34 | CabinetMaker+FDM
LIGHTING
by Alan Richman
LED lighting offers new opportunities
Considered by some to be the
next revolution in cabinetry, LED
lighting is changing the world of
cabinet design, while pumping up
profits for professionals.
L
Let there be light. That Biblical pronouncement
gives a pretty good pedigree to everything else
that has come after in the world of illumination.
This includes LED lighting, which some consider
“the next revolution in cabinetry.”
Chris Johnston, national sales manager for the
Commercial Division at Nora Lighting in Commerce, Calif., says, “Once a fad, LED is now an acceptable and viable means to illuminating a home
or business. Just in the past year the technology
has advanced tenfold, improving the light output
while reducing the cost to the end user.”
Joey Shimm, director of marketing for Outwater Plastics Industries, in Bogota, N.J., agrees that
LED lighting “is on the fast track to replacing all
other light sources.” This is in spite of what he
calls “initial growing pains, new-to-market high
cost and less than desired early performance.”
The future of LED lighting is so assured in the
mind of Art Kubach, a principal at TC Millwork in
Bensalem, Pa., that he says the ability to seamlessly
integrate LED solutions into finished products
means professional woodworkers will have to “really think differently about how they engineer and
build things.”
LED, of course, stands for light-emitting diode,
defined as a semiconductor device that emits visible light when electric current passes through it.
Features and benefits
The reasons that LEDs are attractive to
cabinetmakers and their clients include all of
Nora LED puck lights shown in a kitchen application.
the following, according to Jenna Kaba, marketing coordinator for Norcross, Ga.-based Hera
Lighting.
LEDs are low profile and sleek fixtures that
can easily be incorporated into furniture and
cabinets. Features include low energy consumption, no heat or UV, long lifetime of 50,000
hours, high color rendering,good quality of
light, and low voltage. (See sidebar above for
full list.)
In this long list, one that must stand out for
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Features and benefits
of LED lighting
❯ No heat or UV
❯ Add value to kitchens with
ambient and task lighting
❯ Long lifetime of 50,000 hours,
which means never having to
change a light bulb
❯ High color rendering, good
quality of light
❯ Low voltage so there is no fire
or shock risk
❯ HVAC/energy savings
❯ Shatterproof
❯ Plug and play systems that can
connect to one driver
❯ UL-listed as a complete system
❯ LM79-tested
Hera LED application for a built-in bar.
Gera Glasablage is used in
a shelf lighting application.
wood professionals is the added-value opportunity. Kaba says, “Lighting adds value to any
kitchen and automatically makes it appear high
end.” Because the lighting now comes as part of
a “complete package with cabinetry,” increased
profits should result, she states.
Emphasizing the small size of many LED
products, Johnston notes that they can be incorporated rather easily into tape lighting, edge-lit
panels and other formerly hardto-access applications.
Paraphrasing the Star Trek
prologue, he says, these thin,
flexible light sources are “going
places where no light has gone
before. Under furniture, behind
pictures and mirrors, around
outdoor seating areas and planters, along bar tops and shelves,
in home theaters, and of course,
coves, niches, and under, in and
on top of cabinets. Offered in standard, highoutput and color-changing tape light versions,
the technology allows for endless possibilities.”
Who has what
Shimm says Outwater’s Tri-Mod LED backlighting panels are only 1/16th inch thick, making
them “a great way to uniformly backlight graphics, posters and promotional messages without
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35
36 | CabinetMaker+FDM
LED LIGHTING
At Nora Lighting, the LED line includes: tape
lights; edge-lit panels; puck lights; retrofit downlights
any hot spots or uneven light dispersion.” He sees
for home and office; track and rail fixtures for home
stores, restaurants, museums and exhibit booths, as
and retail sites; pendants; step and brick lights; and
well as commercial and residential buildings as good
emergency/exit signs.
settings for these uses. In addition, he says, the panels
“The new versatility and choice of LED fixtures
can also be readily used to illuminate all types of
have made them a practical solution for all installatranslucent surfaces, including onyx or Corian countions from home and office to commercial, retail and
tertops and backsplashes.
institutional lighting,” says Johnston.
“With this in mind,” Shimm continues, “It is no
He is particularly high on the Standard, Hy-Brite,
surprise that LED lightHigh Output and RGB color
ing has realized broad
changing tape lights, as well
acceptance by numerous
as the Nora LED Lightbar
industries that had initially
Plus linear lightbar, which
shunned its use. It has rapmay be installed under cabiidly evolved into an obvious
nets and features powerful
choice.” Based on steadily
400-plus lumen output per
increasing sales figures for
foot while only consuming
LED lighting over the past
an energy-saving 8W per
few years, the manufacturing
foot.
community appears to agree.
And how about those
LED product variacompact (2 ¾ inch wide and
tions are numerous. Kaba
½ inch deep) slim-line pucks
describes Hera’s Stick-LED
that are designed for display
as miniature linear LED
Nora LightBar Plus closeup and kitchen application.
shelves, furniture cabinets,
lighting with an integrated
jewelry cases and other acconnecting system. She
cent niches? Johnston says
says, “These ultra-compact strips of LED lighting are
they install with a single screw bracket, can be “daisyperfect for furniture, cabinets, displays and closet
chained,” and are dimmable, with a dimming power
interiors.”
supply.
