Under Cabinet Lighting

 

USES
Typically, you’ll find under cabinet lights used as kitchen light fixtures. Whether you’re mixing, shredding, slicing, or dicing, having task lights in the kitchen creates a space where cooking is easier and more enjoyable. Under kitchen cabinet lighting can also be a nice accent to your decorating scheme.

However, under cabinet lights are not just for kitchen countertop lighting. The bright, focused illumination from an under cabinet light’s slim profile is also ideal for offices, work stations in hospitals or doctors’ offices, bookcases, shelving, and more. Basically, under cabinet lighting excels as an application in any area where you need task lighting and want the look to be contemporary and subtle. So, whether you need LED under counter lights for a kitchen or some other space, we have what you are looking for.

Heard of these light fixtures by another name, and wondering if you’ve come to the right page? Under cabinet lights are also regularly referred to as under counter lights, undermount lights, under the cabinet lighting, task lighting fixtures, kitchen under cabinet lighting and under cupboard lighting.

 

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
If your main priority is to find the light fixture that uses the absolute minimum amount of electricity, you’ll want to check out our LED under cabinet lights. You’ll find light fixtures that use as little as 5 watts of electricity.

Efficiency is a general term that can be measured in a few different ways. For example, you might compare the amount of light output per watt of energy consumed. In fact, the term for that is efficacy. Our fluorescent under cabinet lights have the best rated efficacy out of our selections, so we consider them to be incredibly efficient as well. These under cabinet lighting options deliver impressive light output while consuming very little energy.

Keep in mind that using a dimmer will maximize efficiency of your under cabinet light fixture as well. If you select a xenon light fixture and install it with dimmer switches, you’ll decrease your energy use significantly, while adding an under counter lighting feature that enables you to control the ambiance!

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HEAT
If you’re installing your under kitchen cabinet lighting directly beneath kitchen cabinets storing perishable food, you have to consider heat output from the light fixtures. Here’s the deal: LED light fixtures are cool to the touch. Next on the heat output scale is fluorescent under cabinet lights, which also give off very little heat. Xenon lights are a little hotter than fluorescent but still cooler than halogen - the hottest type of under cabinet light. We actually do not sell any halogen undercabinet lights for this reason.

 

INSTALLATION
We know you don’t want to compare apples to oranges when it comes to installation difficulty ratings for undercabinet lighting. That’s why we’ve created an easy guide for our entire selection of under cabinet lights. At the bottom of the Description tab on each product page you’ll find an “Installation Difficulty” graphic with wrenches to represent ease of installation for all under cabinet lighting options. We try to be conservative with our rankings, so we err on the side of giving extra wrenches for products that are slightly more difficult to install. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck with a headache of a project that you thought could be completed in a couple of hours! Here’s the scale:

1 Wrench - It doesn't get any easier than this
2 Wrenches - Pretty easy
3 Wrenches - Somewhat easy
4 Wrenches - Requires some effort but not a great deal of effort
5 Wrenches - Will take some time or patience or professional expertise

Check out our Installation Assistance section on each of our product's page Description tab for more resources online that may be helpful. Also, feel free to use our Contact Us form or call us on our toll-free number.

One more thing about installation: We usually recommend that under cabinet kitchen lighting be placed as close to the front/face of the cabinet as possible. This is a matter of personal preference (in the video, the installation is closer to the back wall), but if you’re looking for the best task lighting for food preparation in the kitchen, the front of the cabinet will give you the brightest illumination for countertops when installing under cabinet lights.

On the other hand, if you’re installing under cabinet accent lighting for decorative illumination - perhaps inside a cabinet over a piece of artwork - you should center the light fixture over the artwork or decorative piece.

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LIGHTING QUALITY
We are often asked which fixtures produce light that’s similar to incandescent lighting. Did you know that xenon lighting is a type of incandescent light source? The only distinction between the two is that there is a little bit of xenon gas incorporated into the glass envelope of a xenon light bulb. That gas helps lengthen the lifetime of the light fixture. Essentially, xenon light fixtures are incandescent lights that have been engineered for increased efficiency. You can also find the familiar warm glow of an incandescent light bulb in warm white fluorescent light or warm white LED lights. Look for color temperatures of 3200K or lower.

For those of you with granite countertops in the kitchen, you may be wondering about how the under cabinet lighting will reflect. Unfortunately, granite is a highly polished surface; so you are going to see a reflection of the light fixture no matter what. The best way to minimize the reflection is to ensure your light fixture has a lens over the light bulbs.

 

POWER, ELECTRICAL
When it comes to electrical power features, the main thing people are not familiar with is line voltage versus low voltage. A line voltage under cabinet light is one that connects to the main power source directly (usually, that’s the 120 volt power source in the wires behind your walls). A line voltage light fixture is made to operate on 120 volts. A low voltage light fixture; by contrast, operates on either 12 or 24 volts. So, it requires you to use transformer which will “step down” the voltage from 120 volts to 12 or 24 volts, depending on what your light fixture requires.

Some low voltage under cabinet lights have the transformer built-in within the light fixture. Some require you to use a "remote transformer" which will be installed somewhere nearby. You might install it under the cabinet along with the lights, inside the cabinet above the lights, inside a cabinet below the lights, or even in a basement below. You’ll want the transformer to be out of sight but also easily accessible (so don’t install it behind a wall). Also, don’t place it too far away from the light fixture or you might have voltage drop.

So, why would you use a low voltage light fixture over line voltage if it requires an extra component? One advantage of low voltage is that it tends to give off less heat than line voltage light fixtures. Also, low voltage lighting usually enables you to have smaller light bulbs - and thus, smaller light fixtures. That’s why most of our puck under cabinet lights are low voltage.

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WIRING
There are two basic options for wiring under cabinet lighting: hardwire and plug-in. "Hardwiring" a light fixture means connecting it directly to the source of electric power using a ROMEX® wire. Of course, plugging in the light fixture means simply connecting it with a cord & plug to the nearest electrical outlet. Most of our under cabinet light fixtures can be installed either way, and come with the hardware for both.

If you see that an under cabinet light is "linkable," it means that it can be connected easily to a second (or third) light fixture with either a Flexible Connector or a Linking Cable. You can install a long line of under cabinet lights flush with one another using these accessories. If the light fixture is not linkable, you can usually still connect it to another, but it will require the use of household ROMEX® wire. Note that flexible connectors or linking cables should not be used to connect an under cabinet light directly to line voltage power.

Finally, a quick note on dimmers: If you are installing a dimmer with your under cabinet fixtures, remember that it should always be connected between the source of electricity and the fixture. For example, if you’re using a dimmer to control a low voltage transformer, always install it between the source of power and the line voltage (120 volt) side of the transformer, not the low voltage (12 or 24 volt) side.

Written by Chris Johnson

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