Four Pegasus Associates Lighting customer volunteers will be reviewing a new LED lighting product and providing their feedback within this topic. For details visit our blog post at http://blog.pegasusassociates.com/2009/09/volunteers-wanted-to-review-new-led-lighting-product/ and to be one of the first four.

First off I would like to thank Chris for the opportunity to review this light. It was a really great idea to let contractors and/or home owners give some real feedback on the product.

As a licensed electrical contractor we are always trying to stay on top of the latest products on the market. This will have been our first time experience with an LED undercounter light. We were very excited to see the unit in use and test the functionality compared to our standard undercounter light.

Installation photo's:







Installation Location
The product was installed under my cabinets in the kitchen of my home.

Ease of installation
From the installation instructions you are told all that is required is a pair of scissors for this install. We found additional tools were required to complete the installation. Basic hand tools are fine and we did have to strip the wire down to make a permanent connection from light to light. The manual punch down of the wire was supposed to make a constant connection but it seems it would not, so stripping the wire down corrected this.

Quality of light and Amount emitted
The coverage area emitted by the LED light was sufficient but the actual light it emitted was still sub-par to the standard under counter lights we install (little-inch). This is the biggest hurdle that energy efficient lighting has to overcome.

Ease of use
The ease of use of the lights was good. We saw no trouble with their function. We did start with a bit of trouble once we corrected the connections issues covered in the ease of installation.

Overall product design
If the expected cost of the product was $100 it would seem to be a bit high. We thought the quality of the light was a bit flimsy but then again it was very light and easy to manipulate the wires and lights to adjust location installation.

Would we purchase more
I would have to say no at this time. If my technician was not completely satisfied with the product I could not see us selling them to our customers.

Recommendation to others
I would like to offer LED and other energy effecient lighting products but until we are completely satisfied with the above criteria we would not recommend a product.

Other Comments
We have tested about a half dozen other lights that are also suppose to be the new wave of lighting and all of them had the same or worse problems then this LED product. So I would say manufacturers are getting better but still not ready for the big show.

Thank you again!!

Max H.
Serivce Manager
Caron Electric

Thanks for letting me review this product.I was excited about trying some new lights but was rather disapointed upon their arrival. I installed them in a kitchen to be used as Undercabinet lighting.


The lights were VERY easy to install. However I did have problems with a few of the connectors on the lights themselves. It is my experience that stabbing a wire into a device is never the proper way to terminate it but with these lights you have no choice.

I also was not happy with the wires themseves and would have switched them with something a little more durable if I was given the choice. I am an electrical contractor and I do not care for running wires exposed to begin with. I also was unhappy that they couldn’t be hardwired. The switch given is very simple to operate though.


The surprise was with the light that they gave off.I was very happy with that. For such small led lights they are pretty bright and gave a very white clean light witch actually made this old kitchen look much better then before they were installed .

I would not recommend these lights to anyone because of the price .In my opinion $100 is way too much for these seemingly cheap flimsy lights however I think that if they were priced right they would be a good product for a do it yourselfer on a tight budget. As an electrical contractor I think I will stick to Pegasus’s super line of Xeon Undercabinet lights instead.

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First Impression
My first glance at the LED lights did not impress me. The lights come with a twisted pair of wires that remain exposed- not a good look. Also, I am very opposed to any under cabinet lights that use a cord and plug installation (wires hanging down from the bottom of a cabinet look trailer parkish). Fact is, I couldn't think of any customer I would offer such a look to, so I decided to try it out at my home with the idea that I could always take them out if they performed as poorly as their first impression.

Installation
It turned out to be very easy to install. I found that If I installed them with the ends butting into each other (ie- fixtures were touching), then the exposed wires were limited. The install time was relatively quick and easy. I found that in my case I was able to hide the power source plug behind a small appliance which helped to eliminated the trailer park image.
One other trick that I found to be helpful was that the twisted pair of wires going between fixtures were small enough to squeeze behind a micro hood. This allowed me to connect lights on two separate cabinets without a lot of fishing through cabinetry.
I only had one set of lights not turn on due to faulty setting of wires in the crimps. Easily remedied by pressing the connector down a little harder.

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Light Output
Okay, but not great. If they were to be used as accent lights, then maybe they would work. But, if they are to play double duty as accent lighting and task lighting (which is the way I design my kitchen lighting), then they will fall far, far too short to be classified as quality task lighting. As a lighting designer I want more light output than these are able to put out, which is a continuing problem with LED lights in general. Compare the cost of running LED to fluorescent and incandescent all you want, but if you need supplemental lighting for your low energy task lights, then what's the point?
I also noticed that the color spectrum was not consistent. Some lights tended towards the cooler blue tones and others meandered into the warmer yellow tones.