Hera also offers a TwinStick-LED, an R55-LED
“At TC Millwork,” says Kubach, “Our latest ofand an AKOD-LED. The R55 is the next generation
fering is a three-watt puck that is very low profile.
of LED spotlight, “an improvement for the KB12It produces almost 1,000 lux at 16 inches with color
LED,” says Kaba, but able to use the same mounting
rendition at 93.5 right on the black body curve. This
hole. Luminous efficacy is 55 lm/W, she reports.
is basically considered museum-quality lighting using
“The brand new AKOD-LED (full name Afvery little energy.”
fordable Kitchen, Office and Display Lighting) is a
He adds, “We will be launching and incorporatcomplete LED lighting solution which offers a very
ing the first OLED (organic LED) strip light into our
low profile and integrated on/off switch,” says Kaba.
Smartwall shelving in the third quarter of this year. We
Although it is “specifically designed with office
feel that this will be where indoor lighting goes in the
applications in mind,” she says it also works well in
near future. What makes OLEDs special is the fact that
residential cabinets and retail displays.” The product
they are self-emissive, as thin as your credit card, will
comes in three sizes and offers dimming capabilities.
soon be producing 80 lumens per watt (135 lumens
www.CabinetMakerFDM.com | September 2013 |
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38 | CabinetMaker+FDM
LED LIGHTING
product. It’s totally seamless
and wireless for the customer,’
per watt within a year). And they
Kubach says.”
are not single-point lights, which
Forth said TC Millwork makes
is a big detraction with LED from
a wide variety of display proda visual perspective.”
ucts for use on their Smartwall,
TC Millwork’s Smartwall
to include straight and slanted
deserves a fuller description. As
shelves, shadow boxes, step
reported by Karl Forth in 2012,
shelves and a lit clear shelf with
“LED technology is at the heart
a proprietary design strip LED
of TCM’s Smartwall. Using the
light with a groove that it fits
company’s Leggero lightweight
into. There are no wires, only two
shelves, proprietary wiring harOutwater Plastics offers this ribbon flex light. magnets that are used with the
nesses are built into a shelf core
contact points inside the shelf.
and wired to embedded LED
At Interzum this past May,
puck lights. The shelf then makes its connection to
Gera Leuchten of Sankt Gangloff in Thuringia, Gerthe powered standards. The lit shelves can be placed
many, presented its modular Gera Lighting Systems
anywhere on the wall and it lights up and connects
4 and 6, as well as the LED-based Avion standard
automatically. ‘You bring the light directly to the
lamp, which was unveiled along with an optimized,
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electronic control for lighting colors.
The company said its ScanAndLight technology,
which measures and controls the light of each lamp
in the surrounding room, can now be adapted “even
more effectively” for the well-being of particular
users. In a press release, Gera stated, “Targeted microelectronic control of the LED color components
permits the creation of a constantly adapting light
mood throughout the entire room, which is perceived
as being completely natural by the human eye.”
The new version of the Gera ScanAndLight solution is even more flexible and mobile than in the
past, according to the company. The control data now
are simply transmitted to the light sources wirelessly,
whereas they needed to be sent to a computer for
further processing in the original version—with each
individual light source connected by means of cables.
Now, the data can be controlled either by means
of a simple wall switch, a remote control device
or—irrespective of location—using mobile terminal
devices such as smart¬phones, PC tablets and laptops.
In addition to creating various room ambiences, the
revised version offers the benefit that the lighting
systems can be controlled and monitored as part of
an overall building automation system. This permits,
for instance, timer-controlled lighting as a form of
burglary protection.
Turning its attention to color, Gera Leuchten introduced a simple light control for adjusting white color
components by means of a sensor switch. “We have
once again dramatically increased the range of white
and color gradations. With the new electronic control,
adding white can result in lower color saturation and
hence generate gentle pastel hues,” explained Thomas
Ritt, the firm’s designer and product manager.
Getting in on the act
Where are the customers most likely to purchase
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39
40 | CabinetMaker+FDM
LED LIGHTING
LED lighting? Kubach responds,
“I think retail, museums, and
office furniture are going to be
your easiest sales and deliver the
biggest ROI.”
The Pennsylvania millworker,
who also offers his own line of
lighting products, says every retail
store fixture is a potential site for
LED lighting. “Your aim should
be to bring the light to the product, and LED technology enables
you to do that,” he explains.
Kubach goes on to warn
cabinetmakers and furniture
manufacturers that lighting is not
the place to stint on quality. “The
quality of the light is everything,”
he says. “There are many inexpensive LED knockoffs in the
marketplace. And when you plug
them in, that’s just what they look
like—inexpensive knockoffs.”
What’s the point of creating a
very high-quality fixture or piece
of furniture if you then introduce
a poor light? You would only
defeat your own purpose, he
points out.
With fine quality LED lighting
in place, you minimize customer
service callbacks, says Kubach.
“Don’t cheat on the light engine,
The key is to select a unit with
the highest color rendition, best
lumens-per-watts performance,
properly heat sunk, and integrated into a good looking housing
with great optics—for as little
glare and best light spread as possible,” he says. ❮
Alan Richman, former editor of Wood
Digest and Cabinet Manufacturing &
Fabricating, is a New Jersey-based
freelance writer specializing in the
woodworking industry. He has been a
contributor to CabinetMaker+FDM since
2007. Contact him at alanrichman@
yahoo.com.
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