food preparation areas to provide people in these facilities with the option of dining in and saving money. Many such kitchens, although in small buildings, have a high level of sunlight coming in through large windows that can cast shadows over counter tops. Fluorescent under cabinet lights are ideal for settings such as this because their higher lumens output overcomes shadows very effectively and also blends well with the natural brilliance of sunlight.

Are there any places residential environments where fluorescent under the cabinet lights still offer better lighting?
Yes. In tool sheds and work benches on porches where overhead cabinets contain tools or raw materials, placing a puck light, low voltage festoon light or linear fluorescent strip above the bench is the best way to clearly illuminate the surface of the work area…especially when working with power tools at dusk, in shaded areas, and especially after sunset.

Under cabinet fluorescent fixtures also work very well in laundry rooms and utility rooms where decorum is not an issue, and when activity within the room may occur at any hour of the day or night?

Is there any decorative use for fluorescent under the cabinet lighting?
Jewelry stores often use showcase lighting for diamonds and other gemstones in glass cases lit bit specialty under cabinet fluorescent lighting. This helps merchandise the jewelry more effectively by causing it to sparkle.

Too much sparkle, however, can create glare, which is why many stores are now choosing to use Phantom LED display lighting, which uses even less power than fluorescent lamps and creates a glare free sparkle that also can be “colored” for special effects with different types of LED light bulbs.

Visit our lighting blog to read more about other lamping technologies that offer cabinet lighting levels complimentary to both task and function in areas that do not require fluorescent as an absolute must for clear visibility and safe activity.