Cost Point
The cost was pretty good for the amount of light fixtures that come with the $100 kit. You end up getting a lot of cabinet space covered. To cover the same area with Halogen lights would cost about 5% more (based upon the lights I put into my lighting designs). But again, the actual light output still falls short. A 5% savings for 35% less lights in not a good bargain.

Design
I mentioned a few of the design issues earlier, but I thought I would drop a few more comments specifically about design.
Wires: I don't mind running wires on the surface if they don't look so chinsy. One solution could be that the wires have an outer covering that could be trimmed away during installation.
Power source: I could design a system (and I have) in which plug in lights are used by putting plugs inside of the upper cabinets and then drilling a small hole in the back of the cabinet and fishing the wire through the cabinet and using that plug. A better solution would be to have a hard-wire j-box with the transformer built into the j-box that could be tucked up and under the cabinet.
Light fixture- Not a bad design, but if there was double the about of LEDs in each fixture, I think the output would be a lot better.

Would I Incorporate Into a Lighting Design
At this point, no. There are too many issues to deal with and over come. It seems to me that this is something that an unknowing homeowner (or trailer owner) buys on an impulse while standing in the check out line at a big depot store. As a professional lighting designer I am not afraid to try new product, but this one did not pass the test.

Hello, I’m Rob. I’m a regular user who has had some limited experience with LED products and was excited to try something new. I responded to the blog post about volunteering to test a new product in exchange for a review. I responded and Chris was kind enough to contact me about the opportunity to give these a whirl.

I’ve been in the process of exploring and comparing LED products specifically for incandescent replacements. Not knowing what to expect, I had hoped for an incandescent replacement of some sort. The under-cabinet lighting application is an interesting one, but not something I had an urgent need for and was something I was entirely unfamiliar with until UPS delivered the package.

My first impression was “what am I going to use these for?” but there are a number of uses around the house where these could come in handy. I enjoy indirect uplighting from floor-based fixtures such as in a corner, behind a plant or under a desk. I decided to try these behind a futon in a living room, simply strung out and placed on the floor behind a futon. I may mount these to a 2x4 that can be easily moved to another location as sort of a go-anywhere florescent tube style light.

The installation is a little tricky at first – the instructions say to simply cut the twisted pair into sections of the desired length and snap the covers on the end of the switch (and each LED assembly). This is correct in practice, but the process of snapping the covers back on over the wires also punctures the insulation so as to allow the connector inside the assembly to make contact with each wire. This process was troublesome at first because the covers snap back on over the ends of the assemblies but don’t necessarily puncture the insulation, leaving the disappointment of unlit LEDs. It took a few re-attempts to get the wires to connect appropriately but it eventually worked, and it gets easier after each assembly.

While the installation was somewhat frustrating, I am quite pleased with the LEDs themselves. The color and brightness of the LEDs is sufficient for my application, although I’m using them in a dimly lit room. The color appears to be a fairly soft-white, not at all like the bluish color output often associated with “white” LEDs. I’m also pleased to report that there is no perceptible flicker effect as is often experienced with LED indicators on electronic equipment or with LED Christmas lights.

I like the product overall but $100 seems like too high of a price-point for this product. The fixtures themselves just don’t feel like they’re part of a $100 system. They’re lightweight and heavily dependent on snapping plastic pieces on and off for the installation. A $75 or $50 price would be significantly more palatable.

Some enhancements that may benefit the end-user experience (for self-installers) would be to provide pre-cut lengths of wire and possibly use some sort of jack-and-plug system as opposed to the current connectors that can be frustrating to terminate.

Thanks very much to Chris and Pegasus for the opportunity to experience these! I hope my review comes in handy for anyone who might be interested.

- Rob

(Edited to add photos. Unfortunately the light didn't show up from behind the futon when I took the photos in the early afternoon so I don't have a photo demonstrating the overall effect. That having been said, the effect from behind the futon is quite pleasing at night when trying to watch TV or a movie and still need some light without using the overhead lights or table lamp.)

I have installed the Connex lights from Illuminetrix. Here are my thoughts about the light: The installation was VERY easy (installed myself, no tools requires). The lights are installed at the front of my cabinets and the light is not distributed evenly and casting shadows at the back of the counter. The amount of light although bright is not bright enough for my personal liking. The lights were installed using the sticky pads and not screwed into the cabinets, it took me approx. 45 minutes to install 5 lights. I wish there would have been a second power cord so I could have done the other side of my kitchen.