I'm not a lighting expert, but I agree that halogen isn't what I'd want under cabinets - too much heat. A friend of mine melted the chocolate chips in the cabinet above those lights!

I'd probably look at the newer thin T4 or T5 fluorescent fixtures.

The link below even has linkable T2 fixtures. These fixtures are less than an inch thick; the lamp itself only 1/4" in diameter.

The link isn't meant to be an endorsement, BTW. It's just one brand that I've heard of. I'm sure there are others.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pegasus high efficiency undercabinet lights

There are warm white LED lights available. Check out environmental lights.com

I do not think the fluorescent lights suggested above are dimmable, but many LED lights are. If that's important to you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Warm white dimmable LED bars

Check out Kichler's LED direct wire - the 3000k colour temperature is very nice. We have xenons and, frankly, are considering switching to these - we love the colour of the light but are not crazy about the heat they throw. Fortunately, we use them for task (not accent) lighting and do not store food in the uppers above our lights. Still, xenons produce more heat than we expected (don't know what we were thinking...).

Just finished our kitchen remodel using LED tape/strip lights both underneath and above the cabinets. The 2700-Kelvin gives a smooth, warm glow -- more yellow than white-- to our beige natural-stone tile backsplash. Strongly recommend a dimmable feature. Tape/strip LEDs which attach with an adhesive tape backing are available from LED Wholesalers in Burlingame, CA for $4.00/ft. Used Magnitude
magnetic transformers, which are dimmable. Not sure what the appeal is for using more costly LED fixtures.

Prttimer,

What dimmer did you use with your Magnitude transformer? I am having trouble with flickering with my lights at certain ranges with a few dimmers I have tried with my Magnitude transformer.

Sweatteamaker,
I think the biggest advantage to undercounter LED lights is the ability to be dimmed. Of course, they are inexpensive to run and should last a long time. They do, however, reflect off of your granite, whether light or dark, if you have polished granite. You will see the dots of lights. I think at first you notice it, but after a while, you no longer notice it. The advantage of the more expensive rigid light bars is, at least for some of them, the ability to angle them with the mounting hardware so you can find a position where you like the light. Of course, with the strip/tape/ribbon lights, you could always add a piece of moulding cut at the correct angle and accomplish the same thing. I have both types of lights used for different purposes in my kitchen. The "lux bars" that I purchased from Superbrightleds.com (same as Environmental lights' bars) are brighter than the ribbon light I purchased from the superbright. Then again, I did not purchase the higher brightness ribbon and I would expect that the higher brightness ribbon would work just as well as the lux bars for undercabinet lighting (except that Superbrightleds does not sell a ribbon to ribbon connector that connects to ribbons back to back) The one they sell is about 4 inches long so you would have a gap if you needed to connect two straight runs for whatever reason.

Hi, seekerinfo:
The dimmers I used with the Magnitude transforers were Lutron Diva, 600P, I believe rather than the much more costly 600ELV. I experience no flickering with them.

You are correct that LED tape/strip/ribbon lights can be angled by taping their adhesive backing to an appropriate-length wood molding strip. In some places, I used pre-cut quarter-round molding for that purpose.

Couldn't you avoid the "gap" you referred to by taping the 4-inch connector in a loop under the cabinet? That would enable installing the straight runs end-to-end.

Prttimer:

Thanks for the follow-up. Since I asked what dimmer you used, I found a Pass & Seymour model that works. See my post under the now lengthy LED ULC DIY posting. It is interesting that the Lutron Diva works for you because I was told by Lutron that the guts are the same between their low voltage magnetic dimmers, though when looking at their website, I see a new section (or perhaps I missed it but I do not think so) that specifically discusses dimmers with technology suited for dimming CFL's and LED's. Here is the link: http://www.lutron.com/Education-Training/LCE/Pages/DimmingCFLsandLEDs.aspx

Since from the model number you gave for the Diva, it would appear that this model would be the same guts as the TGLV-600PR that I tried, it is strange to me that we would have different outcomes. It seems now, however, that Lutron may have even different models out in their various lines (outward looks) that specifically deal with dimming CFL's and LED's, per the link above.

On the issue of the 4inch gap, the connectors sold through superbrightleds.com are made such that looping the wire inbetween would only get rid of about 1 3/4" because the remainder of the wire is "harnessed" into the connector o either end leaving that section not flexible enough to loop. Environmental lights sells a ribbon to ribbon connector with almost no gap, though I do not know whether the ribbon lights sold from Environmental lights are compatible with the ribbon lights sold from superbrightleds.

Prttimer,

I just remembered that you purchased your ribbon lights from even another source, LED Wholesalers. I remember speaking to them and they did not know (or were not willing to say) whether their ribbon was the same as Environmental Lights' ribbon.

Prtimer,

I also just realized that in responding to your post that my problem with flickering was only as to my 24dc rigid light bars. Before hooking up my new Pass & Seymour dimmer, I moved the Lutron TGLV-600PR to the ribbon lights and it worked fine (no flickering). Therefore, all who are reading this can ignore my previous post about my comment why there would be inconsistencies between the Lutron Diva dimmer and the Lutron TGLV-600PR. To be clear, the problem I was having with the Lutron dimmer and flickering was as to my rigid light bars, not my tape/ribbon light. The Pass & Seymour dimmer worked on both my rigid light bars and my tape/ribbon light.