Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Ambient, dual-source (daylight & LED) kitchen lighting

[warning: semi-practical idea ahead]
  (+10, -1)(+10, -1)
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I've been trying to think of a way to get better lighting in the kitchen. My first thought was to have all the tiles at the back of the worktop glow softly, to cast a pleasant, ambient light over the worktop - as opposed to overhead light, which means you tend to cast a shadow on what you're doing. This is probably a bit complicated - all those tiles would have to be wired in individually, so my next idea was to replace the tiles with a single large sheet of semi-opaque (cloudy-looking) glass with light sources behind it.

The semi-opaque glass would have a 5mm air gap behind it, and then a mirror behind that. Light would shine into the air gap and be reflected and diffused over the area of the glass, escaping through the front as a soft, ambient light. During the day, natural light would be fed into the air gap from a light pipe (basically, a mirrored tube) perhaps run down a disused chimney (kitchens in older houses in the UK often have disused chimneys). During hours of darkness light would be fed into the bottom of the air gap from white LEDs (or coloured LEDs potentially) and fibre optics hidden in the dead space behind or under the kitchen units.
hippo, Jan 30 2006

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       semi-opaque : translucent
semi-practical : semi pastry
Jinbish, Jan 30 2006
  

       sounds nice but my worry would be getting moths and other crawlies in there that would look enlarged and have huge scuttling reflections cast all round the room...
po, Jan 30 2006
  

       I love it - excellent - particularly If you can guarantee those scuttling shadows. For me - that's the best part of it +
xenzag, Jan 30 2006
  

       I did imagine it being air-tight, mostly to avoid dust build-up but in any case I don't think you'd get massive scary shadows of microscopic insects projected across your kitchen (although that could be another HB idea) because of the lack of point light sources and the diffusing properties of the translucent glass.
hippo, Jan 30 2006
  

       [po]'s anno is so funny I must give this bread.
bungston, Jan 30 2006
  

       Excellent one! As for bugs, just fill the gap with clear, non-life-supporting gel.   

       Combined with motion sensors, you could have the LED's power up to follow your hands.
sophocles, Jan 30 2006
  
      
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