6 Ideas For Replacing Fluorescent Lighting Boxes (2023)

For replacing fluorescent lighting boxes, you can install track lighting in your kitchen, study, or other rooms. Going for undercabinet lighting, recessed lighting, pendant lighting, etc. would be a very wise decision too.

The days of fluorescent lighting boxes are over now. In the ’80s and ’90s, these lighting boxes were very popular and almost every house have these facilities in their kitchen.

However, they don’t quite fit with modern-day wants in terms of design, fashion, lighting, etc. Here are some ideas for replacing fluorescent lighting boxes.

Let’s see.

Why It’s Necessary to Replace Fluorescent Lighting Boxes:

Fluorescent light boxes were the elements of the ’80s and ’90s. They were good back then and their lighting was enough. However, with time our wants and needs change all the time.

The boxed light doesn’t have much design and looks odd in a modern decorated house. It can’t provide lights equally in all the places. With fluorescent lighting, some places are too shiny and some places too dark. It also takes up too much space in the ceiling.

There are a few other problems we face for having fluorescent lighting. To overcome these conditions you need to replace the fluorescent box with other lighting decorations.

Below I have discussed six ideas for replacement.

6 Ideas For Replacing Fluorescent Lighting Boxes

1. Install Track Lighting In The Kitchen

Track lighting could be a very good solution in case of replacing fluorescent boxes. Here are the reasons why you should install track lights in the kitchen.

• Can get lights exactly where we want: Having fluorescent box lights over our heads does a good job of cleaning and navigation. But it can’t provide light in the corner area such as inside of the cabinet.

With track light, we can control the light direction, so you can move the light direction to any place you want.

• Versatile Lighting: All the fluorescent lights are almost the same. But track lights come with so many options. Incandescent, fluorescent, high- and low-voltage halogen versions, LED, etc. and many other track lights are available in the market.

It helps us to choose lights depending on our needs, financial conditions, room size, etc. It comes in many shapes too- such as T, L, X, etc.

• Save Spaces: If you are living in a small size apartment or house then you can save a lot of space by installing track lights and removing fluorescent boxes. Also, you won’t need multiple lights in the kitchen, one or two track lights will be enough to cover the whole place.
• Give an Aesthetic Look: One of the biggest reasons of changing fluorescent light is because it’s old and doesn’t look much good around with your other modern elements. But track lights have so many designs and they provide an aesthetic look. You choose track lights that will goes with your room theme.

Things You Should Consider While Applying Track Lights

Before you start to set up track lights in rooms or the kitchen, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Those are-

• Tracks light could directly hit your eyes, so place them wisely. You may go blind if the light directly hit your eyes.
• Don’t place the light directly to the object instead place the lights a bit side away from the object. Cause if you place the lights directly on the object then your head will block the lights and you won’t be able to see the object clearly.
• Also look out for cabinets’ upper doors, these block lights too.

2. Use Undercabinet Lighting

Our second suggestion for you is to use undercabinet lighting. Let’s see why undercabinet lighting is better than overhead-hanging box lights.

• Efficient use of light: Undercabinet lights directly put lights on the object. It doesn’t block a single beam of light. In this method, lights don’t spill across the entire room but just on the side you attach those light.
• An alternative solution to keeping the dark vibe: For those who love to keep their room environment a bit dark, this is the perfect method for them. By placing undercabinet lights, you can avoid enlightening the full room and at the same time get your work done.
• Cost Effective: Installing undercabinet lighting is very cheap and the electric bill charge are very less compared to other lighting systems. Overall everything makes it very cost-effective.
• Undercabinet lighting is very pleasant to look at. This lighting provides the room, a very generous view.

Plus most of the time it stays out of our sight as the light is set under the cabinet and you won’t see any wire either.

You could use various types of lights for undercabinet lightings such as Light bars, puck lights, lighting strips, and tape lights are the most popular ones.

3. Recessed Lighting

This is a beautiful way to decorate your room or kitchen after removing the fluorescent light box. Sometimes recessed lighting is addressed as “can lighting” or “downlights”. These lights are installed on the ceiling or wall surface. It looks like a light bulb is sitting inside a can that is attached to the ceiling.

How Do You Install recessed lights:

• Install recessed lights right above your work area.
• Set up the lights on a perimeter basis.
• Install light even in places you don’t need light much. Cause a single light above the work area won’t be enough, you will need more lighting to create a comfortable space.
• These methods work best with low-ceiling rooms.

4. Pendant Lighting

It’s another way to upgrade your fluorescent lighting systems. Pendant lighting is a single light fixture that hangs from the ceiling usually attracted with a cord, chain, or metal rod. These lights mostly hang above the kitchen countertops, over the dining place or sometimes in the bathroom.

It’s the method where you can be creative. Because, there are so many types of pendant lights available in the market and you can use them creatively, plus you can build up your theme with pendant lighting.

Here are some ideas for replacing fluorescent lighting boxes with pendant lighting.

• Use various lengths of lights

Well, you can add various lengths of pendant lights in the kitchen. Where you need the light most use long pendant lights that are close to the objects. And where you need less light like at the dinner table- use pendant lights that are close to the ceiling and not so long.

• Linear Pendant Light

Instead of using fluorescent box light, you can use linear pendant lights. You will get a simple and effective lighting solution from it. These light bulbs generally comes with one long tube bulb on a long singular canopy.

You can set these in the kitchen and do your job with perfect lighting. These are good for long dinner tables, cafe seating areas, and many other places.

5. Use Drums and Chandeliers

Remove your fluorescent box and set up drums lights or chandeliers, I bet this will completely change the view of your room.

Drums and chandeliers provide a thousand times better softer light than fluorescent lighting boxes. It’s an element of beauty for any room of the house. Moreover, it saves a lot of space and energy than fluorescent lighting.

The most amazing thing about it is that there are uncountable amounts of drums and chandelier designs available in the market. These chandelier suits every place of the house. And no matter what types of drums or chandeliers you choose, they will always give a warm and welcoming feeling.

6. Install a Dimmer Switch:

Why do we always need to add new light systems or more lights, In case of replacement fluorescent light boxes, We could just make the existing lights flexible and can use them any way we want, right?

There are mainly three purposes why we want to replace fluorescent with adding new lighting systems.

• General Lighting(for overall illumination)
• Task Lighting(increasing lighting in a specific area for a specific activity, for example; undercabinet lights)
• Accent Lighting(to set up mood with lighting)

Well, installing a dimmer switch full fill all three requirements. You can increase overall illumination of the room, this will allow you to do specific work under perfect lighting and lastly you will able to increase or decrease the lighting brightness of the room as your mood desire.

Add a dimmer switch to your fluorescent lighting box. For cooking or chopping use the full brightness, for cleaning dimmed the light a bit, and for enjoying a romantic dinner dim the light more.

Conclusion:

These were the 6 easiest and most effective ideas for replacing fluorescent lighting boxes. If you know some other ideas then, do share them with us.

Be careful while you remove the fluorescent lighting cause a simple mistake or accident can cause huge damage. Consider your budget, room size, ceiling height, where you need lights, etc, before making your final decision.