I would not do a kitchen without UCL, its both practical and pretty. We used seagull ambiance lighting on low voltage transformer and dimmers and I love it. My basement kitchen has puck lighting which I liked but they get hot and Ive burned my hand on them. The seagull is way, way better.

Definitely worth it. We just replaced the old system with an LED system with a Seagull transformer all on a dimmer and are very happy with it. We even sometimes work in the kitchen without turning on the overhead lighting. The lighting is right where you need it.

We only have under cabinet lights (led on dimmer) under 1 upper in our kitchen (over our butcherblock) and I never use (although, my husband does). I find that I prefer the overhead light or pendant lighting (which I can dim). If you think you will only use it for "ambiance"....I don't think it's worth it. But if you feel that you will use it for task lighting, it is probably worth it.

I had my contractor, who is also my carpenter, set the upper cabinets up so that if, in the future, I decided to put under the cabinets in, I could do that. We are still in the process of getting our kitchen done and waiting on the granite counters to get installed before we get our backsplash tiled. I'm now thinking we should get the under the cabinets lights in because when I go to my sisters' homes, I tend to use them at night since I'm usually one of the last ones up and don't like it too bright at night. For non-recessed fluorescent lights for labor, incl. wiring and making a switch, and supplies, my contractor quoted us $1500; for LED lights, he quoted us $2K. I wonder if that's reasonable pricing. What what were you quoted?

Good luck with making your decision!

Thanks,
Riva

Gosh, $1500-$2000 sounds really high to me for just under-cabinet lighting. Our contractor is doing our entire (small) kitchen for roughly $8500 + materials. He installed our five under-cabinet lights in less than a day. I'm not exactly sure what kind they are.

Under cabinet lighting is a necessity not an optional kitchen element. The worst lighting in any kitchen is one of the single source center of the room fixtures that puts shadows on your work surfaces. Even recessed lighting doesn't put the light directly onto your work surface like under cabinet lighting will. The older we get, the more our old eyes need light. By putting it on dimmers, you can control the amount for work and for effect.

Your quote sounds like a reasonable ballpark to me. Especially if new circuits need to be run with the drywall in place, which they typically will need to be unless you gut. If the remodel were a gut with nothing in place, your price might be half that. And LED fixtures are still pretty pricey, as are good fluorescents. Bad fluorescents are cheap, but they buzz and hum and give off colors to everything.

Love my dimmable LED UCL. I consider it a must have.

My GC used Seagull Linear LED, and it looks great. Environmental and Kichler make good ones, also. The people at Environmental will help you figure out exactly what you need and price it out for you.

just my 2 cents on this topic....

we are almost done with our kitchen remodel and our electrician asked us if we wanted UCL. My husband spoke with a colleague at work who spent over $100,000 on her kitchen remodel (we are spending a fraction of that amount) and I spoke with a friend whose mother had just finished a kitchen remodel. BOTH emphatically said it was one of the best things they choose to do. Needless to say, we are doing it.

YES! I use ours almost every evening while preparing dinner, and sometimes during the day as well (in addition to the overhead recessed lighting), depending on how light it is outside. I also use it some nights as a night light of sorts (dimmed).

I think it has to depend on the kitchen, though.

For example, most of my prep work is done on an island -- UCL isn't going to help there.

I too am wondering whether to put in UCL at other locales, but I'm not convinced it's terribly necessary. In our case we already have the wiring so may still do so. Or maybe not.

But the darkness of your kitchen of course matters as well. We have tons of light; during the day it's definitely not necessary - we have an open floor plan with gazillions of windows and french exterior door and passthrough, on and on; live in socal - it's gilding the lily. As for its utility at night, dunno -- cf work space setup.

So ... I think YMMV legitimately. Among those who might need extra light, I hear so many stories of its indispensability. If you have light countertops (which we don't) and/or cabinets, great light and/or no under-counter prep space, well, then perhaps it's not so critical.

I've seen pictures of so many cave-like countertops completely transformed by the lighting -- that's a situation where I think any amount of money would make it worthwhile. But I don't think each and every person must have it. :)

Note it's not an easy decision, I don't think, what sort to buy. Thus it's a time-consuming as well as expensive decision. I'm just sayin.... And note that at least some of those UCL setups use transformers, I think, so they must draw current *all* the time, even when off. I haven't looked into it carefully, but the whole issue seems _huge_: I can understand punting on it if desired.

