Lights and lighting provide useful general illumination of interior and exterior spaces in homes and buildings, as well as ornamental and artistic treatments for decorative purposes. These purposes include lighting functions for accent and interior ornamental design functions, highlights for artwork, illuminating work areas, and other functions. Often furniture or cabinetry have lights for illuminating articles held within the furniture or cabinets. For cabinets, and in particular kitchen wall cabinets, lighting fixtures are often mounted to a lower exterior surface or recessed therein, for illuminating countertop surfaces below the cabinets.
One type of lighting fixture is known as an under-cabinet puck light. These lights have generally cylindrical disc-shaped housings. The housings contain a reflector, a lamp socket with a light emitting bulb, and a glass lens for transmitting light from the housing to the countertop surface below the cabinet. The socket connects to a supply of electrical current. The lights provide pools of lights to the countertop surface, and are used typically in kitchens and display cabinetry for providing light on the working surfaces in kitchens as well as for use in highlighting articles in display cabinets. Under-cabinet puck lights that are commercially available operate with 12 volt direct current, or more recently, as disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,413, operate on 120 volt (line) alternating current. Generally, the puck-type lighting fixtures are provided commercially as after-market installation devices.
My U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,413 discloses an improved line voltage puck lighting fixture. The lighting fixture provides an under-cabinet lighting fixture for surface and recessed mounting and operating on high line voltage for increased illumination with controlled transfer of the heat communicated from the fixture, with a housing that defines an open end opposing a base having a thickened portion. The housing defines a plurality of openings in the base, and a plurality of projections extending from an edge of the housing. A reflector defining a dished cavity seats on the projections to define a gap between the reflector and the housing. A lamp socket received in the housing engages a lamp bulb that is substantially in alignment with the thickened portion of the base and disposed in the dished cavity. A cap received on the housing has a plurality of spaced-apart ports. The high voltage lighting fixture defines a pathway for communicating air through the ports, the gap, and the openings, past the reflector for communicating heat from the reflector to ambient air.
The lighting fixture of this type works well for line voltage applications, however, there are other drawbacks experienced during use. For instance, the screws connecting the reflector to the base tend occasionally to reduce the gap between the reflector flange and the edge of the base. This made it more difficult to install the cap. Also, metal screws tended to transmit heat from the reflector to the base, rather than allowing heat to flow away from the base through the vents.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved under-cabinet lighting fixture for surface and recessed mounting installed with a cap that easily connects to the reflector and base and that better allows heat to flow away from the base through the vents to the ambient air. It is to such that the present invention is directed.