The Ecofriendly Kitchen: Light Your Kitchen Right

This kitchen is a top-notch illustration of good lighting and clearly illustrates the three types of interior lighting:

• Ambient: In this kitchen, the recessed can lights and the barely detectable uplighting on top of the upper cabinets are the ambient (or general) light source, which provides an area with overall illumination.
• Task: Here the pendants over the table and the undercabinet lighting are the task lighting, which helps you perform specific tasks, such as preparing and cooking food.
• Accent: This kitchen's pendants also act as accent lighting, which creates visual interest.

This kitchen also keenly incorporates natural daylight with a skylight and a bank of windows at counter level.

Natural Daylight

Reduce your need for artificial light and take advantage of natural daylight as a cost-free way to illuminate your kitchen during daytime hours. Besides, who doesn't love a gorgeous light-filled space?

North- and south-facing windows are optimal for bringing in natural light. Northern light is softer and unaccompanied by glare or direct light (which brings with it heat). South-facing windows can introduce direct light, but that light is easy to control with short exterior overhangs designed to keep direct light out during hotter months. The daylight (and associated heat gain) from east- and west-facing windows is the toughest to control but can be counteracted with exterior vegetation or window coverings.

Natural daylight without upper cabinets. One of my favorite kitchen design moves is the elimination of upper cabinets in exchange for more windows. I avoid conventional upper cabinets because the space below them — even with undercabinet lighting — is often dark and less usable. Without upper cabinets in this kitchen, the full depth of the perimeter counters is more usable and the work surfaces are bathed in natural light during the day, meaning light fixtures can be comfortably kept off.

Natural daylight with upper cabinets. Smart designs, like this kitchen, can avoid the shortcomings of upper cabinets. This kitchen employs light-colored, reflective surfaces and an undercabinet window to keep work areas bright during the day.

Bulbs for Kitchen Lighting

Three types of bulbs, or lamps, as they're known in the lighting industry, are most common in current kitchen design:

• Incandescent: Thank you, Thomas Edison, for allowing us to relegate candles to birthday cakes and romantic evenings, instead of having to use them for our primary lighting. Although incandescents were the lighting standard for decades, the lighting industry is quickly moving away from inefficient incandescent bulbs — even making some bulbs illegal. And for good reason: a 100-watt bulb is 2.1 percent efficient, producing about 2 watts of light and 98 watts of heat.
• Compact fluorescent: CFLs have been everyone's go-to efficient bulb but, much like eight-tracks or compact discs, their time with us may be short. While these bulbs use about a third or less of the energy that an incandescent uses, CFLs are difficult to dim, contain mercury (though some mercury-free options are available) and are being outperformed by LEDs.
• LED: Light-emitting diode lamps and fixtures should be your new go-to for efficient artificial light, with increased efficiency over CFLs and a life span that's six times longer. Prices have been plummeting as demand has risen.

Color temperature is how light appears to us — warm, cool or natural. You can dramatically alter the character of a space with a lamp's color temperature. Look for color temperature, called "light appearance" on the new lighting fact labels.

More:
12 Ways to Light Your Kitchen With LEDs
Kitchen Islands: Pendant Lights Done Right
LED, CFL and Other Green Lighting Options
How to Choose and Use Ecofriendly Kitchen Appliances