Knowledge Undercabine Lighting

[Halfathumb]

Please help an old out of touch with the current times guy. I want to include them in my new kitchen. What do I need to know to do so? My main concern is the wiring, power source & switch. Give me some 101 stuff. 

Thanks in advance

Jim

[Robert Adams]

I use led strip lighting. It's very cheap and bright.

       Stuff like this.

       https://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Non-wate...B00HSF65MC


  
         Then I rip strips about 1" x 3/8 and rout a dovetail groove in it I stick the led strip in there then reinforce the edges with hot glue. Or you can go the commercial way and use this which wasn't economical until recently.

              https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M09PBYX/ref...YJEFCV47VO




               Then I use ssmall wire to solder tte strips and wire them together or you can use these and just plug onto the led strip. 

                 https://www.amazon.com/LightingWill-Sold...3E7J2XJ5NJ



               Then you need a power supply and this is the only thing you need to figure out sizing depending on how much strip lighting you are using.  Bigger is better if in doubt. 

                          
https://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-Wa...wer+supply





                   It's all lego parts and very easy. I did over and under cab lighting in our kitchen for a total of $60 and can do it cheaper now and I put in about 60' total. Have done several others as well and our laundry room cabs as well. 

            I guess I need to take pics and do do a writeup as I haven't seen seen a good one or a good video of it. It very simple and can be done pretty quickly.

[Halfathumb]

Thanks Robert. You're a good man Charlie Brown.

Did you conceal the transformer some how?

Jim

[Robert Adams]

I usually put put the transformer on top of the cabinets and put in a switched outlet just above the top of the cabinet. Some of them are pretty small. The one i did  for my parents was only about 8" long and about 1" square. It can be put under the cabinet at the back and never be seen.

      
      Here is a pic of one of the led strips in the wood piece I mentioned. I put double sided tape on the back stick it into place and then screw it down. Very simple and no one will ever see it so it doesn't have to be pretty. That one was a little narrow since I make them out of scrap. 
    
          I solder the wired to the strip vs using the connectors. If you aren't comfortable soldering don't start here because it's paper thin and you will melt it....  Also the strip is around 16' per roll and cutable every 3". 

 
          Anyone near me that wants to look at the stuff in person just ask. The rolls of led are like $2 a roll sometimes now and cheap lighting. You can also get waterproof strip, multi color and double row for more lighting but the price can go up allot over single color. Oh and wireless remotes etc. There are power supplies that are dimmable now using an led wall dimmer. 

[Robert Adams]

Here are two pics of of the kitchen with all the lights on. Still need to adjust doors and loml needs to pick out backsplash and floor tile. Course she doesn't know what to pick. I'm thinking just travertine but that's 80 sq ft of backsplash...  The can lights are 3500k so they yellow the room... 5k for for the next kitchen.


          You can see on the right the wire that feeds the lower strip because the filler is missing. You can see some of the light from the strip lights. They are our primary lighting and stay on all the time. We rarely use use the can lights. 

     
             




         The sink is the ikea one loml liked. It's horrible. It's poorly cast with nothing flat it's ceramic so every stainless anything leaves leaves a mark and it's a dirt magnet and is always dirty. I need to clean it really good and wax it like karate kid. And yes it's a mess but it used to be worse before the countertops as I stored tools on the far left as they are always going from the house to garage to shop to car...

[MstrCarpenter]

I had to make custom length LED strip lights for a customer a few years ago. Stock sizes only came the same size as standard cabinets; I needed to install them on the bottoms which meant they would have to be an inch or so shorter. She got custom sizes for a little less and I made good money for my efforts. The first Amazon link is almost exactly what I purchased but they came in 8' lengths and were a lot more expensive back then. I painted them, and a few lengths of 1/4" pipe to conceal the wires coming from the wall "oil rubbed bronze" with a spray bomb. For power, I installed a receptacle in a base cabinet behind the top drawer, switched with a conventional dimmer beside the sink. I plugged in a 12v magnetic power supply and connected the 18ga fire alarm wires. (Fire alarm cable has dozens of approvals for routing inside the walls and ceiling.)

Here's what I learned during the process. Soldering the wires to the light strip is actually easy with a very small iron; keeping solid wire attached is not. I've made some since with stranded wire and it is quite resilient. The light strips can only handle enough current for about 15', and that's pushing it. I took care to have approximately the same lengths of wire and lights on each leg. The transformer was cheap enough to buy an extra, which I mounted right next to the receptacle, just in case. I used a frosted cover on the first set and a clear cover on the second. The reflections on a granite top looks like Christmas lights with a clear cover. These lights have been working fine for a few years now, so I think they will last well over ten.

What I would like to learn is where and when can I buy 15' of strip light for $2.00? If anyone knows of a supplier (not in China) that has reasonable or better pricing and still has some service and reliability, I would like to know.

[Robert Adams]

These were 2.80 a roll  when i bought them a month ago when it was an add on item. I bought 8 rolls but should have bought more. 
   
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J0W...UTF8&psc=1




               The price of rhe aluminum channel has come down appreciably in the last year. I didnt use it in the past because it was so expensice for what it was.

          Like mentioned you dont want to run a binch of strips in series. Connect them in parallel and you will be fine. I am using a 60 watt power supply for our kitchen.

[Steve N]

I am almost embarrassed to say this, but Ikea if you have one local has a huge selection of under cab lights, and they are inexpensive, and the couple I have used have lasted a LOT longer than I ever thought they would.

[Robert Adams]

I am almost embarrassed to say this, but Ikea if you have one local has a huge selection of under cab lights, and they are inexpensive, and the couple I have used have lasted a LOT longer than I ever thought they would.

Yeah and im guilty of buying stuff like lights at ikea. I bought one of their flexible led desk lamps innthe clearance spot. I should have bought all of them because they are perfect for mounting on machines just cheap switches. LOML stole mine from the shop so i need a replacement now.

     I like the stuff i use above because its so much smaller than the commercial offerings and its custom length. The commercial lights at the borgs are bulky and short.

     Anyone in the Fort Worth area that wants to get hands on with it i have  scraps etc.

[jteneyck]

I used these when the halogen under cabinet puck lights I installed in my new kitchen 20 years ago quite working.  I hated those things from day one.  The bulbs plugged into the receptacle with two undersized prongs which would overheat and burn up the connection.  Anyway, these were almost the same size as the halogen pucks, but not quite, but I was still able to install them w/o much trouble.  These things are cheap but seem as well made as others I have looked at.  They come in 3000 or 6000K versions; I bought the 6000K ones and they are bright white. 

When I installed the original puck lights, I recessed them flush into a sheet of white Melamine that screws up under the cabinets.  The Melamine increases the brightness and is easy to clean.  The wiring is hidden in a dado in the top of the Melamine and then passes up inside a cabinet where I recessed a normal 2 gang outlet in the back and through the drywall, just like a normal wall outlet.  That outlet is controlled by a normal wall switch.  The front edge of the Melamine is covered by molding that runs around the lower edge of the cabinets.  It took some extra work to install them originally, but I didn't want to see exposed wires  under the cabinets or use some goofy switch.  The lead wires on the LED replacement pucks were long enough that I was able to route them through the dados without having to splice in any extension wire. 

John