Note, putting in the wiring now but just leaving it is also an option if for whatever reason you don't feel completely committed but do wish to retain the option for later.

g'luck. I understand your wondering!

Perhaps that is the thing about my kitchen...we have tons of natural light and only 2 upper cabinets (one has under cabinet lighting) and another small one which is at the far end of our peninsula between our sliding glass window and another window. So we don't really need it with our layout, but other kitchen's have different requirements.

Yes! However, we did it very inexpensively. Our electrician prepared the wiring for direct wire, and prepped for a transformer. I did not like the costs associated with those items, so I found LED lighting which I could afford. We came across strip LED fixtures at Lowes under the Utilitech label. According to the boxes, they are distributed by Kichler, yes, that Kichler. The strips came in 10, 18 and 27 inch lengths. Although they are plug-ins, the electrician wired them into his existing wiring. Though they're not dimmable, I have them on almost all day every day. My kitchen tends to be dark in the mornings, so I turn them on, only turning them off midday when it's bright, and then on again at night.

I researched recessed lighting incessantly, only to find that once they'd been installed I rarely use them. On a daily basis, my undercab lights are on and if more light is needed I turn on my pendants over the island.

Helene

I am on the side of it depending on your type of kitchen. I have an island with lighting over it, that's where I do everything except wash dishes (light over sink) and cook (light over stove from hood). During the day my kitchen is very bright, and at night I'm in my 3 aforementioned spots.
Having said that, nothing beats the ambience of a well lit backsplash...but $1500 - 2000??? Lots of other things to spend that kinda dough on, might give me pause.

I guess my electrician was a gem, he charged me $35.00 per light to put in LED UC lighting. I supplied the lights.

I wouldn't be without UC lighting. Living in Northern Michigan we have pretty long winters and good lighting makes all the difference.

Nancy

I had it in my second house, and I loved it. I installed it myself, and I have no DIY skills whatsoever. I bought the lights from Lowes or HD, and used a Dremmel tool to make the holes in the cabinets. Threaded the wires through, screwed the lights in place under the cabinets, and it was one of my favorite features of any kitchen I've had!

I've just ordered some battery operated LED puck lights off Amazon for, $55.00. now reading here i'm wondering if I made a mistake ! Below is a link. Do you think they will work out ok?

Here is a link that might be useful: rite lites

I was a skeptic. We just renovated our kitchen -- kept the cabinets, but changed most everything else.

The original kitchen had fluorescent UCL, which had to be individually switched on. The lenses had yellowed over time, so it was unattractive light. We rarely used them.

We now think that our new LED UCLs are one of the best things we did. They are gang switched, of course. But suddenly, the kitchen seems so much more functional. I work in areas where I never did before. And, well, it's just easier to see what you're doing.

There was one little section where we didn't add them, thinking it would be a mistake. Silly us. I would love to have them there too.

We also find we leave the UCLs on as a night light or anti-burglar light when we go out at night, knowing that it doesn't cost much to run them.

We've had UCL (florescent) in our kitchen for 26 years. Wouldn't be without it. When I have to walk out to the kitchen at night, I hit the UCL. Next time will switch to LED - wired - not battery operated but only because the LED uses less electricity and is cooler than the florescent. Your quotes do seem high though.

My UCLs are on whenever I'm in the kitchen...and always at night. It's open to the family room, so it becomes nice additional ambient lighting.

The old kitchen had plug in xenon ucl that got hot, and they were only where there was a plug. I went with Kichler LED's and am very happy with them. For me there was no question if they were needed, they were a necessity.

Just put in Kichler LED under all cabinets stainless steel finish. The lighting gal said that th...love them. Our down draft range has no hood but we put a LED puck light system under the cabinet but we do not like the color of light it illuminates. nor is it bright as the Kichler ones and it was very expensive..so my electrician is taking them out and I will put another Kichler LED under there too. My theory is that you can never have too much task lighting in the kitchen. We have many cans throughout the kitchen too. The island has four four inch cans on each corner and then we are putting in island lights . I love to cook and I gotta see what I am doing. Most definitely put them above your sink area. We used all of our existing wiring for our LED placements. The one we used with a transformer box is the one we do not like and it was not worth the 200.00 price tag. The lighting budget exceeded 1500.00 for materials. There is also an LED tape out there that is pretty reasonable. 13.00 a foot and it requires a small transformer box. We were told about these at another lighting studio. Very easy to apply so they say..

