Is there a particular reason that I would want to use Xenon lighting over Halogen, or vice-versa? Is one better than the other?

I'm asking the same question. How can there be any difference. On one, the glass envelope is filled with a halogen family gas and the other is filled with xenon gas; both use tungsten filaments. How can the gas in the envelope determine how hot the filament gets? It may have an effect on the Kelvin temperature of the light at a given voltage, but that's it, at least as far as I know, which isn't much.

When choosing xenon vs. fluorescent, there is a big heat difference with the fl much lower. But what about having incandescent can lights in the ceiling and mixing that with fl under the counter lights...is there an aesthetic conflict? Thanks.

So, I did a little internet research this morning trying to come up with THE answer for us between why Xenon or Halogen. Here is what I found:

As we know, halogen bulbs are filled with halogen gas. The purpose is to increase the life of the bulb since the halogen gas returns evaporated tungsten back to the filament. It seems that halogen gas is chemically reactive. It combines with the tungsten deposit in the glass bulb that falls off the filament as the filament wears during use and creates tungsten halide. This tungsten halide then gets deposited back onto the filament increasing its life. Check out http://members.misty.com/don/bulb1.html#hb for a lot more information on Halogen Bulbs.

Halogen bulbs are also quite hot. This heat is required to create the tungsten halides described above. Due to this heat, halogen is not a good choice for under cabinet or inside cabinet lighting.

With regard to xenon gas, the only thing that I could find specifically about why xenon gas is used, is that all bulbs contain gas in order to retard the evaporation of the filament. It seems that argon, krypton, and xenon gasses are used for this purpose. Argon is ok, krypton is a little better, and xenon is the best. Xenon bulbs do not produce as much heat as halogen bulbs since it is halogen that requires high heat to deposit tungsten back onto the filament. Xenon bulbs do not operate in this manner. Thus, a cooler operating bulb.

Xenon still produces more heat than fluorescent. I have used Xenon for my under cabinet lights and have been quite happy with them. I prefer the Xenon color temperature and the dimmability over the cooler color temperature and non-dimmable fluorescents. However, this is, of course, a personal choice.

Concerning your question about mixing incandescent general lighting and fluorescent task lighting/under cabinet lighting, yes there will be differences in color temperature. However, I am of the opinion that it is purely a personal choice. You may look at a kitchen like that and not like the color temperature differences and I may look at it and be just fine with it.

If this is a concern of yours, then try to get warm white fluorescent lighting. However, warm white fluorescent will still not exactly match the warm color temperature of incandescent.

I use fluorescent and incandescent lighting in my kitchen. I have fluorescent over cabinet lighting (an indirect light) for my general lighting with xenon under cabinet lighting for my task lighting. I am very happy with the results. In addition, I use cool white fluorescent for my over cabinet. I chose cool white because to the human eye a cooler color temperature actually seems brighter. I chose xenon under cabinet because I wanted to be able to dim the lights and I preferred the warmer color temperature under the cabinets.

Halogen bulbs are commonly used by most people because of its popularity. But xenon bulbs have more benefits associate with it. The light produced by the xenon reaction is considered bright than a similar halogen light, using a wider area of the light spectrum for a whiter light. They also last much longer than the conventional halogen bulb. Though halogen is dependable, the bulb still uses a filament that will eventually burn out, while xenon bulbs use only gas and electricity, allowing them to last two or three times as long. Similar xenon bulbs also use less energy than a halogen equivalent.