More About Estar LED Cabinet Lighting
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More About Estar LED Cabinet Lighting
This is an additional info page to keep the three pages listed below from repeating themselves or becoming too long. To purchase the LED lighting products, refer to the three below pages:
LED dimming accessories (coming soon)
But to learn a bit more about the Estar LED Lights, stay on this page.
The Light itself, front and rear views
The picture of the front is ours, the rear view is Estar's nicely labeled picture.
The front of the light casing will eventually be hidden over by your choice of trim ring. But what is under the hood? The light is a solid ABS casing, very strong. From the front you can see the two small silver circles, those are the magnets that hold on the metal trim rings. The trim rings snap on strong, but are still removable. Thus when a light reaches the end of its life cycle a lot of years from now, you can replace a light and re-use your trim ring. Also under the hood are two elongated holes for screw mounting. Lights come as a friction fit mount, but in some applications, you might need to screw mount them. The COB LED is hidden beneath a frosted lens that helps diffuse the light in a conical shape downward. When the trim ring is in place, the entire 1-1/2" dia. frosted lens is able to shine the light downward. Just under the flange is a clear rubber gasket. Leave it in place. Doesn't seem like it is necessary in a home application. But on a boat application, it actually makes sense. Why not add a bit more water protection to the light. A good idea on Estar's part.
The rear view of the light shows the body of the light that will be recessing, or set into the surface mount ring. You can easily see the friction fit clips from this view, they are on opposited sides of the light. The friction fit assembly also acts as a wire hold down. Something else not needed in all applications, but a nice feature nonetheless so you do not pull the wire out of the back of the light. That would take some doing. But you always get the guy who measured just an inch too short and thinks he can tug and stretch the wire to reach where needed. Don't be that guy. The input wire at the base is flexible. So when recessed, it just fits through the same hole the light is fitting into. When surface mounted, it can be wired back through a pilot hole, or extend outward out the side of the surface mount ring.
One additional fact about the front view picture. On the lights we received, they have a short coupler adapter wire. That wire converts the coupler on the 79" attached lead to a slightly smaller coupler which easily fits into the ports on the 60 watt LED power driver. Thus if using another brand of 12 volt LED drivers with a port that matches either port for the main wire or the adapter connected, these lights can connect to one other port style. But get the LED power drivers from us, we stock them.
The Decorative Trim Rings
They are a nice size, 3.15" in overall diameter, hole in the center is about 1-1/2". The width of the ring measures 13/16", so more bold than the thin ring LED lights that we still offer from Hera and Hafele. When recessed with the trim ring on, the lights protrude off the surface just a spec over 1/8". And because they are 3.15" in dia., they can easily hide fade marks in the headliners of boats that had the Hera H11 lights that meaured 2-15/16" in dia. The smaller LED lights that we offered did not meet that mark. But this light is just a bit larger than the EH11, and still fits into the same hole size. You have 5 choices for the trim ring color. The same 5 choices that the Hera E1 and KB12 halogen lights came in. And the same 4 choices for the EH11. So anyone retrofitting from old halogens, we can now offer all 5 light ring colors. Gold is back, baby. Yes, for many years we did not have a polished gold light to offer. Now we do. These trim rings hold onto the light magnetically. The light has two built in magnets.
And in answer to a lot of questions we will get on this, these trim rings WILL NOT work on your old halogen lights. Do not just purchase trim rings from us thinking you can make them work. They will not fit. They are designed for the Estar WD-UL008 light.
Optional Surface Mount Rings
We set up a page to elaborate on the surface mount rings, the surface mount ring page. Snappy title, huh? There is a lot said about them on that page, so we will just show you a couple of pictures.
How do I power these LED lights?
The are 12 volt, commonly called Low Voltage LED lights. You don't just plug them into the wall. They operate from a LED Power Driver. We offer a 60 watt driver. This driver has 6 convenient light ports for the lights. All plug and play. Like small phone jacks just connecting into a socket. There is also an extender port to add more lights to the same driver. We have the 10-port terminal block extender. This can allow you to hook up 16 lights to this 60 watt driver. The lights are 3 watts each, so that would be a 48 watt load on the 60 watt driver, which is A.O.K. to do. Thus on the 60 watt driver, you can connect anywhere from 1 to 16 lights on it. Everyone's application is different. Some are big kitchens, some are desk set ups in your office. Lights can be used in the bathroom over mirror, you can build nice living room built ins and add lights inside and outside of your cabinetry. Lots of flexibility with your set up with this larger capacity LED power driver.
And then for boats and motor homes, the 12V lights can run directly from your 12Vdc WITHOUT the need for the LED power driver. You will just splice the twin wire into your set up. Powered basically the same way as car headlights with 12V batteries. The WD-UL008 light is great for boats and motorhomes.
Should I pick warm white or cool white lights?
There are reasons for both. As seen by the picture below, it is difficult to take a picture of the lights straight on when they are lit. But we are trying to show the difference in Kelvin temperature. This is the color of the light output. Not the color of the casing of the light, it is the color of the light coming out of the light. Using the word light a lot in that sentence.
3000K is by far the most popular choice overall, and the best choice for that nice warm white look. That is the one in the middle. The one on the left is the 2700K. Popular with a lot of people who want that really warm glow. As you can see, it looks a bit more orange. You have to think about the order of colors on a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. In a spectrum, you would have infra red on one end and ultra violet on the opposite end. Basically light color is changing from the warm zone, orange and yellow, to the cooler zone, green and blue. The 4000K cool white lights however DO NOT look green or blue. They are just more clear. The orangey-yellow hue is gone.
So which do I choose. If you want that soft inviting warm light, get the 3000K. If you have a lot of white interiors that you do not want to look less white, then get the 4000K. This is how we have coached customers over the years. We will use a kitchen example first. If you have wood cabinets in rich brown tones, or other woodgrains, warm white helps keep that color looking warm, and not bleeched out. Cool whites in the 5500K+ range can bleech out colors and make them look not so great. If your countertops are darker, or granite with a mix of greens, greys, browns, and other colors, warm white will keep them looking inviting. If you have black granite countertops, you most certainly would NOT want the 4000K. It would glare back at you. It would be like headlights on a very dark night coming at you. So the 3000K or 2700K are much much better for really dark countertops.
But then going the other way, like a Miami kitchen where most everything is white. Do not get the 2700K or 3000K, definitely go with the 4000K. That way everything will stay looking white, instead of picking up a faint yellowish hue. Cool white 4000K will not distort your light colors.
If you have wall displays with paintings, the 3000K would be nice for those. If you have shelves with clear crystal, then get the 4000K lights, or your crystal might end up looking yellow.
In a bathroom around a mirror, most women will prefer the warm white 3000K. So guys, if you are thinking about surprising your wife with added lights in the bathroom, get the 3000K. If you put a more blaring 4000K in there, you're going to hear about it. Same is true for the bedroom lighting, the 3000K is better.
Now when it comes to a living room built in wall, or a bookcase with lights, very often the 4000K is going to be the better choice. You are adding light to show things off, and more or less in a bright setting. You can use the 3000K, but we feel the 4000K is better for living room walls in brighter rooms to begin with. It is mostly a choice. Seems most people prefer the 3000K over the others. And quite often, display lighting used during the daytime when natural light is still happening, the 4000K is a better choice. Kind of keeps the light more daylight looking.
We hope this added info helps. As we think of other things we may have forgotten to say, we will add to this page.