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Q:We are finalizing kitchen remodel plans and are now addressing the under cabinet lights (to be installed by me). I'm trying to plan it completely now.
It looks like we'll probably use xenon lights of some form but don't yet know if they will be 120V, 12V, or 24V. Ideally there will be 2 independently switched circuits, 1 for each bank of cabinets.
Here are some of the issues:
- It seems that most of these lights are prewired with a lamp cord.
- My wife will kill me and anyone who suggests wires through the new cabinets.
- Continuous or linkable lights have issues because some cabinets are sistered together and will interfere.
- We will have cabinets on either side of the range with an exposed hood preventing daisy chaining across the space.
I'm trying to understand the best way to wire these things to code, not have any visible NMB or boxes, and make it work, particularly how to get from the lamp cord to in wall wiring.
Also, is there an advantage to go low voltage over line voltage? If so, I would think that line voltage to the transformer is where the switch should be, so w/2 circuits is that 2 transformers or is there another way? A:
I'm about to embark on the same mission. I think your question is, where to attach the NM cable to the fixture itself, and then how to wire each light together for each bank of cabinets...without seeing wires/cables/outlets/plugs.
You'll have to run the NM cable through the wall, from one fixture to the next, and just pull it through a small hole in the drywall where the fixture will be mounted. This relies heavily on your ability to measure correctly. If you don't want holes in the cabinet, you'll have holes in the wall...you can't avoid both. If absolute concealment of the cable is necessary, you can use wiremold (external wire "conduit") to run from the hole in the wall to the fixture (assuming your fixture is centered on the bottom of the cabinet). If you are using a rectangular xenon fixture (anywhere from 12" to 24" and longer), you will probably locate it farther towards the wall, so exposed wire isn't as much of an issue.
The xenon rectangular fixtures I bought have several knockouts on the back of the fixture. I will be running the NM into one of the knockouts (using a cable clamp), and then connecting the NM to the internal wiring of the fixture...just as you would any other light fixture in the home.
The tricky part is fishing the cable from one fixture to the next, when the walls are finished, and the cabinets are in place. One option if you have easy access to the attic or if your basement ceiling is exposed, is to run the cable down (or up to the attic), across the basement ceiling (or across the attic), then back down to the next fixture. It uses more cable, but requires very little drywall damage.(by Brizzle) I just spent part of a weekend installing the same lights you're looking at - and they are awesome (to use a technical term). I'll tell you how I installed them, then you can decide whether it's a good plan or not.
Since the cabinets don't quite go up to the ceiling (there's a shadow line), I ran NM cable out the wall above the cabinets into a 4" square box. The transformer was mounted in the box (per instructions), and the 12v output went out of the box via zip cord. The zip cord went through the 1/2" gap between the cabinets, was stapled to the underside of the cabinets right up to the puck light. I had to extend the 12v wires a bit, so I used butt connectors and electrical tape.
I think it was a great solution since the electrical box is hidden (and protected) above the cabinets, and is hidden behind the crown molding. I didn't attach the boxes in case a transformer needs to be replaced in the future, the NM (120v) and zip cord (12v) is long enough to pull down and hang in front of the cabinets for repair.
I considered recessing the boxes in the back of the cabinets (like you would for a over-the-range microwave), but I figured it would still look messy in the cabinets.
I would personally go with 12v pucks, since running the zip cord is easier to conceal than NM. |
