We are remodeling our 20 year old kitchen and want to add undercounter lighting. I think we would like to use halogen lights, but have not ruled out flourescent lighting. The cabinet bottoms are about 15 1/2 inche above the hard countertops we are adding. I would appreciate any information that might help us make an informed selection. The halogen fixtures I have seen at Lowes are round (similiar in size to a hockey puck, I think). Is there any guideline for how many of these devices are needed for, say, a 24" lenth of cabinet bottom? Are there wiring problems I should consider? I am not an electrician and will hire an electrician to do the installation. Thank you for your help. Any suggestons will be very much appreciated.

 

In general there are two different types of fixtures you can use with two different wiring methods. The two types of fixtures are both "low profile", that is they are at most a couple of inches deep so they don't hang down too far. One type is fluorescent (with a plastic cover over a T5 (pencil thin bulb) and the other type is halogen which comes in seperate "hockey pucks" as you described and also in a "bar" type fixture. For a 2' cabinet, I would either choose a 2' bar type fixture (halogen or fluorescent) unless it wouldn't fit, in which case I would go with an 18" fixture. Such a fixture would probably have 2 or 3 of the "pucks" built into it.

As far as wiring, I am assuming you want direct wired fixtures since you are calling in an electrician. They make prewired fixtures that plug into a receptacle that have a "roll switch" built into the cord. To hardwire the fixtures, an electrician would have to get a wire up into the wall and fish it out with as small a hole as possible just under the bottom lip of the cabinet. This can be a challenging proposition at times unless your willing to repair sheetrock. A light switch would need to be added on the wall below the cabinet. Cutting in a light switch will actually aid in getting the wire fished to its required location. There are many variables that come into play depending on your situation. For instance there are often crossbraces in walls of older houses that make fishing wires more difficult.

 

We spaced the halo pucks between 15 and 18 inches apart. It's plenty of light across the 15+/- feet of countertop.

 

"...For instance there are often crossbraces in walls of older houses that make fishing wires more difficult."

Tell me about it .

 

We installed low-voltage "linear lighting" from WAC (Juno has a similar system). This system uses Xenon bulbs (still hot, but a lot cooler than halogen). Plus because it is a modular track system we had more flexibility over how many lights to install and where to install them.

Link to where we bought them is

http://store.yahoo.com/ylighting/linear-system.html

We used the model 102 fixtures.

It does end up costing a lot more than fourescents or the halogen pucks, though.

P.S. - I personally despise flourescent lighting in the kitchen, plus the small undercounter-sixed fixtures seem to be less reliable than the normal fixtures, with a more limited selection of lamp color temperatures.