Recessed lighting for low clearance applications?

[WEC4104]

The attached photo shows a close up view of the puck lights that are available at Home Depot, Lowes, and other home supply stores.  I have seen them with white housings, bright gold housings, and antique brass. I have a few mounted to the underside of my kitchen cabinets, and find they really do a nice job of lighting up the counter surface.

They do heat up, so you need to be careful about adjacent materials.  The lights themselves run off of 12V, but the package that comes from the store includes a 120 -> 12 transformer.  The set that I have installed has the transformer buried in a hidden area of the cabinet.

I have another area near my dinette that I have future plans to install more of these lights.  Since my bus does not have an inverter, I am thinking about getting a bit creative with the wiring.  Using a three position switch, I'll set it up as follows:  In the center position, the lights are off.  Throw the switch one direction and the lights will connect directly to my house battery 12V source.  In the other position, the lights will draw power from the 120VAC shore power/generator after passing through the 120->12 transformer.

Also, there are several different bults that fit the puck lights.  Mine came with 20 watt halogen bulbs. You can also buy 10 watt halogens that fit the fixture.  There are also Xenon bulbs that fit, and these are supposed to run cooler.  I put a Xenon bulb in one of mine to try it.  I could not see a noticeable difference in the amount of light or heat however.

[ilyafish]

Blacksheep....that is a fantastic looking coach that you have!

Wec.....i was actually looking at those today at lowes.  I believe that is what i am going to go with.  How hot exactly do they get? I was considering cutting out circular holes in a piece of plywood for the lights, and then upholstering it so that they would look flush with the ceiling.  Do they get hot enough to where that would not be a good idea? 

Chances are i will replace them with 10 watt bulbs since i will be running all my house power from a 4.5 kilowatt inverter as that is all i have right now and if i can utilize it that would be ideal, and since i will be installing these throughout my coach, the 10 watts saved with each bulb will add up quickly.

[WEC4104]

I don't have a temperature figure to quote you, but if I recall correctly, the packaging did include some warnings about placing flammable items too close.  Mounting them up against plywood should be okay, but I don't know what upolstery material you will be using or how close that will be. That might be worth checking out before you get to far into things.  For the cost of a set of lights, you might just try buying a set and wiring them up on a workbench to get a feel for the heat.

Switching to the 10 watt bulbs is not a bad idea, or you could also install a dimmer and run them at lower power when not connected to shore power.