The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in a home, because it is used for cooking and eating, and because Greek families choose it as their meeting place.
By its nature, the kitchen consumes a lot of electricity. So, while saving as much energy as we can, we should install proper lighting that ensures the productivity and efficiency this space demands.
To achieve the right lighting, we need to take three things into account:
1. Choose the positions for the lights, to create a “lighting design” that inspires our creativity in cooking and provides the safety we need for our activities and movements around the room.
2. Choose suitable, energy-efficient lamps.
3. Control the lighting properly, so that it is managed efficiently and correctly. This can be done with a control system or, quite simply, with proper electrical wiring and ordinary switches that light only the area we need at that moment.
Proper kitchen lighting is essential to how productive we are in the room.
The places where we should install luminaires are:
1. General lighting for the room, using a fluorescent luminaire that provides diffused light and consumes less energy than incandescent lamps.
2. The countertop and the sink need additional lighting. This is achieved with spotlights installed in the profile (fascia) along the top of the kitchen cabinets. Besides providing extra light exactly where we need it, they create an attractive atmosphere, thanks to the beams of light that sweep across the cabinets.
3. Useful as they are, spotlights in the kitchen fascia are not enough on their own, because they cast shadows beneath the cabinets. We therefore need to add some luminaires there as well, to balance the lighting in those areas. Manufacturers today offer some very attractive slim luminaires that keep the light source out of sight and give excellent results.
