Architects in charge of lighting custom kitchen cabinets often run into problems when it comes time to specify in-cabinet lighting strips for cabinet build outs made with wooden doors and glass windows. While such a cabinet looks beautiful when illuminated from within, it is difficult to do so with standard in-cabinet lighting fixtures that generate even marginal amounts of heat. Closed-air spaces can quickly become a fire hazard once heat buildup begins. It is necessary in such cases to use a low-voltage lighting source that can generate superior optical results with minimal radiant heat.

The best source of light to use for this type of enclosed in-cabinet lighting is an LED linear lighting strip fixture. While this technology has been around for years, it was not until very recently that its aesthetic qualities began to equal its technological advantages. The biggest challenge for LED strip light manufacturers lay in creating a bulb that could generate the same level of luminance as an incandescent source. Attempts to engineer LED bulbs themselves for greater lumens output failed because LED light bulbs by nature emit light through electrical stimulation of a diode core that operates in a completely different manner than the [electrification of incendiary] gases contained within traditional light bulbs.

Phantom Lighting made no such attempts to overcome the essence of futility when its engineers gathered around the drawing board to design a new generation of in-cabinet lighting strips. Rather than attempting to reengineer the nature of the LED bulb itself, they rather decided to make the essence of the LED bulb part of a newer, grander design of the patent pending 2800K Phantom festoon lamp. This lamp is actually made from the same LED chips that other lighting manufacturers use in their strips, but the configuration is the unique and proprietary creation Phantom Lighting. The three chips contained within a single LED festoon lamp combine their individual luminance in such a manner that ultimately produces an light output that equals Xenon or Incandescent sources—with no infrared or ultraviolet radiation. (See our LED lamp comparison chart)

This makes Phantom in-cabinet lights possibly the only lighting source that architects can rely upon to fulfill the necessary safety requirement of lighting closed-air spaces and still perform at an luxury lighting level that exceeds the expectations of the savvy home owner. It never has been a problem for a designer or electrical contractor to find cool-burning light sources to work in difficult spaces. However, the custom-home market places equal demand on the appearance of its presentation as much as it does its functionality and safety.

Phantom in-cabinet lights fulfill such aesthetic and professional lighting equipment requirements in a number of ways. To begin with, they are custom built to fit the precise dimensions of a kitchen cabinet interior. The architect needs only to call our main number and provide us with a set of drawings or a complete set of measurement numbers, and we will do the rest. Secondly, Phantom lights are extremely thin and low-profile in design, so they can be manufactured at will to conceal themselves either along interior horizontal headers or vertical cabinet styles. Third, our low voltage cabinet lighting strips are completely dimmable and can be easily adjusted to highlight cabinet contents with appropriate levels of interior lighting that simultaneously balance themselves against overall general room lighting. Last, and most importantly, Phantom LED in-cabinet lighting fixtures come in three optional colour temperatures—2800K, 2950K, and 5000K. Each of these offers unique advantages in illuminating different types and colors of fine china, glassware, and dinner ware.

In general, we have found that the cooler color temperatures of 2950K and 5000K tend to work better with the Spartan absolutes of contemporary custom kitchen designs and marble countertops. However, this is only an observation on our part, not an official recommendation. Ultimately we leave such choices to the homeowner and the builder. Our job is to accommodate the unique requirements of a highly specialized and very unique niche marketplace that has historically found it difficult to locate in-cabinet strip lighting fixtures that provide an exact technological match of equipment to design conception.

With Phantom, this problem is finally solved with applied technology custom-engineered for high-end design foremost in mind, with safety and functionality built into the equation in order to make beauty a functional element of lifestyle, and science and art a blended representation of the true custom home living experience.