No dimmer for me. We don't use a nightlight in the kitchen, and it wasn't worth it to me to pay extra for a dimmer. Completely happy with my decision.

Could you use a small, actual nightlight that plugs into an outlet? That way, he could find his way into the room with that light and then flip on a UC light at the switch if/when needed. Probably uses less energy that way also.

We also chose not to go with the dimmabe LEDs. The sales assoc. said most ppl don't chose dimmabe LEDs for ucl as they don't look very good dimmed.

Ours are dimmable but only because they were on clearance and the cheapest led my GC lucked into :) I wish our overhead cans were since they are way too bright but our led ucl's are a waste in my opinion. They are perfect on full blast.

GM LARC LED light bars. They dim and work great.. One thing about LED is when they dim, the color stays true. The dimmers are expensive!

Are u getting new appliances? If so, many of the new hoods have a night light setting. (but halogen....)

Another thought? What are you putting in above ur sink? We have a single LED can on a Lytton dimmer. Supposed to dim to 5% but reality it is brighter than 5%

LOL about DH. Years back we rented a condo with a number of friends and didn't know one person was a night snacker. Well, in the middle of the night, we heard a loud crash as all of the skis that were leaning against the fridge went flying!

Hello,

We have dimmable LED UC lighting from Environmental Lights. We love and use the dimming feature. We use them full strength for tasks, but like to dim them for ambiance.

We were planning on dimable LED UCs, but the control component for that was back-ordered for months. We went instead with the Hi-Med-Low switch. We tend to use it a lot, but not for overnight.

Have you considered getting a switch that is lighted? That way you can at least see to find the light switch.

Yes, and usually keep them slightly dimmed.

We're getting xenon UC lights with hi-low switches (no dimmer). We'll keep them on low and then switch when we feel it's needed for cooking tasks.

Thanks everyone! The "nightlight" wording may have been a little misleading as to exactly what I'm after. It's not just "guidance to the place to turn on a light", but I want it to provide enough light that he can fairly easily snack and not need to turn on an additional light. We are pretty much planning LED lighting, so the energy pull is going to be pretty minimal, particularly if we dim the lighting.

a2gemini - Good thought! Your idea of the single light over the sink with a dimmer sounds the most like what would work for us if we decide to avoid the expense of a dimmer for the UC lights.

Even left on full, all night, the UC LED's because of the low power they use, You will not see much difference in your electric bill whether they are on or off.

About the only thing you have to worry about is a "Possible increase in "DH assets", due to all that snacking , especially with a "Well lit path to said snack area"!

Gary

Gary LOL!
Andrea Let us know what you decide

I have a question for those of you who don't dim LEDs but could: Is your full on LED just not all that bright or do you not enjoy a lower light level for any or some reason. Not picking a fight here, just trying to figure out if the actual brand/light has something to do with dimmer usage. I want very bright for tasks and dimmer when I am done, but I am kind of a pita that way.
TIA

Gary - haha! Luckily, he seems to do fairly well with keeping his "assets" within reason...he probably does far better than I do, even with me not partaking in the night-time snacking! Some of the unfairness of being a woman - I merely *think* of food and it attaches to my hips and never goes away. Whereas DH can watch what he eats for a week or two and the weight just flies off of him. sigh

a2g - We're months away from our kitchen starting...if we iron out our differences of opinion with our GC this week, we are slated for demo to start late Sept. But, I'll be posting photos of the kitchen as things progress. It's so nice to see other's finished kitchens along with their list of what they used and how it all came together.

Clay - it sounds to me as if some don't use their UC lighting as an ambient type of lighting. I *think* I want to do that, but since this will be the first that I have true UC lighting (not just the cheap WalMart fluorescent strip I bought way long ago), I don't know what my exact usage is going to wind up being.

I know that I love dimmers on lights. Even if I almost always use them at full power, I tend to like "options", just in case. OTOH, our budget is getting stretched to it's limit and while having them dimmable is preferable, it might be something that allows us to save a bit of money to get one of the other options.

Claybabe--my UC lights, as I noted, aren't dimmable. I like light. I just do. I'm a lightaholic. When I'm in the kitchen, all lights are on. I like to see clearly what's in front of me and to my side. I don't often hang out in the kitchen, but spend hours a day cooking and cleaning the kitchen. (I'm a SAHM who cooks from scratch at least two meals a day, mostly three. Lots of fruits and veggies=lots of chopping, Plus, I bake and do food experiments with DS.). So basically, I'm working in there. It's distracting and annoying to see dark corners of the room peripherally for me. I get enough distraction from my two little ones fighting, screaming, talking to me, etc so its already hard enough to concentrate when I'm wielding a knife or other sharp blade. Also, I think uneven light in a room feels like visual noise and contributes to my issues with that.

Side note, during our 1+ year of whole house reno, we stayed in a house where every single room light sans laundry closet (and I do mean closet) was on a dimmer, even hallways. Drove me completely, freakin' bananas. Every room had an undersized light fixture in it anyway with abysmal light so why they needed dimmers is beyond me. One 60 watt bulb to light an entire family room, and no overhead in the living room. I didn't own enough lamps to light up that place. All his to say that my aversion to dimmers was solidified going into choosing fixtures for my house. :)

I have dimmers on my UCL and I appreciate them. I usually have them turned up all the way but there are times at night that I need to turn them down. I have a separate switches for my over sink light and the UCL. They are both on dimmers and both are LED.

I have dimmable LEDs and I mostly leave them full. They're bright but not overly. But there are many occasions where I do dim either for mood or for task. Just last week, my 5 year old and I were "camping" in the house. The dimmed LED was good as a night light so she could find her way to the potty and back to the tent. Dimming isn't a necessity, so I doubt you'd miss it. But it's really nice to have the option sometimes.

Enduring and jscout, what brands/models do you have? I want lights that are bright enough that I want to turn them down, not lights that are barely enough full on. I like both settings. For my Xenon lights it was fine to have a lower and higher that I could just switch between, so as long as I can have two settings I will survive just fine (I don't need continuously dimmable).

I got the LuxBar in warm white from superbrightleds.com. IMHO, it was relatively inexpensive. The customer support is pretty good too. They helped me think through an installation question. I also shorted out a transformer and they were kind enough to replace it without issue. Of course I didn't tell them that I caused the short. I see they now have a motion sensor available. I might consider getting it so the task light will just turn on when someone approaches.

Here is a link that might be useful: LuxBar LED

YES! perviously we've had Xenon UC lights, but they were always SO hot... So in the new house I searched for LED UC lights that could be dimmed. I found InspiredLED.com online. The reviews sounded promising so I emailed them for a quote. They put together a custom kit for a fraction of what I could get dimmable at a big box store. Their customer service is great and they are easy to work with! We got exactly what our kitchen needed in a warm LED!

Here is a link that might be useful: Inspired LED under cabinet lights