WOW! Thanks everyone for the feedback! It really helped! Now we've decided to put in LED UCL in the new kitchen:) Now, we need to decide if we want to have it on a dimmer or not(more $$ for the dimmable transformer and dimmer switch), and what kind of LED light to use.

Has anyone used the flexible strip LED from Inspired LED? Would you recommend it?

Thanks again!

Here is a link that might be useful: InspiredLED

JQChen,

We did not use the Flexible strip but we did use the Deluxe Kit 10" Designer Super Deluxe from Inspired. They are great lights. For us, an advantage was that we could have outlets installed and then plug them into an outlet.

We looked at the flexible strip and considered it for our in-cabinet glass but are not sure we will put any lights in the cab at all. I just like a really clean look. What we liked about this light was how slim a size it is. Service was all good from this company.

I should mention that another popular one here on Gardenweb is Phantom Lighting. Also, go over to the Lighting forum and do some searches to get some of the wisdom over there.

Good luck!

I am so thrilled that I decided to install undercabinet lights. I knew that I would enjoy many things about my new kitchen, but I had no idea how mych I would LOVE having UC lighting! I ordered my flexstrip from ledworldlighting.com . My electrictian was kind enough to come over and order them for me. We spoke to the company and they were very helpful. I got 15 feet of double bright strips, 3 connecters,and 3 qdrivers (to convert my power supply to low voltage) for $350. I chose not to get dimmers as I wanted task lighting only.It arrived in 24 hours! I am so pleased with it! This was less than 1/3 of the cost of my local lighting store.

We ALWAYS use our under the cabinet lighting, daytime, nightime, etc. And we have a bright kitchen.

We have JUNO mini-track lighting. You can add or remove as many bulbs for whatever area you have track. We ran the wiring prior to sheetrocking the walls. We put the transformers in the basement so they don't take up space inside the cabinets (unlike previous home where they were inside the cabinet). I love being able to add or remove lights whenever I want to.

My husband installed these himself (with previous electrical knowledge and a previous install under his belt).

We have xenon strips under 6 cabinets on 3 switches. I've probably turned them on less than 10 times in the 6 years that our kitchen has been done (some of them have been on only once or twice.) They are not a necessity in our kitchen even though I cook fairly late at night in the dark.

It definitely depends on your kitchen and how you like to use light. I personally don't like light coming from a source under my eye level. We have great ceiling lights throughout our kitchen and the uc lights have no functional value (and in my case, no aesthetic value either.)

Our major work zones are the peninsula, range, and 2 sinks and all have ceiling or hood lights above them. The counters with upper cabinets have can lights placed in such a way that shadows are not cast on the surface (they center on the edge of the counter.) I prefer the even light from the ceiling to the more concentrated beam of light from the uc lights.

In some kitchens they are a necessity but it's misleading to say they are a necessity in all kitchens. We used 2 fluorescent uc lights a lot in our old kitchen since the only other light source was a centered ceiling fixture with 1 bulb. Since I hated that lighting (including the concentrated light from the uc fixtures) I was determined that our new kitchen would be well lit. I was aware that my eyes would age which is why I have 4 additional can lights that I rarely turn on. They only come on when I want our kitchen to be over-the-top bright.

It depends on the kitchen. Some kitchens really need them either for task lighting or to make it look nice. Some don't. Some can go either way. Some people like them for ambiance. Some people don't need ambiance in a kitchen.

Age matters too. I need a lot more light than I used to :(

I have it and I never use it. I have uppers on the side that I have my range. I use the range light when i am working at the range.

The other three sides have no walls and/or uppers. It is one of those crazy open floor plan. I don't even have pendants on my island. I don't miss either the pendant light nor find myself using my UCL.

Ditto marcydc. If you are going to be in your kitchen after you turn 40, get them! I also think they help with resale. The house we bought 5 years ago did not have an ideal kitchen, but the UCLs were one feature that made the kitchen more acceptable to me. You don't have to spend a lot for basic ones.